Catering for 21 st 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 ) 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 21 st century skills: Ways of thinking : Creativity, critical thinking, problem- solving, 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 21 st century skills: skills/

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: lections/pdf/6cs_primary_source.pdf Document analysis worksheets (need to be adapted) Literacy%20Worksheet.pdf Primary source analysis resources ml

Why this is not enough anymore: Howard Gardner outlines in 5 minds for the future, skills needed to succeed in the 21 st 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: Real world observations and interviews Reading of critical scholarship tasks e.g ‘Socratic circle’ EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING Perspective role play activities LEARNING TO APPLY THE METALANGUAGE WRITING TASKS AND REFLECTIONS Interactive graphic organisers Explicit use of ‘I’ in opinion based tasks before making it objective Active citizenship tasks to enhance Understanding of Social justice

Guiding ‘light bulb’ moments from fun Fakebook Interactive Timelines Dipity.com Google Sketch Up Google Earth Edmodo Itunes U Music video analysis satire

Year 7 History example

Other tools for synthesis: + Graphic organiser templates plus interactive links for students to create and save their work if using laptops Collaborative exercises to plan group responses 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