Let’s start with a puzzlement, ask kids to generate an abstract statement, and then find evidence that their statement works across several different areas.
All Of MyExamples
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Direct Instruction: A Model For Learning A Skill
Direct Instruction is the model to use when we want to teach students to perform a specific skill. It gently moves from teacher modeling to independent student practice.
Inquiry Training: Teach Students To Ask Better Questions
Inquiry Training is a model of instruction that looks a lot like 20 Questions. You’ll teach your students to ask more helpful questions and to avoid rushing to a hypothesis too quickly.
Scholar’s Cafe
Get students moving, thinking, writing, and reading each others’ ideas with a Scholar’s Cafe.
A Classic: “Who’s On First” and 21st Century Kids
My 21st century 12-year-olds absolutely died watching Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s On First” skit. And we got a great homophone activity out of it too.
Remix the Song “Help!”
Students took the classic song, Help!, and rewrote it to be about their collective summers.
Could we fit 1,000 kids on the playground? 10,000?
If your students can find the area of a square then, armed with Google Earth, they can also figure out how many students you could pack into your school’s playground.
Concept Formation: A Model for Inductive Thinking
Here’s are the steps for running an inductive lesson based on Hilda Taba’s model of Concept Formation. Plus a sample lesson about the Nile River.
The Marshmallow Challenge
A fantastic fuzzy problem to start the year. Students use pasta and tape to try to get a marshmallow up as high as possible.
What could we do with this Wax Museum event?
How one might revamp a “Wax Museum” project into something that focuses more on thinking than product.