Developing thinking skills and assessment through literacy

1. Developing thinking skills and assessment through literacy

3. Project Day 1 • Evaluate and celebrate your existing ideas for Thinking Skills & Literacy • Experience straightforward ways to get young children interested, engaged and thinking • Lesson starters, main activities and plenaries • Use Thinking Stories to develop mark making and writing • Develop your own subject-specific thinking story • Plan one or two activities to try out in class (include the development of success criteria for these tasks – to monitor impact) • Learn how to use the project WikiSpace

4. Project Day 2 • Try out ideas, with support and guidance • Upload progress to Wikispace – notes/video/photos etc.

5. Project Day 3 • Prepare mini-presentations using Wikispace (don’t want to give you any additional prep. work outside the 3 days) • Evaluate activities against success criteria • Experience additional classroom activities • Smart Thinking Tools • Thinking Classroom Toolbox • Scenario-based learning • Plan next activities to try in class and review success criteria

6. Learning Lineups Line up in order of distance to get here today

7. Learning Lineups

8. Learning Lineups

9. How should we organise ourselves? Form groups of 6 that include a good mix of shapes. Ensure that you personally are in a group with your own school colleague(s)

10. Indicate group strengths

11. Allocate group roles

12. Mark out a flip chart page as shown and make sure everyone can write on it at the same time.(one edge space for each person in the group)

13. INDIVIDUALLY,in your own space, write answers to these 2 prompts:1. Effective ways (activities etc.) in which I/we already use Thinking Skills and Assessment 2. What help/support/ resources/ideas etc. I/we needDo not share yet.10 minutes

14. *Sweep = ring-fenced time for speaker: no interruptions, questions, comments or challenges. However, make notes if you want to here: IN TURN,sweep* round the group, sharing with each other. If there’s time left over, begin to discuss what you’ve shared.18 minutes

15. TOGETHER,in the centre, summarise you group’s requests 10 minutes

16. Engaging Starters: Visual, 122 and5x5

18. Individually: write down how many window panes there are (1 minute)

19. Pair-Share: Tell a partner your number, hear theirs, then decide who is correct (1 minute)

20. Group-Pair-Share: In your group, share pairs’ numbers and then decide the correct number (1 minute)

21. 6 for 1 Activity? Did we: Link to subject? Think, solve a problem, make decisions, evaluate? Work alone and together? Write, talk? Include all learners, challenge thinking? And were we Engaged? Enthused? Motivated? Inspired to finish that painting job?

24. Which is most dangerous and why?

25. Which is the odd one out and why?

27. What’s happening here?

33. Which one is the odd one out and why? • Include all 3 in a 30 second story • Use all 3 to rescue a cat stuck up a tree • Rank in order of usefulness • Link each to its neighbour • www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk

34. Your lesson focus = X • Include all 3 in a 30 second story about X • Which one has nothing to do with X? • Rank in order of how connected to X they are • Link each to X

35. www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk

36. Thinking Stories

38. http://torfaenthinkliteracy.wikispaces.com/

39. Next Steps Plenary As individual schools/settings, write down up to 3 ideas from today that you will try. Say what, why and when for each. Then bring your ideas and yourself to the front of the hall and make 2 lines, facing each other.

40. TALK LISTEN

41. TALK LISTEN

42. Mike FleethamLearning Design Consultant Phone: 44 (0)1962 840885 / 44 (0)7983404086 Facebook: Thinking Classroom group Twitter: Mike Tweetham E-mail: mike@thinkingclassroom.co.uk www.thinkingclassroom.co.ukSign up for Standard Free Membership. Resources and Monthly Thinking Skills Tool Upgrade to Teacher Premium Membership including Teachers’ Toolbox & Full resources library: £24 for 12 months single login