Wednesday, February 29, 2012

10 Ways to Teach Critical Thinking

We often think of thinking as something kids do, but not necessarily something we teach.  However, in my experience I have found that kids who “think” without us teaching them how are being taught to “think” at home or elsewhere.  Critical thinking skills are so important that I firmly believe that we should include critical thinking skills in our curriculum.  Here are 10 easy ways to teach critical thinking.

10 Ways to teach help your students build their critical thinking skills. Ideas from Raki's Rad Resources



1. Model Thinking – A lot of times I think teachers (myself included) forget that students can’t read what goes on inside of our mind.  We show students how we do something, without telling them why we’re doing it, because we know in our minds why we’re doing it, so we forget in their minds they don’t know why.  Instead, when we show students how to work through a math problem or how to sound out a hard word, we need be saying things like “I know that 2 + 12 = 14, but I also know that 14 has a ten’s place, so I can’t put the whole number in the one’s place.” or “I know that a and e are both vowels, so when they are next to each other, I can only hear the first one, but it will have to be a long vowel because there are two vowels.”


2. Make them Explain their Thinking – I have a poster in my classroom that says “If You Don’t Know Why, You Don’t Know the Answer.”  (Click on it to download it FREE from Google Docs.)  I started telling my students this when I taught 3rd grade and we were preparing for that lovely whystandardized test.  We would go over the test prep materials, and I would ask them “What is the answer to number 12?”  They would answer “C” and I would ask them “Why?”  They could rarely answer, so we decided as a class that if you couldn’t answer Why, it meant you had just guessed, and that wasn’t acceptable.  From that point on, I have always asked my students to justify their thinking.


3. Let them Tell their Friends the Answer – We often thing that students who tell the answer are “cheating”.  In my class, we differentiate between “telling” and “explaining”.  If they can explain to their friend why that is the answer, and it’s group work time (not a test), then they are allowed to give each other the answers.  Not only does this get the “teller” to think harder about what they did, but it also gives the receiving student another modeled thinking!  (It’s also a great way to get ELL’s to use all that vocabulary you’re pushing into them!)


4. Play Games – Strategy games are wonderful for building thinking skills.  Games like Chess, Monopoly and Risk are obvious choices, but games like Battleship and Scrabble have a lot of strategy to them too, and they can reinforce math and literacy concepts.  (Check out my Friday Game Nights for ways to use games in your classroom.)























                                  


5. Puzzle Power– I have 2 different puzzle centers in my puzzle rotation, and I’m contemplating how I can add a third!  My students do 100_6101math puzzles and reading puzzles.  In addition to supporting the math and literacy standards we are working  on, students are using critical thinking skills to put the puzzle together – and they think they’re just having fun!
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6. Critical Thinking Corner – I know many teachers use a Busy Box for early finishers.  Another take on this is to have Critical Thinking Corner, which is just a table in a corner with critical thinking puzzles and games that they can visit when they have successfully completed their assigned work.  I stock mine with mazes, Rubik’s Cubes, Tactile Brain Teaser Puzzles and 9 Pieces Square Puzzles.
     



 
7. Encourage Visual Thinking – Most kids love to draw, and often it is easier for them to describe their thinking with pictures, rather 100_6369than words.  This technique is used for primary students and English Language Learners a lot, but could be a real benefit to all students.  When you are working on vocabulary words or problem solving, encourage students to make that picture on paper that they see in their mind.




8. It’s Okay to Have the Wrong Answer – Scientists know that it takes a lot of wrong answers to get the right answer.  Kids often get discouraged after one wrong answer, so rather than saying “You got it wrong.”, try saying “Not the right answer, but good thinking.  Let’s think about it another way.” 




9. Count the Possibilities– How many representations are there for the number 6?  (six, 6, XXXXXX, sieze, ------) Encourage students to look at all the ways they can represent numbers, words, etc.  Each new way to see something is a new way to think about it.



10. Find the Connections – When you connect what you are learning to something you already know, you remember it better, but you also find a new way to think about both things that are connected.  Connections are also a form of analogy, which is a key type of critical thinking.  So, encourage students to find something that is similar to key vocabulary, key math facts, events from a story etc.


Check out more Top 10 Posts from Raki's Rad Resources.

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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

TESOL Teaching Tip #15 - Thank You Technology!

