Creative and
Critical Thinking
Keri Harris
Cameron ISD Teacher
& GT Coordinator
Stories With Holes
Stories With Holes
• Inspire Creative Thinking
• Students only ask questions that I can
answer with a yes/no answer
• www.storieswithholes.com
• By Nathan Levy
• Not Just Schoolwork (gr. 3-12)
Goal of GT Programs
• Opportunities for developing
talents and special interests.
• Promote potential for divergent,
creative, and critical thinking.
Be All That You Can Be? When…
• Put in learning environments which offer little or no
challenge
• Top grades for minimal effort by requiring too little
• They should always get A+, anything less is
unacceptable
• We foster dependence rather than independence as we
protect them from possible mistakes or negative
consequences.
• We prevent the development of positive selfconcept/self-reliance/self-efficacy
o Not allowing struggle
o Work hard at something difficult
o Learn effort = success
Helping these
students isn’t a
‘bonus’
or an optional extra;
it’s a professional
obligation.
Challenge for Teachers
“They [teachers] must know their subject
areas deeply, and they must understand how
students think as well as what they know in
order to create experiences that produce
learning… teachers need access to the
growing knowledge that exists about how to
teach different kinds of learners effectively.”
-Summary Report of the National Commission on
Teaching and America’s Future, September, 1996.
Student Suggestions for Effective
Teachers of the Gifted
Be patient
Have a sense of humor
Move quickly through material
Treat each student as an individual
Avoid being a "sage on the stage" all
the time
Consistently give "accurate"
feedback
Creative/Critical Principles
To make the basic curriculum more appropriate for gifted students
we should modify:
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Content (what is learned),
Process (the methods used and the thinking processes)
Product (expected as a result of the processes used), and
Based on:
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Readiness of the student
Interests of the student
Learning Profile (strengths) of the student
Content Modifications
Powerful academic effects when GT
learners are given… (Dr. Karen Rogers)
• Abstract or complex content
• telescoped or progressed rapidly through the
"regular" curriculum
• tend to be analogical (transfer information of one
subject to another) in their processing and therefore
"get" the themes of true interdisciplinary
curriculum more successfully
• tend to learn most successfully when they are
given the whole concept, in depth, up front and
then allowed to break it down through analysis
• Gifted boys, in particular, and to some extent,
girls are motivated by learning the way things
work and the ways professionals work
(Methods of Inquiry); gifted students are more
successful with "practicing professionals" tasks
than are other students
Gifted girls, in particular, are motivated by learning
- famous people
- career paths
- people-oriented issues of a content area
Biography reading often provides "role
models" for gifted learners
Process Modifications
Process includes teaching methods which
include:
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Higher levels of thinking
Open-endedness
Discovery
Evidence of reasoning
Freedom of choice
Group interaction activities and simulations
Pacing
Tiered Assignments
From Dr. Rogers’ Study
• The learning rate of children above 130 IQ is
approximately 8 times faster than for children
below 70 IQ
• Gifted students are significantly more likely to
retain science and mathematics content
accurately when taught 2-3 times faster than
"normal" class pace.
• Gifted students are significantly more likely to
forget or mislearn science and mathematics
content when they must drill and review it more
than 2-3 times
Product Modifications
These products should reflect the adjusted
content and process in the following ways.
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Real-life problems
Real-life audiences – let them choose
Independent study
Rubrics
Multiple modes of expression
There must be a "fit" between the student and
the content, processes, and products that
create learning experiences.
How can you and your teachers meet
the needs of your students?
- What will the kids do?
- When/Where will they do it?
- OMG! What will they miss?
- Who will grade it?
Texas Association for Gifted and Talented
www.txgifted.org
Legislative Updates
Conferences
Legislation
HB 3 has been signed into law by Governor Perry. The responsibility now rests with
the commissioner of education; he made the decision as to how to proceed (see
below). In addition, the governor signed HB 3646, which alters and lightly increases
funding for most school districts and also increases teacher salaries until……
Legislation
House Bill 3
39.236 The Commissioner shall adopt standards to
evaluate school district programs for gifted and
talented students to determine whether a district
operates a program for gifted and talented students
in accordance with:
The Texas Performance Standards Project; or
Another program approved by the commissioner that
meets the requirements of the state plan for the
education of gifted and talented students under
Section 29.123. (81st Legislative Session in 2009)
SECTION 3 CURRICULUM AND
INSTRUCTION
Districts meet the needs of gifted/talented students by
modifying the depth, complexity, and pacing of th curriculum and
instruction ordinarily provided by the school.
