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Pattern Search

12/16/2013

Sandra Kaplan, a researcher in California, has identified eleven areas of depth and complexity that teachers can add to their instruction. One of these areas is Patterns. There are patterns in just about everything, but we often don't notice them. Patterns can help us make sense of things and lead us to new ideas.

Here's a simple way to help students become more aware of patterns. Print out pattern search task cards like seen in the photo and hand them to students who are ready for a challenge or have finished their work early. Ask them to share their thinking with you or with the class.

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Pass the Plate

12/10/2013

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Pass the Plate is a quick, engaging way to have students generate lots of ideas about a topic.

1.Put students into groups of 3 or 4 and provide each group with a plastic picnic plate and a transparency marker. (Paper plates work, too.)

2. Tell students that they will be given a word to write in the middle of the plate, and then they will pass the plate around their group, adding ideas, for 2 minutes. They will be given points for every idea on the plate, (I usually give 1000) and bonus points for any idea they have that no other group wrote down (5000.)

3. Rules for Pass the Plate - spelling doesnot count, they may not use resources (other than each other), and they may not skip a turn.

This photo is of a group of teachers playing Pass the Plate at one of my workshops. I provided the word "big" and they had to generate synonyms for the word. Teachers, like students, enjoyed the friendly competition and were very engaged with the activity.

When you are finished sharing ideas, simply hold the plate under the water faucet and it will rinse right off!

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Question the Text

12/4/2013

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Years ago I read an article by Alfie Kohn in which he claimed that teachers were ruining students' abilities to think critically. He wrote that the educators tend to prefer students who are compliant (very true) and that by demanding compliance from students, we were squashing their natural inclination to question things.

While I didn't fully agree with him, it did get me questioning my own practices. Was there a way that I could encourage students to challenge authority in a respectful, appropriate way?

Out of that reflection grew my Challenge Authority Cards. While I have developed a variety of them, I particularly like these that ask students to challenge or question the text they are reading. This skill is especially important as students read information on unscreened internet sources.

I find this is a great way to engage some of the higher level thinkers in a class - or early finishers. If you keep these handy, you can use them on the spur of the moment. So, just Copy These Questions, cut them up and hand them to students who are ready for a challenge.

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Pattern Search

Pass the Plate

Question the Text

Anne M. Beninghof

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