From reading
the blog on “Scaffolding Student Thinking in Projects” my eyes have been opened
to this very important skill that we need to be addressing with our students. I
guess I just never really thought that thinking skills needed to be scaffolded
with our students. However, now I know that planning specific ways for students
to share and grow in their thinking should be happening daily. Starting with
clarifying the goal is a great way to focus in on what you want your students
to be able to express. I want students to be able to explain the steps they
take when solving problems, answer questions in complete sentences and describe
their thinking process when analyzing how a problem should be solved to name a few.
I went to the visible thinking website and browsed through the different
thinking strategies. There are many simple routines and procedures to get
students expressing their thinking in meaningful ways such as think-pair-share,
3-2-1, and question starts. I really like the idea of using question starts to
engage students at the beginning of a lesson and making connections to prior
knowledge about the topic. I have gotten some good strategies that I will use
in the classroom to help foster students critical thinking skills.
I learned a lot about this in college and I truly enjoyed learning about it. Allowing the students to vocalize and discover what they learn will go much farther than just taking notes.
ReplyDeleteHi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that the blog post, "Scaffolding Student Thinking" was helpful in providing you with possibilities for supporting students' thinking and helping to promote depth and application of thought. You mentioned how planning specific ways for students to share thoughts related to their content such as explaining their steps, answering questions in complete thinking, etc. can be helpful at promoting thought but I also know that this can be a helpful formative assessment tool as well.
Sincerely,
Dawn