1. Improving Higher Order Thinking Skills

2. What Teachers Must Do. Teachers must teach how to use Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). Criteria in defining HOTS: 1. Use of abstract structures for thinking 2. Organization of knowledge into an integrated system. 3. Application of sound rules of logic.

3. Principles for teaching HOTS 1. Help students organize what they know with Graphic Organizers (GOs). 2. Build on what students already know. 3. Facilitate information processing through explicit modeling of problem solving, including selection of strategies. 4. Facilitate thinking through elaboration. 5. Make their thinking processes explicit.

4. Storyboards Type 1 Storyboards are planning strategies that are used in a variety of professions. Storyboarding is a strategy for project planning that begins with a problem. Type 1 Storyboards are good tools for inclusion because: Sequencing can be made explicit. Confusion is eliminated. Reasoning is facilitated by the discussion surrounding the visual tool. Metacognition is supported.

5. Storyboards Type 2 Type 2 Storyboards include graphics instead of text. Requires students to draw a series of sketches. This Graphic Organizer is recommended in order to keep track of multiple points of view in literature. It increases the students’ sequencing skills. Storyboards help students visualize what they read. Students with ELN are often nonlinear thinkers  Storyboarding helps them develop linear thinking. Storyboards are effective strategies because: Confusion is eliminates because the causes and effects of events are made explicit. Reasoning is developed as the cause and effect nature of events is demonstrated

6. Flowcharts Flowcharts are used when we are teaching a process that involves several steps. A flowchart can represent many types of processes. They are effective for increasing reading comprehension. Flowcharts are good tools for helping students acquire the analytical skill of cause and effect because: Confusion is eliminated when causes and effects are made explicit in a visual form. Reasoning is developed when the relationships between events and their causes and effects are clarified.

7. Venn-Euler Diagram When we are using a Venn-Euler Diagram we draw circles that may or may not overlap. Students who use this strategy demonstrate gains in both literal and relational comprehension. By using Venn-Euler Diagrams, teachers not only help their students gain a deeper understanding of their content area, they also help their students develop logic. Using Venn-Euler Diagrams to help students develop analytical ability in inclusion classes is a good strategy because: – Reasoning is supported when the invisible is made visible. – Frustration is reduced when relationships are explicit.

8. Compare and Contrast Matrix Graphic Organizers such as the Compare and Contrast Matrix are tools that scaffold students’ critical thinking. Researchers Collier, Guenther, and Veerman (2002) suggested that students’ critical thinking and problem solving skills were at a deficit because they were not consistently called upon to use these skills in the classroom. The Compare and Contrast Matrix is an effective tool for helping students who have ELN increase their analytical skills because: – Reasoning is supported when the invisible becomes visible. – Confusion is reduced when reasoning is supported. – Discrimination between confusing concepts is ensured.

9. Campfire Metaphor for Cause and Effect The use of metaphor for developing critical thinking skills is a particularly useful and powerful strategy. It incorporates an imagination and visual thinking aspect into the instruction. The Campfire strategy is for helping students understand multiple causality and the multiple effects of an event. The Campfire Strategy is a good strategy to help students understand because: – Reasoning is supported when the unfamiliar is made familiar and when the invisible is made visible. – Attention is garnered when information is presented or manipulated in a creative way. – Synthesis skills are developed as students begin thinking metaphorically about other topics.

10. Evaluation by Elimination by Aspects Method (EEAM) The EEAM teaches students a strategy for evaluation by external criteria. In the EEAM we eliminate each alternate solution as it fails to meet a criterion and continue only until one solution is left. We first must help the students with ELN identify the criteria on which their decision is to be made. The EEAM is effective because: – Motivation is increased when what seems like an undoable task is made doable. – Attention is secured when students are asked to make judgments – Frustration is prevented when a difficult task is made achievable. – Discrimination among alternatives is clarified – Organization is assured by the very nature of the strategy

11. Evaluation by Addition Matrix (EAM) In the EAM, each alternative solution is compared to each criterion. Everyone gets involved. The EAM is a good strategy for including students with special needs because: Motivation is greater when a difficult task is made doable Frustration is prevented when a difficult task is made doable. Attention is captured when students are asked to make judgments. Discrimination among alternative solutions is clarified Organization is assured by the very nature of the strategy

12. Reasoning by Metaphor and Analogy Metaphor influences a reader’s ability to assimilate new concepts into existing conceptual schema. Metaphoric thinking is especially useful in developing critical thinking skills. Metaphors are effective because they help students visualize information. Metaphors and analogies support learning of students with ELN because: – Comprehension is increased when the abstract is made concreteand the strange is made familiar. – Analytical reasoning skills are developed as students begin to see that wholes can be analyzed by examining their parts. – Synthetic reasoning skills are developed as students are encouraged to begin thinking about ways they can use metaphors. – Attention is garnered when information is presented or manipulated in creative ways.