Thinking in Threes: It’s What Strategic Thinking is All About!

Thinking in Threes: It’s What Strategic Thinking is All About!
June 30, 2009 Thinking in Threes: It’s What Strategic Thinking is All About! Presented by Dorit Sasson June 30, 2009 The New Teacher Resource Center © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved

© 2009 Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved
June 30, 2009 Agenda Introduction to the Power of 3 What does strategic teaching look like in a college level classroom? What is the purpose of strategic instruction? What are some engaging strategic activities? Strategic thinking, teaching and learning © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 2

“The Power Of Three” – Three, Three, Three!
June 30, 2009 “The Power Of Three” – Three, Three, Three! Lights! Camera! Action! All good things come in threes. Norwegian proverb Ready! Aim! Fire! Strategic thinking, teaching and learning June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 3

There’s Something Special About the Number “3”!
June 30, 2009 There’s Something Special About the Number “3”! The number “3” is everywhere. The number “3” is omnipresent. The number “3” is ubiquitous. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved

Thinking in Threes Is All Around Us
June 30, 2009 Thinking in Threes Is All Around Us Speech Coaches Military instructors Comedians Experienced teachers also know that people learn better in threes: reading about something, writing about it, and speaking about it. Examples of speech coaches, military instructors, comedians (use handout) June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 5

Memorable Historical Speeches
June 30, 2009 Memorable Historical Speeches Friends, Romans, countrymen… (William Shakespeare) Government of the people, by the people, for the people… (Abraham Lincoln) Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! (Martin Luther King) June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved

Other Examples Of The Use Of Three
June 30, 2009 Other Examples Of The Use Of Three Can you provide other examples of the use of three from your life or teaching experience? June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved

Strategic Teaching In Threes
June 30, 2009 Strategic Teaching In Threes How can teachers make learning meaningful in a 3-part way so students will remember? To do that successfully, we need to first ask a few questions… June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 8

3 Questions Teachers Ask
June 30, 2009 3 Questions Teachers Ask What’s the best way to ensure students are engaged with their reading? How can teachers make reading assignments more interesting? How can students take responsibility for their learning? When we just give our students a task, some of them jump right into the task keen to display their knowledge. They need to be taught to think carefully about what they are being asked to do. Study strategies June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 9

Strategic Teaching Is About…
June 30, 2009 Strategic Teaching Is About… Fostering “how to think” by using a range of teacher behaviors and methods where teachers interact with students. Strategic teaching involves the instructional process. Strategic thinking and learning therefore are inextricably linked. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 10

Copyright 2009 Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved
June 30, 2009 Make Learning Active In addition to lectures, provide opportunities for students to SEE and DO things with key concepts. Problem solving, group discussions, prediction guides and short papers are a few ways to employ active learning methods. Other active learning methods: projects, demonstrations, skits, cases, surveys, short papers June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 11

The Purpose Of Strategic Instruction
June 30, 2009 The Purpose Of Strategic Instruction To bring classroom relevance to our instruction, which helps foster interest and motivation To guide instruction by focusing on learning strategies that foster thinking skills in relation to the content Did you pay attention to this in the video: “If students learn what they do, then what are they learning sitting here?” One of the things we need to consider in our instruction is how we bring classroom relevance to our instruction. Many classes don’t have anything practical to offer students and the tasks they are being asked to do won’t necessarily help them after school. The main claim of the video is teachers are asking students to do things which aren’t practical. To give one information is not difficult, but to help one be able to develop the tools to both know what information is relevant and the means to acquire it, is perhaps the most important function of any teacher. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 12

The Strategic Teaching Experience
Students pick up the idea that thinking strategically is a good thing – both useful and fun. Study strategies are especially important in an introductory class. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved

Lesson Planning Helper - 1
June 30, 2009 Lesson Planning Helper - 1 Who are my learners? Consider the learners’ abilities and backgrounds. Consider the students’ prior knowledge and experiences What kind of material needs to be taught? The important stage of gathering of information. How do you get to know your students? A questionnaire, the way they engage in discussions, dialogues, presentations, learning styles questionnaires, June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 14

