Category Archives: critical thinking

Scenario-based Teaching: A Powerful Classroom Tool

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Well of course it does! Even Jesus taught using scenario
situations and there are centuries of data proving how well this worked for
everyone involved.
Last week I tried it out this ancient strategy in my
classroom. I was teaching a lesson on the 5 points of modern architecture. I announced
to my students that I had just purchased a small beachfront lot in Newport
Beach and that they had to design a home for me. As a client, I had very
specific requests for this building. The whole front of the house had to be open,
mostly glass so I would have unobstructed ocean views; it had to be elevated
from the ground to prevent water damage, and so on… What they didn’t know is
that hidden in my requirements, were the 5 points of modern architecture as
conceived by Swiss architect Le Corbusier. The variety of solutions to my problem
was very interesting. For instance, one of my requests was a roof garden. For
one of my students a roof garden meant a swimming pool on the roof surrounded
by plants; another student interpreted it as little green house with a
vegetable garden topped by a traditional gabled roof made out of glass.  I could already envision my wealthy neighbors
stopping by for some free heirloom tomatoes. When the time came for me to
present the material, it took less than 10 minutes of their class time. By
then, everyone was more than ready to understand the concept.
Little beach front beauties (is that dog access on the left?)
I have taught this lesson for many years but this is the
first time that I introduced it this way. It is possible that the idea of changing
my format was inspired by observing Phil Miller’s Economics class the week
before. Phil is dealing with a very quiet group of seniors this year who do not
participate much during group discussions. He gave them a scenario problem about
a high school senior who wanted to drop school in order to work full time so
that she could focus on making more money. Phil asked questions to lead a class
discussion. The day after, a student acted out the role of the high school
senior and students were encouraged to ask questions to her relating to whether
her decision was a sensible economic one. Many students participated. I was
struck by the maturity of the questions and how pointed they were, ranging from
“How much money are you making right now”, to the more poignant ones such as “How
would you describe your relationship with your parents”. I did not follow up
with the next class the next day but I could tell the activity had been
successful. Phil uses this tool very often in his classes. He says it
encourages problem solving and critical thinking. While doing research on this
technique, I found that it is used in many different fields like engineering,
math, business and others. It makes abstract information seem more real and
easy to grasp.
In the case of my students, I started to see some results
right away.  
I gave a simple quiz at the end of the week relating to the
lesson. I usually make these little quizzes multiple-choice. They are quick,
easy for me to grade, and not worth a lot of points. This time I made it a
scenario-based quiz instead.
I always try to help my all students do well on their
quizzes so I post a practice quiz and a study guide on Schoology. In spite of
this, some students don’t pass.  This
time they did not practice but the information was posted for them.
Here are my observations from comparing the results in both
quizzes:
—Students did equally as well or better in the second quiz
even though I skipped through the process of quiz practice and going through missed
answers.
— In the multiple-choice quiz, the students that are
receiving academic help fared worse; in the scenario quiz, the students that
missed one or two classes that week fared worse. 
Here are my conclusions from this experience.
–Students who have high executive mind skills are more
likely to check Schoology and review study guides, therefore my practice tests
are probably only helping students who don’t need that much help
–Real scenarios help all students but they are particularly helpful to students with learning issues.  The information is retained better.
–Scenario-based questions or real world problems solving
may help students who “do not test well” get better scores in their tests.
–Peer Observations are a very “economical” way to learn and
re-learn teaching practices that are useful in the classroom.
I hope this is helpful and inspiring to any of you. Do you use problem solving that include real life scenarios? Do you have any good links to Scenario-based teaching in High School? Please share.

End of the unit projects

Critical Thinking and Reading: ‘Big History’ Skills for all Disciplines

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I’ve completed half of the Big History Project online professional development and want to share some of my initial thoughts. While this post might not be of value to the English and Social Studies teachers who will be completing the P.D., I thought it might be of interest to others who want to get a better sense of the skills the course emphasizes. These skills certainly transcend any single discipline.

(1) Critical Thinking: Big History emphasizes critical thinking as a skill. The course explicitly teaches critical thinking through the routine of “claim testing.” In Big History, claim testing means examining an idea in four different areas that challenge students to consider four different questions:

      • intuition: Does the claim jive with your intuition?
      • authority: Does the claim come from a trusted source?
      • evidence: Does the claim come with data points to back it up?
      • logic: Does the claim follow a clear line of reasoning?

