Read the Chapter on Higher Level Thinking. Often we don’t allow time for “thinking” in the classroom. However taking the time to think about a book, a poem or a lesson and to contemplate how the lesson can affect our own lives can be important. Again, questioning strategy is very important. Something that is very simple to do is a “Think aloud” when you are reading or sharing a book. Check out this website for some questions to use with a Think Aloud http://www.google.com/intl/en/about/products/index.html ; links to links about theThink Aloud Strategy are found on this site: http://wvde.state.wv.us/strategybank/ThinkAloud.html . One of my favorite reading sites Reading Rockets has more to say about Think alouds: http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/think_alouds/ .
So you want to integrate technology and use your ipads for think alouds. Try using some of the note taking apps such as EverNote or Audio Memos. These enable a child to brainstorm. A search in the app store using the search term “productivity” will give you lots of free apps to try. There are even some apps that are similar to inspiration.
Here's a blog post about using an iPad for writing: http://iamdustdaughter.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/ipad-for-writing/ If you read through the blog post you will see links to more suggestions for ipad apps for writing: http://inkygirl.com/ipad-apps-for-writers/ The chains you can begin to create are amazing...but often difficult to recreate - so be sure to post the links you find with great information and links on our wiki so that we have great information for RCE!
Reviews are important ways to learn about apps that are available. Many reveiw sources are out there...From MacWorld is a great way to search for apps is using this website: http://www.macworld.com/appguide/index.html - there are reviews for more than 285330 apps
Reading: Higher Level
Reading: Higher Level
Assignment for Session 7:
- · Reflect on the blog on how you can use higher level questioning strategies in your classroom. How can questioning strategies motivate and encourage children to be creative? Are there some broad questions that you can create to use frequently in your classroom? Share some of your strong questions.
- · Search through the App store for some note taking Apps. Add the name of the Apps and where in Blooms it would fit on the Chart of Apps. Add some notes on the wiki on how to utilize the Apps you found on the comment page. Find at least one app that is different from anyone else and add notes to apps you have tried that others have posted. Remember we are trying to build a good list of apps and how to integrate them into your classrooms.
JB higher level questioning can be used as you gather information from your class to see how much background knowledge they have on the topic you are covering. If they have a lot of knowledge then that's where the higher level questioning comes in to challenge those who say they already know everything that you are showing them.
ReplyDeleteQuestioning motivates kids to be creative if they have answers to your questions but are afraid to share until others start sharing. A lot of the time the creativity comes from taking someone else's answer and changing it with a creative twist to fit your individual needs.
Broad questions to use could be taking an answer that you are given to a simple question and throwing it back to the students and asking them to go one step further with their thinking what can they come up with? Saying I like your thought process how can you apply that thought process to other subject areas you are covering.
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ReplyDeleteI truly feel higher level questioning should be an ongoing experience in my class room. Since I only see the kids 45 minutes/week, it is challenging to be on top of things 100% of the time. In my primary level classes I use music storybooks to introduce nearly every lesson. I can easily use the Conversations in Literature questions to reach higher level questioning. The kids often do this on their own or with little encouragement.
ReplyDeleteThe intermediate level music classes often focus on performing instruments. We spend a great deal of time literally climbing a Bloom's higher order of thinking ladder. A lot of time is spent at the knowledge, comprehensive, and application levels as students learn a new instrument. When they have become proficient at playing the instrument, we move on to analysis, synthesis, and evaluation as they create their own compositions.
AW - Higher level thinking strategies involve giving students time to express their ideas and valuing the effort given by students. Teachers need to value the thought processes of students and give supportive and instructional feedback along with quality teaching. As students make mistakes and learn from them, they become aware of their own thinking and this helps them grow in their cognitive and creative abilities. Questioning strategies can motivate children to be creative by having students think about their own thinking and learning. Some broad questions in the evaluate level of Bloom's that I use are How would you evaluate....? How would you justify..? Why is it better than...? Can you assess the value or importance of .... ? What data was used to support ....? What judgement could you make about ....? Using questions such as these allow the students to evaluate their own learning which is a higher level skill.
