Critical Thinking Skills

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Ten Takeaway Tips for Critical Thinking

We often talk about how important it is for our students to develop critical thinking skills in order to be literate learners.  Edutopia provides Ten Takeaway Tips for Critical Thinking.

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Getting Started with Student Inquiry

The Ministry of Ontario has released a Capacity Building Series which includes an edition on Student Inquiry.

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Classroom Use:  This article provides a definition of student inquiry, and tips for how to get started.

Project Based Learning

View this video from Edutopia:  an "Introduction to Project Based Learning"


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Project Based Learning

Project Based Learning Explained

21st Century Learning

Communication
Collaboration
Critical Thinking
Creativity

These 4 skills are learned through our curriculum with an approach that is interdisciplinary, integrated and project-based.  TCDSB is the largest board in Canada that has focused on 21st Century Learning Strategy. This has been done in collaboration with Dr. Rutherford where the emphasis is on moving away from rote learning and moving toward innovation. These skills are required by students to learn and be successful not only in school, but in life.  

6 Competencies:

1. Collaboration
    Preview & Reflect on your Lesson's Level of Collaboration 
2. Knowledge Construction
    Preview & Reflect on your Lesson's Level of Knowledge Construction

3. Real World Problem Solving & Innovation
    Preview & Reflect on your Lesson's Real World Problem Solving & Innovation

4. Skilled Communication
    Preview & Reflect on your Lesson's Level of Skilled Communication 

5. Self-Rgulation
    Preview & Reflect on your Lesson's Level of Self-Regulation

6. Use of ICT for Learning
    Preview & Reflect on your Lesson's Level of ICT Use for Learning
 

21st Century Learning and Constructivism are intertwined and have application to the real world.  It is important that we preview these areas of competencies and advance our lessons from entry levels to transformation levels.  Much of what we discussed today in terms of applying transformation level competencies to our lessons is very similar to what I see in our Gifted Programs!
A great read:   "8 Essentials for Project-Based Learning"
Parents:  see A Parent's Guide to 21st Century Learning

Stop Animation

Stop Animation Video Making... A Motivation to Learn!

Cool! I had never made a Stop Animation Video before, but really enjoyed this activity. Imagine the level of engagement as well as the motivation to learn! I can see how this activity could appeal to all learners including our students that are more reluctant to participate in learning activities. The video below briefly describes the process of How To Make A Stop Animation Video.
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We were off to the races and began by sharing ideas and looking at a few stop animation creations.  All of the members of Part 2 formed a group and we began working on a video called Diversity and Inclusion. We dropped our photos into Windows Movie Maker and voila.. our Stop Animation Video was formed. Please see our Stop Animation Video below!

A Stop Animation Lesson would definitely follow the Constructivism Learning Process in that students involved in this project would  be construct meaning as they learn and learning is social. This task is engaging and helps to inspire and motivate students' creativity and desire to learn.This task has 21st Century skills embedded into it:  Creativity, Collaboration, Community, and Critical Thinking.

In this case technology was used as a tool to tell a story.  Although developing the Story Line was not the focus, it involved assessment as learning. Assessment is built into the learning process and students have the opportunity to revise, self evaluate and receive descriptive feedback.  As was discussed by the group, this enriching task would be used as a cross-curricular lesson approach (perhaps involving Media Literacy, Language and Social Studies) and using multimedia such as this assists in addressing individual learning styles while also giving 'Boys Voices'. This task was introduced as a formative assessment, Descriptive Feedback would be important for students in planning for the next steps in learning.  Given more practice and opportunities to revise and reflect, a similar task could be done as a summative task.

Classroom Use:  digital storytelling; engage students in collaborative learning; problem solving; creativity

As we all know, motivation is key to learning and self-discovery is a part of this process.

A thought on Motivation and how this relates to students by Daniel Pink.

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