Reflections on conceptual
Catering for 21st Century
Thinking
Skills…
Reflections on conceptual
understanding and application
in the classroom and beyond
BIG IDEA: Students are finding analysis harder in the ‘google
world’. Strategies to help prioritise information, critically
evaluate and think creatively are skills needed for effective
synthesis to prove understanding
Outcome: Reflect on teaching and learning
strategies
Outline:
1)Analysis
2) The challenge of synthesis
3) Student self-evaluation and proving knowledge in
assessment situations
Just to get us thinking…
‘The Scarlatti Tilt’
DO NOW:
Take the perspective of the police officer in the
story below and hypothesise what happened?
"It's very hard to live in a studio apartment in San Jose
with a man who's learning to play the violin." That's
what she told the police when she handed them the
empty revolver. (from Revenge of the Lawn: Stories 1962-1970)
DO LATER: How do you come to your conclusion?
Unlocking the chest…
What this exercise teaches
students:
That the way we read and evaluate information is based
on our values and preconceptions
To question the way we accept text types we are
familiar with- How has this become a famous ‘short
story’?
To be conscious and critical of the media we consume
not just accept it
Voicing an opinion is crucial to be active in the learning
process and this skill is perhaps more important than
ever
Why do kids need to know
how to prioritise
information?
Summary of 21st century
skills:
Ways of thinking : Creativity, critical thinking, problemsolving, decision-making and learning
Ways of working: Communication and collaboration
Tools for working:. Information and communications
technology (ICT) and information literacy
Skills for living in the world: Citizenship, life and career,
and personal and social responsibility
From Assessment & Teaching of 21st century skills:
http://atc21s.org/index.php/about/what-are-21st-centuryskills/
Analysis is more important
than ever due to the multitude
of media around us
Sir Ken Robinson
on
Changing
Education
paradigms
4 Cs for success
Useful analysis templates :
6 Cs source analysis:
http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/themed_col
lections/pdf/6cs_primary_source.pdf
Document analysis worksheets (need to be adapted)
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/
http://seattlecentral.edu/faculty/gmurphy/Soc120/Media%2
0Literacy%20Worksheet.pdf
Primary source analysis resources
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/guides.ht
ml
Why this is not enough
anymore:
Howard Gardner outlines in 5 minds for the
future, skills needed to succeed in the 21st
century:
1.The disciplined mind
2. The synthesising mind
3. The creating mind
4. The respectful mind
5. The ethical mind
Notions of fixed intelligence
have been challenged
New Kinds of Smart by Bill Lucas and Guy
Glaxton argue that the school system still caters
for a fixed idea of what can be achieved, rather
than viewing it as infinite.
Provocative material to get
beyond the ‘I dunno’ response
for analysis
Synthesis:
EXPERIENTIAL
LEARNING
Real world
observations and
interviews
Perspective
role play
activities
WRITING
TASKS AND
REFLECTIONS
Interactive
graphic
organisers
Explicit use of ‘I’
in opinion based
tasks before
making it
objective
LEARNING TO
APPLY THE
METALANGUAGE
Reading of
critical
scholarship
tasks e.g
‘Socratic circle’
Active citizenship
tasks to enhance
Understanding of
Social justice
Guiding ‘light bulb’
moments from fun
Fakebook
Edmodo
Itunes
U
Music
video
analysis
Google Sketch
Up
Interactive
Timelines
Dipity.com
Google
Earth
satire
Year 7 History example
Other tools for synthesis:
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/printouts/+ Graphic organiser templates plus interactive links for students to
create and save their work if using laptops
Collaborative exercises to plan group responses
www.wordle.net- creating word banks for topics
Ask students to prepare an interactive ‘cheat sheet’ for an extended
response. Before attempting a response, students critique each
other’s cheatsheets for how effective their notes were for memory
recall. They then combine these strategies to prepare a collaborative
‘cheat sheet’ on google docs with live edits and attempt the question.
Evaluation strategies for
students:
1) Encouraging effective note writing from the outset in
class tasks (e.g making individual notes make sense
using a variety of visual and chunk strategies)
2) Peer evaluation of practise responses against past
paper marking criteria
3) Research essays incorporating media file activities
and content analysis for deep learning and
conceptual understanding
4) Active citizenship ‘create’ tasks spanning digital and
traditional text types
One last thought for
students and us alike…
If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never
come up with anything original.””
Sir Ken Robinson – Creativity expert
Thank you! Please
connect: @yasodaiselva