Lesson Planning Helper - 2
June 30, 2009 Lesson Planning Helper - 2 What is the critical task? What do I want students to do in terms of goals and outcomes? What are some strategic teaching and learning strategies they can use right away? Involving learners in authentic activities and meaningful learning contexts. To give one information is not difficult, but to help one be able to develop the tools to both know what information is relevant and the means to acquire it, is perhaps the most important function of any social studies teacher. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 15

Why Teach Strategically?
June 30, 2009 Why Teach Strategically? Teaching strategically is the bridge between what students know and what students want/need to know. Strategic teaching is not just about accessing information but thinking about the information before and after. Students incorporate information June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 16

The Strategic Connection
June 30, 2009 The Strategic Connection Strategic teaching connects the ‘what’ part of teaching with the ‘how.’ What = the task How = the knowledge, tools and skills needed to do the task. The what is the task and the how refers to how students are going to do the task using his/her background knowledge, tools and skills. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 17

What Motivates Learners To Think Strategically?
June 30, 2009 What Motivates Learners To Think Strategically? Mastery Discovery Feeling competent Good grades Clear expectations Discovery tasks Understanding Questioning Discovery (cause) Mastery (effect) When they are engaged and curious to use and apply what they have learned, then we have succeeded in connecting between what we are teaching and how we June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 18

Questions from Students in a Typical Strategic Lesson…
June 30, 2009 Questions from Students in a Typical Strategic Lesson… What am I actually expected to do here? How does this task resemble or differ from others I’ve tackled in the past? What different ways are there of interpreting this question? What is the significance of the particular words used? Students sometimes ask these questions as a response to the task/question as a way of sizing up the task/activity in his/her mind and getting ready to tackle it. When the activity however is too hard/extending beyond the student’s mental/cognitive comfort zone (meaning – the student does not have the necessary background knowledge and skills) to tackle it then they can _____________. (give up, reject the assignment, answer in an average way but not at all reflective of his/her ability in terms of what they know and what they can do. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 19

Consideration for Choosing Tasks
Choosing tasks based on what students know and their ability is very important for stimulating them in such a way so they have the highest chance of being successful. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved

Lesson Planning Helper -3
June 30, 2009 Lesson Planning Helper -3 Bloom’s Taxonomy Knowledge (lowest) Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation (highest) We need to aim for the highest! So I made mention of strategic teaching as meaningful instruction. The type of activities (in terms of interest and ability) we choose for our students reflect our own expectation in terms of what students can do. The higher tiers of knowledge also represents more open ended and meaningful activities where students need to apply their knowledge. Teachers tend to stick to the lower tiers of knowledge and inquiry. While the knowledge tier helps students feel confident and competent and may reward them with good grades, there is not a sufficient challenge for them to strive for. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 21

June 30, 2009 Where Do You Start? Begin by taking into consideration what students actually know in terms of: World knowledge What they know about themselves What they know about their skills and abilities Use intakes using a diagnostic test (usually in writing) combined with a questionnaire. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 22

Strategic Teaching Methods
June 30, 2009 Strategic Teaching Methods Strategic Reading and Writing (K-W-L Charts) Problem Solving So I mentioned in the beginning about using strategic instruction/teaching as means The key is to use the “three” as the magical number. Easy for teachers and students to remember. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 23

June 30, 2009 Engaging Beginnings Engaging beginnings activate students’ prior knowledge. They make use of what they already know before any new knowledge is presented to them. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 24

Why Brainstorming and Prediction Exercises?
June 30, 2009 Why Brainstorming and Prediction Exercises? Teachers need to elicit what students know. Many academic texts assume students have the cultural, social and textual knowledge to understand the “gist” of the text. Notes on diverse classrooms – more verbal/active students participate while others listen and are also encouraged to join in. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 25

Why Brainstorming and Prediction Exercises?
June 30, 2009 Why Brainstorming and Prediction Exercises? Teachers can create a classroom of acceptance (no judgment or evaluation is placed) Teachers are able to appeal to diverse classrooms. Notes on diverse classrooms – more verbal/active students participate while others listen and are also encouraged to join in. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 26