3.1.1 Recommended
Opportunities are
provided for students to
pursue areas of interest
in selected disciplines
through guided and
independent research.
3.1 Exemplary
Curriculum options in
intellectual, creative
and/or artistic areas;
leadership; and specific
academic fields are
provided for
gifted/talented students.
3.2R Participation in the
Texas Performance
Standards Project (TPSP), or
other experiences that result
in the development of
sophisticated products
and/or performances that are
targeted to an audience
outside the classroom, is
available through
gifted/talented curricula.
3.2E The opportunity for
students who have been
served in a gifted program
for one or more years to
develop sophisticated
products and/or
performances assessed by
external evaluators who are
knowledgeable in the field
that is the focus of the
product is available through
gifted/talented curricula.
Websites
www.noodletools.com
NoodleBib MLA Starter – FREE and simple MLA bibliography tool.
Access info on-line.
id – sample for workshop
password – cameron
using YOUTUBE.COM
Make Ideas Real with SketchUp
Create Cool Stuff with Google SketchUp
Why Create 3D models for Google Earth
*Google Earth
*Google Sketchup
Texas Performance Standards Project
www.texaspsp.org/
Curriculum for K-12
We are Texans – 4th graders
and adaptable for 7th grade
High School Science Unit
What’s the Diagnosis?
Historical and Physical Impacts of Disease
Explore the physical and historical impacts of disease.
Students will begin by researching cells, bacteria, and
viruses and the role of each in the body. They will then
study different diseases (e.g., common cold,
HIV/AIDS, bubonic plague) and their impacts on the
body.
High School Science Unit
What’s the Diagnosis?
Historical and Physical Impacts of Disease
Students will then choose one disease and track its
history through time.
They will determine the impact on the populations
(including future populations) affected, as well as the
impact on lifestyles of affected populations (including
future populations) throughout the world.
• Read the book –Code Orange
Overload the senses with gross!
YouTube has excellent videos about diseases
Google images – “diseases”
Students will then choose one disease and
track its history through time.
They will determine the impact on the
populations (including future populations)
affected, as well as the impact on lifestyles
of affected populations (including future
populations) throughout the world.
Goals
Students will meet these goals
in their explorations:
• Ask questions and explore theories
• Have opportunities to generate new ideas
• Develop the essential skills of logical thinking,
creative problem solving, intellectual risk taking,
and communicating
• Become familiar with the biology and sociology of
various diseases
• Understand how awareness of disease has
changed over time and how people from various
cultures have responded to this knowledge
http://www.wix.com/daviseric2009/malaria
http://www.wix.com/chanman876/cholera
Game of Life
Middle School
Students will have a realistic idea of the
educational path needed for a career of their
choosing. Students will create homes based on
the salary of their career choice.
Game of Life
• Students will meet these goals in their explorations:
• Become familiar with various career and study
opportunities related to interests
• Learn about the purpose of their field of study within
society
• Develop the essential skills of logical thinking, creative
problem solving, intellectual risk taking,
• and communication
• Explore unanswered questions and generate new
questions
• Generate new ideas
• Build and apply critical thinking skills
Game of Life
Introduce this unit with guiding questions:
How many of you have thought about the
career you would like to pursue?
Do you know what type of training is required
for the career of your choice?
What kind of a house will you be able to
afford with salary you will make?
Game of Life
Using www.texascollegeandcareer.org,
students take their first steps to college
and/or a career.
Under the Careers tab, click Get To Know
Yourself.
Many students make the mistake of trying to
“fit the mold” of different career paths. In
reality, the best career choice may be one that
naturally fits you. So how do you figure out what
careers fit you? Take a look at these quizzes!
Game of Life
What Do I Like? assesses your interests and
work “personality.”
The quiz asks you to rate how much you like (or
don’t like) different work activities. Do you
prefer working with your hands, working with
people, or working with computers? The quiz
results fit into 6 “Interest Areas” that can help
give you a better idea of what type of work you
would like.
Game of Life
What Do I Value? asks you to prioritize
different “Work Values.”
Work Values are your personal rule book for
your working life. Knowing your values can make
the difference between finding a job that you
love and being stuck in a job you hate.
Game of Life
What Are My Skills? introduces you to the
fundamental building blocks of work activity.
Learning about what skills you have, and how
they match with careers, can help you guide
your studies and early career choices.
