Designing critical inquiry units for a thinking classroom: Part 2

Designing critical inquiry units
for a thinking classroom: Part 2
Roland Case, Ph.D.
Executive Director
The Critical Thinking Consortium
Talmud Torah Elementary School
January 21, 2015
French /
Judaic studies
Menu of items (French /
Judaic studies)
§  Your questions, concerns and successes
§  Three approaches to teaching vocabulary
§  Sample essential questions and tasks
§  Recognizing inquiry questions: card sort
§  TC2 French resources
§  Framing inquiry questions using the
prompts
§  Consultation time
Approaches to teaching
vocabulary
Approaches
Explanation
Memorization Teacher introduces word and its definition,
and students are expected to learn and
remember the word for use in a subsequent
activity.
Embedded
exposure
Teacher creates multiple opportunities to
see and use words in meaningful contexts.
Students learn the word through absorption
and ongoing use.
Discovery
Teacher creates a situation where students
have to figure out the meaning of the word
for themselves.
Tweaking memorization
activities
Decide on the best way for you to learn a word
or set of words
Create your own clue to help you remember
Tweaking “embedded
exposure” activities
§  Create a story using words from the
vocabulary list that explains the story
presented in the series of pictures
Is the pharaoh kind or fearful?
Explain the text or image
Evidence from the text or image
WHY have
they done the
actions?
WHEN did
the actions
take place?
WHERE do
the actions
take place?
WHAT have
they doing?
WHO are the
main figures
in the text?
Conclusions/interpretation
Questions we have:
Use sentence frames:
Qu’est . . .
Ou est les personnnes ..
Embedding inquiry into
“discovery” activities
Complete the sentence by making informed guesses:
When I first felt a pain in my
,
I thought perhaps I had
;
but as I picked up my pace, I realized it was simply a
passing
.
What criteria/factors did you use to decide upon a answer?
Correct part of speech
Sense within the sentence
Consistency with other sentences
Match with context or title
Create a definition
for a “memory” based on examples
and non-examples
Example of a memory
Not a memory
Example of a memory
Not a memory
Other examples of
“discovery”
§  Mystery word charades
§  Match the labels with the pictures based
on clues (cold, warm, freezing; father
mother, brother)
§  Find the two errors in the sentence based
on clues
§  Select the best image to communicate a
word
Inquiry units
Essential question: Can I learn to use French/ Hebrew to explain everyday life?
Critical tasks:
Create a five-sentence weather report without prompts (today,
yesterday tomorrow, temperature)
Order a meal and take an order entirely in French.
Explain to your friend everything you did yesterday entirely in Hebrew
Invent and teach a (engaging, simple, and beneficial game that
everyone can play)
Essential question: Can I learn to read pictures entirely in French/ Hebrew?
Critical task:
Create a 5W’s account of any picture drawn from an
assigned Biblical story/ book
Card sort
Contrasting kinds of questions
Why
response
Thinking
expectations
Correct
answers
Locus of
inquiry
Typical
question
frame
Ket task
#1
#2
#3
Locating facts
Find out or remember
Describing feelings
Offer a personal statement or
preference
Making assessment
Render an assessment
5W is/does . . . ?
Do you like . . . ?
How would you feel . . . ?
Should we . . . ?
What is the most plausible . . .?
The answer exists
somewhere in a text, notes,
memory (direct answer)
The answer lies within the individual
(individual answer)
The answer must be thought
through
Typically a single correct
answer
Typically no wrong answers
Primarily requires retrieval
or recollection
May require some introspection into
personal feelings
Typically more than one
plausible answer and some
answers are implausible or
wrong
Requires judging merits in
light of criteria
Why did Fred do this?
Why do you believe this?
(Reports on source of
evidence
Why do you feel this way? (offers a
explanation for feelings or though pro
Why do you think this option is
more plausible? (Justifies the
merits of the selected choice