ReplyDeleteThis an area I really want to improve. I recently found a poster on Pinterest which listed question stems for each level of Bloom's. I'd like to make a cheat sheet of this to keep close at hand when I'm working with kids. Most kids want to share information at the knowledge and comprehension levels. I'm hoping that with these examples nearby, I'll be able to take their lower level responses and help the kids extend into the higher levels of Bloom's. So, I guess I need to make a list of broad questions!
ReplyDeleteKH - Questions can make a big difference on what students take away from a lesson. We need to really make open ended questions to promote discussions...a yes/no or A/B/C question doesn't allow for students to explain or explore more deeply. We should be working in the higher levels of Bloom's to get students to think more than just "answer the question." This is another time that we need to allow students more time to "think" before responding and perhaps responding in creative ways.
ReplyDeleteKS. Of course questioning strategies look different than in the early childhood classroom. Young children are used to answering basic yes and no questions and aren't used to thinking beyond the basic. As a teacher in this arena, I have to expose the kids to participate in discussions, value others thoughts and comments, value their own thoughts and opinions and to think about their own thinking process. I model my own thought processes, mistakes and support for my opinions and eventually the chilfdren feel comfortable with extending their own learning. One strategy that works is to provide lots of open ended projects and celebrate the answers with flair and imagination! often questioning looks more like ambiguity from the teacher....really? Interesting? I wonder why? ThIs prompts the young child to talk about what they were thinking!
ReplyDeleteJS This looks like preassessment stuff to me. Don't think I can use this much in the library except for assessing what kids have retained or know about the Dewey decimal system and library searches!
ReplyDeleteLD - When we think about higher level questioning we have to remember that there's nothing wrong with using lower level questioning too. Students need to have some kind of foundation in order to be able to answer the So What questions. We should still be using questions such as: Who are the main characters? This is not a bad thing. They can't explain why characters do what they do without having some basics too.
ReplyDeleteSome good higher level questions to ask kids after they have done some research, or studied a topic of interest are:
What was my subject and why did I want to explore it?
What did these authors say about this subject?
What interesting similarities and differences did I notice?
How do these authors' ideas about this subject compare with my own?
What did I realize, or learn, that surprised me most about this subject after exploring it?
Before kids can tackle these kinds of questions, they need to read, discuss, view, examine, and share the basics. If they are learning about animals, then need to be able to consider how many kinds of frogs there are, what they look like, where they live, etc before we have them work with the higher level questions.
ddm -
ReplyDeleteI think higher level questioning is key. It is critical to set up the classroom environment in a way that children feel free to take risks. A child who is used to knowing everything quickly learns in my classroom that he or she is going to get a gentle nudge. Nobody knows everything, so it is my job to get children in that place where learning occurs. This takes a a few weeks, especially for the gifted and higher achievers of which they aren't comfortable asking for help and asking questions. Questioning strategies of all levels don't work for my group unless they feel safe enough to be wrong. Once we are there, the creativity flows, the classroom unit becomes stronger, and the true learning occurs.
Some broad questions I can ask my children once they are secure with their surrounds are:
Teach us how you...
Explain what part went wrong, and how did you fix it?
Explain how you disagree or agree with the way the author explained this part? What would you have done differently?
How does this author's message compare to that of another book?
How do you justify this product? Show me.
Again, I don't go there with this kind of questioning until I know the students trust me, their peers, and the environment of the classroom.
LT I need to always be sure to foster a climate of acceptance so my little ones will feel safe enough to ask higher level questions. I love to think aloud while I am reading to my students. In fact, I often have to make myself stop talking about what I am reading. It's good to know that it is a good practice.