The course starts by having students apply claim testing to readings. Then, they practice with debates. The idea is that as the practice of claim testing becomes more familiar to students, they naturally apply it to class discussions and writing.

(2) Reading: Big History embraces three different approaches to teaching reading:

      • leveled readings: In partnership with Newsela, the course readings are provided at a variety of reading levels so that students at all levels have access to the big ideas. I love this embedded differentiation!
      • three close reads: On the first reading, students read for the “gist” and make a prediction. On the second read, the students read for key facts and main ideas. On the third read, students “think bigger” and are asked to connect the text to a broader concept.
      • video as text: The course treats video as text to be “read.” I love this mindset as it encourages active learning in activity often viewed by our culture as passive.
I love the differentiated texts and “close reading” approach Big History champions. While I do not believe all texts should be ‘close read’ or necessarily close read in this way, I think the three-part close reading method lends itself nicely to a variety of short non-fiction texts with the goal of increasing reading comprehension and making meaning.

As we re-write our curricula, I think it is important for us to be mindful of the academic language and we use as teachers. Using common language, as appropriate, will only increase the likelihood students will transfer skills and ideas from course to course. #claimtesting #threeclosereads #videoastext
The second half of the professional development will focus on writing… more to come.

Aligning Honors and AP Biology: “Double-Dipping” With a Purpose

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If one were to track Honors Biology and AP Biology, one is likely to find that they travel curiously similar and parallel paths.  There’s a reason for this (and not just because it makes my life easier).  Honors students are building the skill scaffold that will support them in AP Biology.  Such skills include hands-on lab techniques, critical and analytical thinking and technical writing.  AP Biology students routinely use the same techniques as Honors students but are asked to design and execute their own experiments and provide a higher level of quantitative analysis and reasoning to explain results.  In today’s lab exercise, Honors Biology students were tasked with harvesting root tips and preparing them, step-by-step, for microscopic analysis of the phases of mitosis (cell division).  The goal of this experiment is to estimate the relative time cells spend in any one phase of the mitotic cycle.  This is a baseline activity.  In an AP variation, students use the same technique to prepare a control sample (baseline) and one treated with indole-3-acetic acid, a plant hormone that induces cell division.  Like their Honors counterparts, they must determine the relative frequencies with which cells are found in a specific mitotic phase but they must also perform a chi-square analysis to determine whether any measured difference between the observed and expected data is statistically significant (to within a 95% confidence level).  One technique, two levels of inquiry.

This alignment of the two programs has been ongoing this entire semester.  There is, of course, an ulterior motive (isn’t there always?).  It is hoped that these challenges whet students’ appetites to carry out independent research projects that become capstones to their years at CHS or that they can explore further in college.

Trying to Forge a Critical Community

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For years, I have tried to find methods at supporting a critical community within each section of my studio classes.  I think the students best work and highest personal gain derives from their response to peer critique.

I have tried different prompts and spoke formats. These I had the most hope for because for an actual conversation.  Written responses are are are more prone to deny a timely back-and-forth exchange.

What usual happens with my spoken prompts is that some type of silent collusion occurs between most of the students.  A typical comment would be, “I think everybody tried their best and did a really good job”.  The next two to ten comments would ether be “I agree with her,” or “We all learned something.” The students have always done a great job of showing solidarity towards non-critical critique.  

This year, for other technical reasons, I worked with Joan Tracy to find a better platform for my photo classes’ digital portfolios.  We ended up with trying seesaw.me. This app effectively addressed my needs and concerns with creating and storing each student’s online portfolio.  Once we started using it, we discovered another beneficial function. Seesaw has a LIKE and a COMMENT button under each individual image!

On screen, Seesaw looks much like Instagram.  The images are displayed in a list with comments or in a grid of thumbnail without comments.  These are familiar interfaces for my students.  It is this familiarity that has finally enabled a conversation.  These girls like to comment on pictures!! Even though it is not anonymous, they have found confidence to critique that was elusive as an oral conversation.  The comments are still understandably gentle and superficial but it is clear in reading them (everything is public to all member and teachers of that class) that growth has happened. And with a little gentle pushing, they are responding!

My immediate task is to give them the vocabulary to be more expressive and then to help them expand into an out-loud, spoken critique.  I still believe the immediacy of the class discussion!

I can add more teachers to a photo class if your are interested at looking around the platform at your own pace. Other types of files can be added besides still images.  I believe that Sra. Green is having students record and post short videos.  Documents and links can also be posted.  Let me know if you want some guidance getting started!