1. Engaging Students in Cognitively Complex Tasks
Element 22
Engaging Students in Cognitively Complex Tasks

2. What do you already know?
Take a moment and think about the phrase “cognitively complex task”
Based on your prior knowledge and what you know about Marzano’s Instructional Framework, make a claim stating what you believe this phrase means.
As we look at each chunk of learning, think back to your claim and provide evidence that either supports or refutes your claim.

3. Let’s Take a Peek…
Partner A-Read the 4th Grade Science Example of Investigating
Partner B-Read the Kindergarten Science Decision Making Example
Share with each other the key points of the example
Think about how these lessons could be applied to other learning experiences in a different content.

4. At the core…
Students must have the ability to produce and support claims. (Examine Reasoning-Element 20)
This includes:
Stating a claim
Establishing grounds (evidence)
Providing backing (additional support)
Frame qualifiers to include describing counter arguments and identifying one or more types of errors in thinking (faulty logic, errors of attack, weak reference and misinformation).

5. Interconnectedness
Students need to learn, practice and deepen their understanding of the content before they can engage in cognitively complex tasks.
Once a teacher identifies the critical content, she will chunk it and preview it with students.
He/She will then ask them to process that content and then push them a bit deeper with spiral questions causing them to elaborate.
He/She’ll then ask them to record, represent and reflect on the content and later examine their reasoning.

6. Degree of Choice
Grant students some choices during implementation, but provide boundaries to keep them focused.
Provide materials, resources, or specific guidelines for the parameters of the task.
Stop short of telling students the exact steps.

7. Degree of Autonomy
In the beginning, devote more time to coaching and supporting them.
Gradually, you can step back as students become more confident in their abilities and understanding of the process.
Allow students time to ponder, debate, and even struggle.
Prompt them as they work through the frustration of the productive struggle.
The secret is doing all you can to ensure your students are doing the thinking work.

8. Amount of Time
Provide students adequate time to collect the evidence to support their conclusion.
Whether it is a short term or long term project, students need that time to gather data/evidence.

9. Guidance and Facilitation
Plan in advance how you will support the students.
Ensure that all students understand the task and the complex steps involved.
Prepare to provide both verbal and written directions at the beginning of the task.
Have students paraphrase the directions before beginning the task.
Be highly visible and interactive in the process.
Move about the room to assist and monitor.
Provide ongoing feedback.
Ask probing questions to facilitate rather than tell and guide rather than lead.

10. Kind and Amount of Resources
Volunteer a variety of resources.
Fill a cart with potential sources.
Point them to the most applicable and appropriate websites.
Provide some lesser-quality materials, so students can compare and select the best.
Ultimate goal is that students decide for themselves which information is valuable and use it to support or test their thinking.

11. Overall Length
They can be short- term tasks that can eventually prepare them for the longer- term tasks down the road.
Don’t feel like they always have to be long and drawn out events.

12. Effective Implementation
Think out loud and model, model, model.
Provide opportunities to read and discuss the merits of other hypotheses.
Identify essential steps for the process.
Provide guidance.
Teach students how to document evidence.
Provide opportunities for students to examine and analyze the support of a claim.
Model how to create a conclusion with explanations and evidence.
Circulate the room and ask probing questions.

13. Monitoring for Desired Effect
Our top instructional priority is to monitor their progress.
Students can:
Explain the hypothesis they are testing
Test their hypothesis
Identify evidence to support or refute claim/hypothesis
Explain their evidence
Explain how their evidence confirms or refutes the claim/hypothesis
Explain common logical errors that may affect their hypotheses.

14. Monitor and Reflect
The difference between a good teacher and a great teacher is the relentless inspection of student work.
-Rick DuFour
The more teachers monitor their students and reflect on how they are progressing in the learning process, the better equipped they will be to adjust their instruction to meet student needs.

16. We tend to monitor for compliance and engagement.
This should be our focus…
We tend to monitor for compliance and engagement; we want to monitor for learning and track progress minute to minute

17. What are the critical parts of this definition?
Teacher act
Checking evidence
Desired student learning of critical content
During instruction

18. Facilitation Grid for Monitoring
Use some sort of collection tool as you monitor student progress toward the understanding of critical content.
A facilitation grid is one method.
Write the student names down the left side.
Write the learning targets or criteria you are looking for as you monitor student learning across the top.
In this case it is what ever you expect to see the students writing, doing or saying as you walk around.
As you walk around and monitor student work, check off who has it and who does not.
Take your learning targets or criteria for success and put them on the facilitation grid.

19. Here we see how formative assessments can guide our work in the moment of learning and not at the end of learning.

20. This is where we want to live.
This is where we tend to spend most of our time currently.
If we monitor during learning, we can catch misconceptions at the earliest possible moment, make corrections and send students on their way to the next piece of learning.

21. There are different types of formative assessments
There are different types of formative assessments. Depending on when you use them, they can be data we collect to monitor learning that is taking place in the moment.

22. We want to monitor minute to minute is so we can make adaptations on the spot to help students move closer to the target.

