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"We offer these lesson plan ideas to help teachers cover important skills in English/Language Arts and Social Studies. Each SKILLS-BASED IDEA and CONTENT-BASED IDEA suggests specific ProCon.org topics and resources that are particularly well-matched to the lesson and designed to help you meet multiple curriculum goals."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Beth Dichter's insight: ProCon is one of my favorite websites. The mission of the site is to promote 'critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisian, primarily pro-con format." There are 52 controversial topics that are available, and they have just released 20 lesson plans. Seventeen of the lesson plans are skill- based and three are content-based. The lesson plans are geared to learners in grades 5 - 12. Below is a list of two skill-based lessons and two content-based lesson, along with the grade levels. Skill-Based (material quoted from site): * Critical Thinking Quotes - Engage students in a metacognition exercise about critical thinking and also practice research and informational writing skills using ProCon.org's collection of critical thinking quotes. Grades 9 -12. * Main Ideas of Visual References - Use charts and graphs on ProCon.org to engage students in a visual literacy exercise. Grades 6 - 8. Content-Based * Exploring Controversial Issues in Literature - To introduce a novel, use ProCon.org to help students build background knowledge and examine the novel’s controversial issue(s). Grades 5 - 10. * Drug Ads Over Time: Analyzing Historical Images - Use ProCon.org's Gallery of Drug Ads to give students an opportunity to practice ad analysis and recognize how methods and messages have changed over time. Grades 5 - 10. To access the 52 issues that have detailed information and provide references (and links) to the materials used click on the Home page and you will find topics in Education, Elections & Presidents, Health & Medicine, Media & Entertainment, Money & Business, Politics, Religion, Science & Technology, Sex & Gender, Sports, and World/International. 
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Critical thinking is the study of clear and unclear thinking. A simple definition, maybe, but that's how it should be. The term was popularised long ago-
Beth Dichter's insight:
This post begins with a number of definitions for critical thinking, from the basic (as seen above) to more complex (as seen through the eyes of Common Core). It then goes on to look at: Where did the concept come from? The next section, "What does the term really mean?" provides two lists. The first list is "what we know critical thinking isn't. Below are two of the items on this list. * Simply mimicking others thinking. * Being biased towords (or against) one way of thinking. The second list, "what we know critical thinking is." This list includes: * Willingness to be wrong. * Questioning one's own thinking. The final section provides Three Rules of Thumb - one for Essays, one for Discussions and one for Tests. Below is one example from each of the Three Rules of Thumb. * Discuss the phrasing of prompts. * Highlight the mysterious. * Include the "how" and "why" in multiple choice questions. Each section of this post provides additional details.
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In 2008, Fran Simmons, an English teacher at NewDorpHigh School in New York—at that time one of the lowest-performing secondary institutions in the nation— devised a simple test for her students in an effort to keep district officials from pulling the plug. First, she asked her freshman class to read Of Mice and Men. Then, using information from the novel, she asked them to answer the following prompt in a single sentence: “Although George …” She was looking for a sentence like: Although George worked very hard, he could not attain the American Dream. What Simmons received was alarming in the truest sense of the word. Some students wrote passable sentences, but many could not manage to finish the line. More than a few wrote the following: “Although George and Lenny were friends.”
Beth Dichter's insight:
This in-depth post explores the issue of language impacts our ability to think. After an introduction the post is split into three sections. The first section explores "the psycholingusitic case for writing education." It is noted that the Common Core states that students in grades 6-12 "should demonstrate increasing sophistication in all aspects of language use, from vocabulary and syntax to the development and organization of ideas, and they should address increasingly demanding content and sources.” What follows is a look at language, where we see that the language we learn impacts us in many ways, that some cultures have many words for a word like snow while others do not, that cultures whom have language that have "gendered objects" impacts how people view the objects. The second section explores "Can you teach better math and science be teaching writing?" Information is provided about New Dorp High School (in New York). The school implemented a program that included "writing-to-learn" across the curriculum (except for math) and discovered that major gains in writing were apparent by the second year. The third section "highlights ten features of writing education that can be used to enhance student learning across all subject areas, ultimately resulting in higher academic performance." The first two suggestions are below (all are quoted from the post). 1. Vocabulary Across The Disciplines: Emphasize that the concept of a word may change depending on the context in which it is used.
Ann Kenady's curator insight,
February 5, 2014 11:23 PM
This article gives compelling evidence that the ability to write effectively is closely linked to the ability to think coherently. The author writes, "Students’ inability to write was contributing to their inability to think, severely impeding intellectual growth across many subjects."