ReplyDeleteHigher level questioning is crucial...it's important to encourage parents to model thinking aloud while reasoning to problem solve everyday situations. Children that make connections while being able to reason carry a powerful tool in their toolbox. (MR)
ReplyDeleteHB. As adults we model reflective thinking. We need to keep in mind that we should respect our children's thoughts. Encourage higher level thinking by listening to their questions and then question the children so they will expand on their thoughts. With gifted children, teachers need to recognize their differences in thinking patterns and use this to differentiate their curriculum to meet their needs.
ReplyDeleteHigher level thinking is definitely helpful with the PreK age. Most of the time you can see the wheels in their heads turning trying to organize all the thoughts and ideas that they want to tell you. So they tend to get flustered or drop the idea. One way I tried to help them organize and release is during our journal writing time. I would start everyday with my journal and talk out loud with them as I illustrated the picture and composed sentences. By the end of the year they would help me compose my sentences by organizing the ideas and story I told them. KLM
ReplyDeleteUsing higher level questioning is so beneficial in the classroom. I do believe that it needs to be modeled for students so that it can be used effectively. Just allowing "think time" for students is crucial. I know that I am guilty of sticking to my comfort zone by asking/ modeling more simple questioning strategies so that I know the children grasp the concept and then I move on. I love Lou Ann's idea to model higher level questions through read alouds- modeling what questions might be running through my mind as I explore new learning. Many times the students ask the best, thought provoking questions!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnnie Pooh posted above.
ReplyDeleteI like to have a flip chart of bloom's around. That way, I can dig deeper into the conversations with little effort. I also like to use: I wonder why... Statements.
ReplyDeleteI also think it is crucial for the students to see how our minds think alike and respect all thinking. Sometimes, understanding the multiple solutions to a problem, adds in-depth conversations... Maybe allowing some to acknowledge that "their way" is not the "only way" to solve a problem. This is hard for some students to accept.
TT
I think that the modeling piece of this is so important. They have to see what good thinking looks like over and over. I also think at the kindergarten level most of this is done during read alouds and shared readings since most readers at this level do not read text that actually supports those higher level thinking skills such as inferring. I think that we have a good opportunity to introduce these skills and really get them talking about books. We really begin to get them thinking about asking questions, inferring, etc. Some students will read text that will enable them to practice these skills independently, and in small groups. I begin to question myself about how this will look during my read alouds? How will I measure the students success
ReplyDelete? ( Sorry my keyboard froze.)
ReplyDeleteBB - If you start with a question, give students time to process, and wait for an answer, you can then use higher level questioning to take the student deeper. Their first bit of information is usually on the knowledge level, but probing them helps others to see the support and evaluation needed to better understand the content. Students thrive off of this and you can often see the lightbulb go off. They take on the detective on the case sort of feeling and begin to "solve" through their curiosity, just as with inquiry learning. It can really help drive the uninterested student.
ReplyDeleteAllowing time for kids to think is very important. They also need supportive and specific feedback. The best way to help students feel comfortable with thinking is to model it in think alouds. Many times when I am teaching a lesson or just reading aloud to the class, I am questioning, inferring, predicting, etc… and I have to remind myself that many students don’t naturally do this or they don’t realize they are. I try to point out my thinking. Math word problems such as exemplars create frustration because the problems don’t always have just 1 answer or they are tricky with many steps. Due to this, students tend to give up too easily saying it is too hard. Some questions I try to use:
ReplyDeleteWhat is another way you can do that?
What do you think are the important facts and why?
Explain your thinking or how you got this.
What others problems are similar to this and how did you think those through?
I am always open to other forms but I jotted down the ones I tend to use most often. I hope to use a Bloom’s cheat sheet with questioning stems to help me in other subject areas as well as in math. KE
I see how teachers are using more higher level questions in their classrooms more and more. Classrooms are more and more creative. Teachers are more of facilitators. The students are changing too. This year I noticed that more students are doing more problem solving dealing with global issues, the economy, and integrating math and social studies. It all started with knowledge level questions and moving up the blooms continuum while questioning. I'm amazed at what teachers are doing now!