Game of Life
Students will have the opportunity to explore the
occupations that match their likes, values, and skills.
After learning about an occupation’s characteristics,
students will find a field of study and the education
level required for that occupation.
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Under the College tab, click College Search.
Click on Majors. Students may search and compare
colleges by entering the major name or major
category. Students may enter more than one major.
This will show students the colleges in Texas that
offer their desired major.
Game of Life
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Under the Paying for College tab, click
College Cost Estimator.
Step 1: Add your School
Step 2: Review your Cost per Year
Step 3: Add your awards per Year (goal for middle
school)
Click Calculate at the bottom of the page.
Step 4: Cost Gap Results
Add another school. Students may compare the
four year average cost for their chosen schools.
Game of Life
Under the Paying for College tab, click Loan Cost
Estimator.
Enter the loan amount (Cost Gap Results).
Calculate to find the Loan Cost & Analysis.
Can you afford your monthly loan payment?
Choose your career and calculate affordability.
Students will be given a Quality of Life Analysis.
You may wish to have the students present their findings in a paper
or in another format.
Game of Life
Phase II. Independent Research
A. Research process
1. Selecting a topic. Students should select and sketch a
dream home. The home can be anywhere and include as many options
as they want.
2. Asking guiding questions. Once students have decided
about their home, each student should think of three to five guiding
questions, such as:
What do you like about your current home? What would you change?
What style of home will you design?
How many bedrooms? Bathrooms?
What kind of spaces do you need, e.g. big kitchen, family room, library?
Where do you want to build your home?
Game of Life
3. Creating a research proposal.
The student should include numerous components in the
research proposal:
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Student’s career choice and salary
Sketch of dream home
Three to five guiding questions he/she will investigate
Resources he/she will need to find answers to
questions
Game of Life
4. Plan your living space.
Student will research the area where he wants to live.
How much is an acre? A city block is about 2.5 acres.
Plan to purchase at least one acre.
A single story home is one level. A two-story home will
cost less because the two-story home will have a smaller
roof and foundation. Sketch ideas for all interior rooms
under the main roof. Include the attic or porches only
when used as four-season rooms. Do not include the
footage for the garage area or patios.
Game of Life
5. Grade Your Home Use Attachment 1.
Students appraise the different grades of building construction
and select one for their home.
6. Options You Want Use Attachment 2. Students
research the cost of any options they want in or around their
house. Furniture, swimming pools, basketball courts, putting
greens, and hot tubs are popular options. List the options and their
costs.
7. Detailed Plans Use Attachment 3. Calculating the dream
home can be frustrating. Students should use a pencil to calculate
their home’s square footage based on their choices.
8. Refer to the Building Code Attachment 4 is a simplified
Building Code.
Game of Life
B. Product
The student should express, through the design and
creation of an original product, an example of her dream
home. The complete project should include floor plans
and a rendering of the proposed home following the
appropriate building codes. Some useful product ideas
include the following:
Google Sketchup
Design Workshop Lite
1 cm Jumbo Graph Paper Roll
Texas Performance Standards Project
All
Physics
“Challenging the System” 8th PSP
Students will understand living and non-living systems and patterns found in
systems. They will use technical writing and statistics to produce a scientific
paper and formal presentation.
http://www.physicsgames.net/game/Fantastic_Contraption.html physics
games, Fantastic Contraption
http://incredibots.com/ Physics game
http://www.edheads.org/ Science, Math & Critical Thinking
-Deep Brain Stimulation - Crash Scene Investigation
-Brain Surgery - Virtual Surgery (Hip, Knee)
-Simple Machine - Odd Machine
-Stem Cell
-Weather
Brainstorms – Critical Thinking
• List everything you used today.
• What do we need to have a great day?
• What could we do without and still have a great
day?
• What do people waste?
• List all the things can you catch?
http://www.sporcle.com/ Choose the topic and play as
a class! Great brainstorm
activity!
In a group, students will create a
Rube Goldberg.
• Students create the due date.
• Students create a list of 5 simple tasks to choose
from.
• Students create the rubric. How many simple
machines must be used? (Go to edheads.org for
simple machines)
• Group must draw/create a blueprint. NOTE: It
never ends up looking like the plan! You can also
use a wiki here for each group. Yes, they have to
add # entries.
In a group, students will create a
Rube Goldberg.
Supplies to have on hand:
• Hot glue sticks & guns
• Pulleys (Nasco $1.40 ea.) 2-3 for each group
• Kite string
• Ball bearings (metal balls instead of marbles)
• Cheap dominoes
Students are responsible for the base. And now
it’s time to create!