23. This is the difference between a good teacher and a great teacher.

24. Monitoring During Instruction
Teacher Observation:
Walk and listen to student conversations around critical content
Watch and listen to demonstrations, oral presentations, etc. of critical content
Spot check student work to determine progress
Ask probing questions to redirect or elevate thinking
Review student class work
Observe students as they work with manipulatives
Observe students as they respond by pointing to correct answers or represent the correct answer through body movement

25. Scaffold/Support-Adaptations
Use pictures, graphics, and diagrams
Provide sentence stems
Develop guiding/probing questions
Tell stories to illustrate examples
Regroup students to provide additional support
Show work samples or point out exemplars
Review reasoning behind responses before asking students to respond
Provide a brief overview of critical content
Post anchor charts, helpful lists, diagrams or techniques

26. Extension Adaptations
Students answer questions that stretch them just beyond the standard to deepen and extend their thinking.
Students categorize important terms and make generalizations based on those categories.
Students identify how each chunk of information or each activity relates to the learning targets.
Students identify similarities and differences between learning targets, and groups’ conclusions or solution methods.
Students create their own graphic organizer to share with the class.
Students identify strategies and techniques that were particularly useful to their knowledge gain.
Students create picture, graphics, and diagrams of previously learned skills or procedures to share with the class.

27. Connecting PLC Work - Monitoring
You are the content experts, so use each other’s experience and knowledge during your PLC time to:
Prioritize and problem solve around the most critical content students must learn.
Determine what mastery of the target/standard(s) looks like.
Analyze data in order to share successful strategies and meet the needs of all students.
Brainstorm scaffold/supports could be used to support student learning.
brainstorm extensions that could be used in the learning moment to extend student learning.

28. Complex Tasks
When standards live in lower levels of taxonomy (retrieval or comprehension) the cognitively complex task will come from one level up on the taxonomy.
If the standard you are working on lives in the retrieval level of the taxonomy, your task will come from the comprehension level.
If the standard you are working on lives in the comprehension level, your task will come from the analysis level.

29. Retrieval Standard Example…
LAFS 1.RL.2.4-Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
Identify lives in the Retrieval level
To design a cognitively complex target you’ll first read the verb/verb phrases at the Comprehension level.
Then you’ll use the essence of the standard and create a task that incorporates verb actions from the comprehension.
Example:
Create an illustration showing the meaning of a phrase in a piece of text that shows feeling or use of the senses.
Describe why the author might have used the feeling words he/she used in the text.

30. Comprehension Standard Example…
SC.3.E.5.1-Explain that stars can be different; some are smaller, some are larger, and some appear brighter than others; all except the Sun are so far away that they look like points of light
Explain lives in the Comprehension level, so you’ll first read the verbs/phrases one level up in Analysis
Then using the essence of the standard design a complex task at the Analysis level.
Example:
Compare and contrast two different types of stars.
Organize different stars into categories based on specific criteria and explain why you placed the stars in that category.

31. Six Strategies for Standards Living at the Analysis Level
Investigating-what others have said or written about a specific idea, event, or concept
Problem Solving-students generate possible solutions to overcome an obstacle or constraint, and then test and defend their possible solutions. Conclusions are made based on evidence they document
Decision Making-where students use information they have acquired from critical content to select among various possible choices. Students predict the best alternative and analyze their thinking to judge that alternative based pre-established criteria.

32. Three More Strategies…
Experimental Inquiry-students determine the procedure to collect evidence by direct observation to test their hypothesis by reading a text, watching a video, feeling or observing a physical change, and listening to an interview. Knowing how and when to select, organize and analyze.
Inventing-the purpose of creating and testing a prototype (trial product-advertisement, painting, new game for example) to meet criteria
Student-Designed Tasks-students decide what their focus will be and have freedom to pursue specialized interests with your guidance and support

33. Types of Investigating
Type of Investigation
Description of Investigation
Suggested Prompts to Motivate the Investigation
Historical
Requires students to construct plausible scenarios for events from the past for which there is no general agreement among sources.
How did this happen?
Why did this happen?
Take a position on this event.
Projective
Requires students to use the knowledge they gain during an investigation to make projections on future or hypothetical events.
What would happen if…?
Predict the resolution of…
Predict what might have happened if circumstances changed.
Definitional
Requires students to describe characteristics of places, things, or concepts.
What are the important features of …?
What are the defining characteristics of …?
What are the differing features of…?

34. Effective Implementation
Four steps:
Use the planning template (found in the module) to walk through the various steps of the investigation
Teach and model the steps for how to generate and support claims
Begin your investigation lesson with the motivating prompt you have chosen
Provide resources and guidance during the task

35. Teach and Model Steps
State a claim-students state precisely what they hope to prove in their investigation based on what they already know.
Identify what is already known-students begin the task by researching what is already known, gradually they find information to support their claims (known as grounds and backing). The goal is for the students to synthesize the information they find.

36. Step 3: Identify Confusion/Contradiction
Students identify any confusion or contradictions in the information they already know with what they find in their research to support their claim.
As they find evidence that contradicts or causes confusion, be sure to let them know that at times experts do not always agree.
This does not always mean the source is unreliable.

37. Steps 4 and 5
Develop a plausible resolution-a conclusion that responds to the original prompt, supported by their interpretation of the evidence.
Reflect on the initial claim-if it doesn’t support their claim, there is no need to revise their claim, nor should you base their grade on their ability to support the claim. The purpose is for students to analyze their original thinking as they investigate.

38. Problem Solving
Use the planning (thinking) template-see the module for the detailed sample
Teach and model the steps in problem solving:
Predict some possible solutions for solving the problem
Test your prediction
Examine the results
Decide if the problem is solved
Reflect on the process

39. Our Original Definition
Re-read your original definition of a cognitively complex task.
Think about the learning that you did today.
Did your definition change or did it remain the same?
What evidence do you have to support/refute your original definition?

40. Additional Resources
See the Essentials for Rigor Series for additional resources on the six strategies for cognitively complex tasks.