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How do we prepare students for 21st century learning? The Common Core Standards call for "more rigor, complex reasoning, problem solving, and critical thinking than traditional learning." How do we teach so that students meet these new standards? What professional development will need to be done so that teachers may provides their students with the necessary skills? As the titleof the article states, "How do we prepare students for compelex futures?" The post looks at a variety of materials that discuss skills and strategies that one might consider. In 2008 Tony Wagner suggested 7 areas that were critical for students to learn: * Problem-solving and critical thinking * Collaboration across networks and leading by influence * Agility and adaptability * Initiative and entrepreneurship * Effective written and oral communication * Accessing and analyzing information * Curiosity and imagination Materials from David Conley regarding "key cognitive strategies", Costa and Kallick and habits of mind, and other dispositions are also discussed. The last section of the post looks at "a new paradigm: on-going, formative, self-assessment."
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"Project-based learning is one aspect of the Common Core’s with extra buzz. PBL engages students in purposeful ways by providing opportunities to develop a laundry list of 21st century skills in areas including critical thinking, research strategies, collaboration, communication, and literacy. If your head is spinning and you are wondering how you are going to make time for and create appropriate PBL opportunities for your elementary students, don’t worry! The good news is there are many ways to incorporate practical project-based learning into your elementary classroom. "
Beth Dichter's insight:
If you are considering project-based learning, but have questions about just what to do, this post may assist you. There are many suggestions about practical PBL projects that are appropriate for students in grades K - 5. The post also includes a quick overview of the stops in PBL as well as a list of read-aloud books that may inspire students to ways they might create a project that will help their community. You will also find a list of ten ideas for projects and three other sections: * Inspire Projects with Hand to Heart/Paw/Earth * Teach Students to Ask Questions/Research Across Texts * Try Ready-Made Books and Projects with Heifer Project-based learning provides authentic learning opportunities for students to be highly engaged and to focus on the four C's that the Partnership for 21st Century and Common Core would like us to address: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity.
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Infographics are modern, written artifacts about collected resources in a dynamic, visual format. Infographics should be viewed as complex, standalone texts, not simply a text feature or graphic element.
Beth Dichter's insight:
This paper looks at digital literacy, specifically how infographics can be used to meet Common Core standards. A well designed infographic will have: * A Purpose * A Style * Evidence * Format The paper also includes a section "How can I teach comprehension with infographics?" This section includes two infographics and has the students critique them using the following questions: * What is the author's purpose or question? * What evidence supports the author's claim? * What are the strongest elements of this design? * How could the design be improved? You could use these same questions and have students in your class critique their infographic and their classmates. And last but by no means least they provide a list of locations where you can create an infographic. Infographics support reading comprehension and writing skills. They also allow students to strengthen their critical thinking skills and synthesis skills.
niftyjock's curator insight,
January 19, 2014 7:12 PM
I often get very bored with infographics, but these techniques will help me not only read them better but have a go at c reating my own 
Greenwich Connect's curator insight,
January 20, 2014 7:28 AM
Slightly overblown tone, presumably to help what is a useful overview of infographics sound more "academic" - read between the lines for what students should think through and how they should approach their own infographic production 
Kerri Schaub's curator insight,
January 20, 2014 8:10 AM
Visualizing is a powerful multisensory technique.
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"I believe that creativity is necessary in today’s classroom. In fact, creativity is one of the important 4 C’s (Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity) that make up part of the foundation of a 21st century education. The remaining foundation is of course another C (Significant Content). I believe that when you put all of these C’s together you get two more C’s which make up the 'Common Core'."
Beth Dichter's insight:
This post is the first in series and discusses free resources that may be stored on a local computer or a network. The list includes Scratch, Sketc-Up, Gimp, 3 free office suites, Alice, a variety of tools that will help you make movies and more. Most are described in some detail and there are links to additional resources to help you learn the tool. Additional posts will discuss Web 2.0 apps that may be used on the Internet (and across platforms), web apps and sites that promote literacy and student publication and web sites that promote student creativity.
Randy D. Nichols's curator insight,
January 15, 2013 9:30 AM
A good list to help you start (or continue) bulding a "digital toolbox" for multimodal compositions. (I will steal some of these ideas for my delicious links!)
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Thx Beth Dichter!
Great skills building via content-based articles that center on hot topics in the news related to science concepts (and others).