My class consists of 19 students, of which only 1 speaks English only in his household, and even he began his life in a bilingual environment. The other 18 speak at least one, if not two other languages in their homes. Most of my students speak Arabic, but many also speak French. I have 3 who speak French and not Arabic, 1 who speaks Spanish, and 1 who speaks a Philippine dialect. All of my students speak SOME English, but to varying degrees. My job is to teach them English, while also teaching them everything we normally teach in school (reading, writing, math, science, social studies etc.) Fortunately, I am certified to teach ESL and have some experience with English Language Learners. Due to my unique teaching position, I have had some readers ask for tips on teaching English Language Learners. So, from now on, I will now be doing a Teaching Tip Tuesday geared especially towards teaching English Language Learners. Here’s this week’s Tuesday TESOL Teaching Tip:


TESOL Teaching Tip #15 - Use technology to help your esl or ell students have additional assistance. For specific website suggestions, check out my blog post at Raki's Rad Resources.

ELL Tip # 15 - Use Technology
Technology can be a friend or foe in any classroom – depending on the day.  However, I have found technology to be a life saver when working with English Language Learners.  Last week, in TESOL Teaching Tip #14, I stressed using Google Translate when working with the parents of ELLs.  I also use Google Translate with my higher
TESOL Teaching Tip #15 - Use technology to help your esl or ell students have additional assistance. For specific website suggestions, check out my blog post at Raki's Rad Resources. students who can read and write in their home language.  If there is a word they want to include in their writing and they can’t get me to understand what that word is, we put it into Google Translate and find the correct English word to substitute.  With my lower students, I use a Google Image Search or an AskKids Image Search (if I’m concerned with the pictures that might show up) to give them a picture of something that I am explaining and they just aren’t understanding.  The other day, try as I might, I couldn’t seem to explain peacock accurately enough.  I went to the computer, did an image search for peacock, and Voila, my student knew exactly what I was talking about.
In addition to these simple tools, there are some great websites that you can use with your English Language Learners, in a center, whole group, or as homework to help them work on vocabulary and grammar.  Here are a few that I really like:


TESOL Teaching Tip #15 - Use technology to help your esl or ell students have additional assistance. For specific website suggestions, check out my blog post at Raki's Rad Resources. Pronunciator – This website works on 60 different languages.  I actually use it to help myself learn Arabic and French, but it’s also fabulous for English Language Learners.  Students can put in their first language and the second language they want to learn (English).  Then the website will take them through graphic based learning activities for all 4 domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.  For some activities, you do need a microphone, as it has a pronunciation tool.  The vocabulary is grouped into categories, so it’s a great way to work on things like food, animals, clothes, verbs, etc.


TESOL Teaching Tip #15 - Use technology to help your esl or ell students have additional assistance. For specific website suggestions, check out my blog post at Raki's Rad Resources. Free Rice – There are many subjects covered on Free Rice, but English Vocabulary has a big sections.  It is a reading and writing game only, but it has a good selection of easy and hard vocabulary.  Additionally, if you get a question wrong, it will give you the correct answer, and then ask you that question again in 4 or 5 turns, giving you a chance to reuse the knowledge they are giving you.


TESOL Teaching Tip #15 - Use technology to help your esl or ell students have additional assistance. For specific website suggestions, check out my blog post at Raki's Rad Resources. Starfall – The best primary reading website out there, Starfall is especially good for English Language Learners because it reads books to students or allows them to read them on their own, as well as teaching all those letter sounds that are so needed (and can be different from language to language).  Check out the I’m Reading and It’s Fun to Read sections for challenging, vocabulary building stories for higher level students.

Do you enjoy the weekly TESOL Teaching Tips? Do you want to know more about teaching English Language Learners? I will be speaking on this topic on March 22nd at the Everything’s Intermediate Expo, and I’d love to have you “join” us. It is a virtual expo, which will help us connect no matter where we are! Click HERE for more information.


Find more TESOL Teaching Tips here, and come back every Tuesday for a new tip!
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Monday, February 27, 2012

Leap into TPT Sale!

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Did you get your TPT Newsletter today?  In it, Paul, the owner of Teachers Pay Teachers announced that there will be a Leap Day sale to celebrate the once every 4 years event of having February 29th!  In addition to the promo code ( L2P9Y ) which will give you 10% off, a lot of teacher sellers will be offering additional discounts.  I have put my Teachers Pay Teachers store on sale that day for an additional 20% on top of the 10% promo code.  Here is a pictures of what you can get with your discount:

 

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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Collaboration is the Key

Key words, key words – there are a lot of key words in teaching: differentiation, tiered levels, critical thinking, data teaming, project based learning, brain based thinking.  I am sure there are plenty of key words (sometimes called hot button words) floating around your school.  Some of these words illicit good feelings, some of these words illicit tension.  One key word that always elicits good feelings for me is: collaboration.  I am a firm believer that two minds are better than one, and ten minds are better than two!  Within my school, I am always open to share ideas and resources.  Outside of my school, teaching blogs give me a way to find that collaboration.  Recently, I have been lucky enough to team up with other amazing teacher bloggers on some collaborative blogs.  My husband has even gotten in on the collaboration game, blogging on Bilingual Clubhouse.  So, if you are interested in collaboration – check out some of these collaborative blogs for some great resources!  Do you follow or write for other collaborative blogs?  Feel free to leave a link in the comments so that we can all learn from each other!