Research Process
• Select a topic – student identifies a problem
within a system to study.
(biological, physical, environmental, social, or other)
• Think of 3-5 guiding questions to explore
• Hypothesize – possible answers to questions
Research Proposal
Student will design and submit a research
proposal with:
real world problem to investigate
3-5 questions to investigate
resources needed to find answers (previous
studies on topic, correspondence with expert, etc.)
process for gathering data – experimental design,
survey,…
Conduct Research
After proposal is approved, students begin using
resources they identified (and many more).
Students will keep a log of all resources
(Noodletools), note cards or resource process
sheets of all sources they use and what they
learn from each one.
Data Summary
• Depending on topic and needed data – this may
be a lab report or analysis of survey results.
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx Make a
graph
http://www.ehow.com/how_5849690_write-science-experimentreport-kids.html How to type a lab report
Or contact your SCIENCE teachers. (I was so out of my
element.)
The Product
Student will show what he/she learned through
one of following written products:
• Letter to person or organization with
responsibility for the problem
• Article that summarizes the results of research
MUST complete a Reference List/Works Cited
Pages with at least 10 references.
Communication
Student will demonstrate what he/she learned
through one of the following types of
presentations (15 minutes maximum)
• Formal presentation to panel of experts
• Informal class presentation to a class
FINALE – Science Night for parents
Submission to teacher
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Cover sheet
Research Proposal
Log, note cards, resource process sheets
Data summary
Letter or article
Works Cited Page
Videotape of Presentation include Q & A
Response letters/emails to student letter or article
Shawn Johnson, gold medalist gymnast
“If you are afraid of falling,
you’ll never get on the
balance beam. You have to
be willing to fall off the
beam again and again if
you want to go to the
Olympics.”
Websites
www.eastoftheweb.com Short stories
Games - Popword, cryptoquote, definetime, 8 letters, codeword,
wordsearch
edheads.org Activate your mind!
games.sify.com Full of games
www.sporcle.com How much do you know?
Answers are timed!
www.engine-uity.com Engine-Uity specializes in differentiated resources,
keyed to Bloom's Taxonomy of higher level thinking skills, that lead to
independent studies.
Free Websites
• Google Earth
• Google Sketchup – build 3-D models of buildings.
Excellent follow up to Home Design Unit
www.thinkfinity.org Free lesson plans and educational
resources K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 Arts Integration, Economics,
…Social Studies, National Geography, Smithsonian, Verizon
Foundation, …
www.izzit.org FREE educational DVDs, current events lessons, and unique
games and contests
As teachers and educators…
• It’s our job to offer learning
opportunities to all students – including
gifted ones – every day.
• It’s not our job to train our gifted
learners to cope with boredom, but to
facilitate their learning and excitement
in their accomplishments.
As teachers and educators…
• We have to know their learning needs
– appropriate pace, levels of depth and
complexity
• We also have to know our content to
make it relevant and interesting to the
learner to engage their passion
As teachers and educators…
• We have to make it rigorous enough
that students who want to make A+ will
have to work hard to achieve it, not just
because they are gifted, because they
excelled and earned the mark.
This may require us to be able to explain to parents and
administrators as well as to students that high grades are
not a given!
Love him or hate him…
he sure hits the nail on the head with this! Bill Gates recently gave a
speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn
in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings
created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and
how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your
self-esteem. The world will expect you
to accomplish something BEFORE you
feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year
right out of high school.
You won't be a vice-president with a car
phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is
tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath
your dignity. Your Grandparents had a
different word for burger flipping: they
called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your
parents' fault, so don't whine about your
mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents
weren't as boring as they are now. They got
that way from paying your bills, cleaning
your clothes and listening to you talk about
how cool you thought you were. So before
you save the rain forest from the parasites
of your parent's generation, try delousing
the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done
away with winners and losers, but life
HAS NOT. In some schools, they have
abolished failing grades and they'll
give you as MANY TIMES as you want
to get the right answer. This doesn't
bear the slightest resemblance to
ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You
don't get summers off and very few employers
are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF.
Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life.. In real life
people actually have to leave the coffee shop
and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll
end up working for one.
Keri Harris, GT Teacher
kharris@cameronisd.net
http://classroom.cameronisd.net/webs/kharris/
(254) 697-2131
Cameron ISD
404 E. 22nd
Cameron, TX 76520