June 30, 2009 Engaging Middles To help students clearly and easily comprehend the content they are reading, stop at key points in the text and have them confirm their predictions during reading activities. Success depends on the “K” – eliciting students’ prior knowledge. It isn’t vital that the students’ predictions be correct. The important thing is that students are interested and engaged enough to make predictions. If a student doesn’t understand what s/he is reading, s/he can’t make really predict what is being read. When that happens, the teacher can back up and clarify what was just read, then try to engage the student again by having make a prediction. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 27

Useful Questions To Ask While Reading
June 30, 2009 Useful Questions To Ask While Reading What are the facts here, as distinct from the opinions? What is the gist of this reading? June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved

June 30, 2009 Satisfying Endings Two questions to help students more clearly understand what they have just learned from their reading. What did you learn now that you didn’t learn before? What question would you like to ask the writer? June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 29

K-W-L Strategic Reading in Action Summary
June 30, 2009 K-W-L Strategic Reading in Action Summary K- What do I know about _______________? W- What do I want to know about_________? L- What have I learned about__________? Ask participants in which stage (K-W-L) is most authentic for students’ learning? (deep understanding, ability to infer, analyze, apply and evaluate) June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 30

The “Rule of Three” for Strategic Essay Writing
June 30, 2009 The “Rule of Three” for Strategic Essay Writing A good thesis statement includes three “P’s.” It is a three-Pronged Parallel Preview of your essay. Taken from Thinking in Threes, Brian Backman, 2005. Reading and writing go together. Reader doesn’t want to guess where you are going and expects a “road map” to see the route. Therefore, teachers need to give the reader a sneak preview of what is coming up on the road ahead. Sneak preview of the thesis. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 31

Strategic Writing In Action
June 30, 2009 Strategic Writing In Action Television has a positive effect because it helps you learn; it gives you information from all over the world; and it allows you to relax. Average ability. Students are using their knowledge of what they already know about the subject. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 32

Strategic Writing in Action
June 30, 2009 Strategic Writing in Action K – What do I want to know? W – What more about my topic do I want to know? L – What information have I learned from doing this task successfully? Reading is a passive/active strategy and complements Writing (also a passive/active strategy) June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 33

Strategic Instruction Teaches Students How to Participate
June 30, 2009 Strategic Instruction Teaches Students How to Participate Work through a problem or piece of material that illustrates course content. Engaging students in actual work during the first class session gives them an idea of what your class will be like. Part of the job of teaching requires us to show students how to be students. I think this part often gets left out. We sometimes expect that students know how to learn already. Experience shows that this is not always a reasonable expectation. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 34

A Consideration for Illustrating Strategic Thinking
June 30, 2009 A Consideration for Illustrating Strategic Thinking Consider a brief presentation of a core idea or pose a typical problem. Rationale: Problem solving activities provide opportunity for learners to attach meaning to what they learn. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved

Problem Solving in Action
June 30, 2009 Problem Solving in Action Question: Most students in the class think that college students need more sleep than high school students in order to function. Activity: Develop a statement that makes this statement true/false. Students read an expository essay on Sleep June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 36

Problem Solving - Thinking in Threes! Stages 1 -2 -3
June 30, 2009 Problem Solving - Thinking in Threes! Stages Stage 1- Prediction Students predict if the statement is true or false using previous knowledge June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 37

June 30, 2009 Problem Solving - Thinking in Threes! Stages Stage 2- Gathering of Evidence Based on their reading, students “interview” their peers. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 38

June 30, 2009 Problem Solving - Thinking in Threes! Stages Stage 3- Evaluation The students then come up with a logical statement that includes their points. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 39

June 30, 2009 Summary Questions? Comments? Do you have topics of interest to you for future presentations? I’m going to leave this blank since this is the interactive part of the presentation. I want participants to come up with their on “I learned…” June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved 40

The Heart of Strategic Teaching, Learning and Thinking
June 30, 2009 The Heart of Strategic Teaching, Learning and Thinking Give a man a fish, and he is fed for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and he is fed for a lifetime," is at the heart of the thinking about strategic teaching and learning. As a teacher, you must learn "how to fish," and so must your students. June 30, 2009 Copyright Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved © Dorit Sasson All Rights Reserved

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