ReplyDeleteI think you have to start with a comfortable environment. Students have to feel ok about possibly being wrong or being corrected. If that atmosphere is open, students will naturally think through things and process it. Other students will feed off of those questions and comments and back to inquiry learning, the students begin to feed off of each other. Many times the gifted students will have higher level questioning, but other times it is the struggling student who hears the thinking differently and asks the question that gets everyone going deeper. I truly believe that getting off topic is ok as long as it's productive. JJ
ReplyDeleteAt the Rigor and Relevance conference I attended this summer, there was alot of talk about retraining the brain to discontinue praising the student, but to praise the level of thinking. "That is a really good question. Can someone expand on what she said?" I think that this drives the thinking and creates better questions that engulf the students. CC
ReplyDeleteYoung children are familiar with answering yes/no questions and questions that have a couple different options (a,b,c,d). During read-alouds there are tons of opportunities to stop and let the children think and have a class discussion which could lead to higher level questioning by the teacher or maybe even other students. Writing time is also a great time to ask questions that are open ended and really get a good higher level thinking conversation going between the teacher and peers. MH
ReplyDeleteMRid- Accessing higher level questioning has always been difficult for me as a teacher. I believe that it stems from my experiences as a student. In order to feel confident with skills such as these, you must always feel comfortable. In the past couple of years, I have consciously tried to be better about incorporating this into my classroom. During writer's workshop, we do a lot of shared writing, turn and talks, and a lot of open ended questions that don't necessarily require a right or wrong answer. This type of practice creates a more comfortable environment for learners to feel accepted in their thoughts and opinions. I truly believe that this is something that I always will continue to grow on and want to become better at.
ReplyDeleteUsing higher level questioning leads to really rich classroom discussions. I see this a lot during our discussions about books ands genres during writers workshop. We do a lot of turning and talking and using thinking partners. I try to ask a lot of open ended questions and give my students time to think and process their thoughts. Its important to create a classroom culture and environment where children feel comfortable taking risks and answering higher level questions, even if their answers might not be correct.
ReplyDeleteAbove post by MR1
ReplyDeleteI especially liked the author's thought "Improving thinking begins at the level of reorganization in a person's mind through the integration of new strategies." This led me to look up something that I learned earlier this year called 'Questioning Storming' Asking - What is? - What caused? - Why and why not? - What if? This leads to Innovation Systems. Encouraging innovation is everyone's job. We should keep and encourage students to keep an innovation portfolio. Use project teams and always promote taking risks. This type of thinking is essential to solving many of the complex problems that are facing our world today. NH
ReplyDeleteCLM-First and foremost the classroom climate must be one that fosters risktaking and a sense of safety so that is is okay to make a mistake. This has to be modeled and the teacher's encouragement to think outside the box, to look at things differently, and that there is more than one answer in certain situations all play a part in this climate.
ReplyDeleteHaving students share different ways of solving a math problem is one example of encouraging higher level thinking.
Planning higher level questions and using what we have learned in our district/building inservices is critical
to effective lesson planning and making sure that all levels of Bloom's Taxonomy have been met.
Asking open ended questions and modeling brainstorming or productive thinking strategies gives students skills
and confidence to transfer their skills to other situations.
LK-Reading the material for this lesson made me think of Roger Farr. I saw him lead a staff development on think alouds years before Steph Harvey began writing on the subject. His key point was that the skills you want students to possess, must be taught explicitly. Some of this instruction take place through teacher think alouds. When I was at Pine Shadows, Steph Harvey worked with the teachers several years in a row and we worked on helping kids transfer the reading skill knowledge they had in reading class to content area reading for science and social studies. I found it interesting in the reading how some people feel the initial instruction of a thinking skill should be done in a non-curriculuar context.