 

Simply Centers
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
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Classroom Freebies Too

 

 

 

 

 

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Saturday, February 25, 2012

Skype Pen Pals


This summer, I signed up on a Skype beta project for educators to connect with other educators via Skype.  Through this forum, I was connected to a teacher named Ms. Keenan in Maine who knew that her class would be studying Morocco this year.  As I was headed for Morocco, I was quite excited by this possibility.  We exchanged a lot of emails and talked about what we were going to do.  We decided to exchange questions and set up a Skype date.  It took a bunch of planning, but the results were awesome!

First, Ms. Kennan’s class sent my class a list of questions.  Some of their questions included:
- What food do you eat?
- Have you ever been to the desert?
- What animals live near your house?
- Are there any churches near your school?
My kids had a great time answer their questions.  We shared with them that we live in the city and don’t see much of the desert, although lots ofmosque morocco my kids have been on vacation in desert areas.  We told them about the donkeys and horses that we see on the street, along with wild cats.  We told them about hearing the call for prayer from the mosque, but not knowing where the closest church is.  My kids shared their list of favorite foods which included cous cous and tagines, but was also full of foods like spaghetti, french fries and hotdogs!

Then, my class sent Ms. Keenan’s class our own list of questions:  Some of the questions my kids came up with her:
- What languages do you speak?
- What games do you play?
- Do you build snowmen?
- What do you bring for snack?
Ms. Kennan’s class sent back their answers and my class was thrilled. skype3 They loved hearing about how her students build snow forts and played Wii.  They loved hearing that they are learning Spanish at school and eat cookies and goldfish for snack.  It was great for the kids to understand that these kids did the same things they do.

Finally, the date was set and we had our Skype date.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a projector, so my class simply sat in front of my laptop.  It worked out very well.  Ms. Kennan’s class taught us a song.  We taught them a song and how to count to 10 in the Moroccan dialect of Arabic.  Then the students got to ask each other questions.  One of my favorite moments was when one of my students said “Hey, they aren’t wearing uniforms!”  Overall, it was a great experience, and I’m so glad we were able to help Ms. Keenan’s class learn a little about Morocco.  Now I’m looking for a class in the Democratic Republic of Congo to do the same to help my class for International Day!
Here are some pictures of the Skype event:
 In Morocco
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In USA (Maine)
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This was such a great experience for my class and a great chance to use technology, that I just had to share!
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Friday, February 24, 2012

Jenga Math

I LOVE to play board games at home, but I also enjoying using them in my classroom. In addition to encouraging cooperation, turn taking and a variety of other social skills, I find I can often use the games to work on math and literacy skills. So, every Friday, I am going to post a Friday Game Night post, giving tips on how to use a particular board game in your classroom. Here’s this week’s Friday Game Night Tip:


Jenga – Part 1 (Math)  I know, I know, Jenga is a block game, how are you going to teach math with it?  Well, here are some ways, and all you need is Jenga and a little masking tape (the thin tape works best).

For each of these variations on Jenga, put a small piece of masking tape on each Jenga block.  On each piece of masking tape, write a digit 0-9.
1. Make the Biggest Number – Play Jenga using standard play rules, except do not have students return their blocks to the top.  Instead, 100_6828have each student keep the blocks they take in a pile in front of them.  When the tower topples, over after each person has 7 blocks, have students put their digits in order to make a number.  The student who can make the biggest number and read it wins the round.






2. Add It UpPlay Jenga using standard play rules, except do not have students return their blocks to the top. Instead, have each student keep the blocks they take in a pile in front of them. When the tower topples, over after each person has 7 blocks, have students add up their digits. The student whose blocks add up to the biggest number wins the round.


3. Order It – Play Jenga using standard play rules, except do not have students return their blocks to the top. Instead, have each student keep the blocks they take in a pile in front of them. When the tower topples, over after each person has 7 blocks,have students put their digits in order from least to greatest.  The student to get them in order the fastest wins the round.


4.  – Count Down from 100  - Each student starts the round with 100 points.  Play Jenga using standard play rules, except do not have students return their blocks to the top. Instead, have each student keep the blocks they take in a pile in front of them.  As they pull a block from the tower, they subtract the number on the block from their total of points.  The first person to reach 0 wins the round.









I hope some of these suggestions will allow you to use Jenga in a new, interesting way in your classrooms. Do you want other game suggestions for your classroom? Clck HERE for more Friday Night Game Suggestions to use in your classroom.  Keep playing games and watch your kids learn!


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