ReplyDeleteRR- I agree with CLM. Teachers should focus on asking students to explain what the lesson/reading means in their own words. Students should also be able to rephrase and summarize critical information in the lesson. This is a key skill for higher-level thinking activities. KLM's sentance composition activity is a great example of this.
ReplyDeleteUsing Higher level questions are benifical in all subject areas. In health fitness we use these types of questions when the students think about their strategy for winning a game. Such as "what is your goal in this game" and what would be your strategy to accomplish your goal". We also use high level questioning when we participate in "problem solving activities". It is very interesting to listen to the students and their discussions with other students as they problem solve. DM
ReplyDeleteI like how you have tied together higher level thinking questions and think alouds, Karen. Using think alouds in the classroom is a great way to model higher level thinking. Not only do I use think alouds when modeling reading strategies, it is typically the way I teach any new writing skill. Think alouds allow the students to get an inside look into the process. After kids become comfortable with the new skill, I encourage students to share their thinking, typically in fishbowl style. In literature circles, the process is similar. As students become comfortable with discussion, they can develop their own open ended thinking questions. I don't just want kids to find the "right" answers (although we all know LA isn't that black and white), but I want kids to be able to explain what they learned and how they will apply it to future tasks. Using higher level questions is an area in which there is always area for improvement, but below are sample questions I might use in discussions:
ReplyDeleteReading: What is a central theme in the story? How does that theme apply in your life or in the world today?
Writing: What technique did the author use? How will you apply that technique in your own writing?
KC- Using the aps for notetaking on an ipad is still a struggle for me. I just prefer an old fashion keyboard so that is even why I am completing these activities on my laptop rather than my ipad. It took twice as long for me to type, post, and save on the ipad than when I switched to the laptop. Now that might not be the case for my students, but it would be GREAT if we could purchase some of the ipad keyboards like I have seen Candase use.
ReplyDeleteAs for how questioning can encourage children to be more creative…well got a lot of sample BLOOMS questioning sheets this year to use as resources and they were helpful in preparing questions for a lesson ahead of time. By writing the questions down, I was able to change some in order to move the student’s thinking to a higher-level, but without that kind of teacher reflection, the higher-level questioning won’t become innate. I believe the more open-ended the question, the more creative the answers will be. I also love surprising kids by changing the inflection in my voice when I ask a question so their initial automatic response conflicts with the actual answer to the question. It takes them a few seconds, but when I keep smiling and don’t respond, they suddenly have time to process and hear the answer. So I think allowing for processing time is also key to getting more creative thinking. Too many kids, as my son reminds me, learn to read the adult’s face to determine the correct answer, so we have to be aware of that when we are soliciting a variety of answers from the students.
(MMS) As it has all already been stated . . .modeling higher level thinking is crucial during read alouds so the children can learn how to dig so much deeper and then we hope that will carry on during workstations, reading groups and literature circles. I love having higher level questions written out on index cards for my children to respond to in reading groups such as -If you were the author . . .think of another way to solve the main problem, create a new character to include in the next series, choose 1 character to invite to your house for a day and write about it, which character are you most alike or most different from? Hopefully we can model these kind of questions during read alouds and then the children will begin having more creative conversations in their small groups opposed to the typical "What is your favorite part?"
ReplyDeleteJL - Because i like working in a quiet atmosphere, my classroom is usually a calm one. Some artists think that they can only work with lots of edge noise but for the quiet ones, they cannot produce. So I feel that this strategy for more brainstorming, group higher level learning will be more difficult for me to implement. My questioning strategies are mostly in C and D but from me and not the students. This will be a stretch.
ReplyDeleteModeling is really important especially with the younger grades. This gives the students an example to help them feel comfortable questioning and digging deeper themselves. Digging deeper is exactly what is being done in inquiry based learning (going back to sesson 6). I believe what is important is giving students a safe environment to dig deeper and express themselves freely. Doing so will lead to deeper and more meaningful discussions.
ReplyDelete