Stepping Up the Ladder in all Curriculum Areas to Improve Critical Thinking

1. Stepping Up the Ladder in all Curriculum Areasto Improve Critical Thinking Cheryl Hutchison Carolina Springs Elementary Lexington 1 chutchison@lexington1.net

2. Socrates believed that questioningwas the only defensible form of teaching.

3. What do you do with a LADDER? Use it to reach higher places Supports you as you climb upward Gives you something to lean on

4. What is Jacob’s Ladder? Jacob’s Ladder is a process for students that begins with targeted short readings and moves through an inquiry process from basic understanding to critical analyses of the texts read. The levels vary according to student’s ability.

5. What is the Purpose of Jacob’s Ladder? • To enhance reading comprehension skills • To build reading skills from lower order to higher order • Build scaffolding for students to better employ higher level thinking skills • To enhance student discussion of textual meaning

6. Jacob’s Ladder’s Genesis & Point of Origin

7. The Ways of Thinking Fostered with Jacob’s Ladder • Ladder A: sequencing, cause and effect, and consequences and implications; • Ladder B: identifying key details, classification, and generalizations; • Ladder C: literary elements, inference, and interpretation of theme or central idea; • Ladder D: synthesis of information through paraphrasing, summarizing, and creative synthesis; • Ladder E: understanding emotion, expressing emotion, and using emotion; and • Ladder F: planning and goal setting, monitoring and assessing, and reflecting.

8. Why Jacob’s Ladder? • Designed based on teacher need for scaffolding reading – especially for advanced readers who are capable of reading and interpreting at a higher level but need help getting started • Designed to differentiate reading instruction for students based on research-based models • Designed to move students from lower order to higher order thinking so they may gain independence in reading and analyzing literature - work consistently at higher levels of achievement

9. It’s Research-Based • Students who were exposed to the JL curriculum showed significant gains in reading comprehension and critical thinking. • These same students showed growth on curriculum-based assessments that included the specific ones the JL process targeted. • From this group, the students claimed that they have a greater interest in reading and that the ladders made them “think harder.” • Teachers reported more in-depth student discussion and personal growth in the ability to ask open-ended questions (Stambaugh, 2008).

10. Research Supporting the Jacob’s Ladder Method • Literacy discussions that stress collaborative reasoning foster greater engagement and higher level thinking (Chin, Anderson & Waggoner, 2001; Pressley, 2001; Taylor, Peterson, Pearson, & Rodriguez, 2002) • Rereading text improves meta-comprehension accuracy (Rawson, Dunlosky, & Thiede, 2000) • Teachers who emphasize higher order thinking through questions and tasks promote greater reading growth (Taylor, et al, 2003; Knapp, et al, 1995) • Teacher stance and pedagogy(providing coaching, modeling, & feedback) enhances reading and writing growth (Pressley, et al, 2001; Taylor, et al, 2003) • Responding to literature and reading through open-ended comprehensive questions improves test performance (Guthrie, Schafer, & Huang, 2001)

11. Elements of Reasoning Purpose/ Goal Point of View Assumptions Evidence/ Data Issue/ Problem Inferences Concepts/ Ideas Implications/ Consequences -- Paul, 1992

12. Ladder A – Consequences & Implications Goal – to develop prediction and forecasting skills by encouraging the reader to make connections among the provided information.

13. Ladder A – Consequences & Implications • Rung 3, Consequences & Implications • Requires students to think about both short-term and long-term events that may happen as a result of an effect they have identified. • Draw on the consequences and implications from a text for application in the real world. • Rung 2, Cause & Effect • Requires students to think about relationships and identify what causes certain effects an/or what effects were brought about because of certain causes • Rung 1, Sequencing • Requires students to organize a given piece of information contained within the text in order.

14. Jacob’s Skill Ladders Jacob’s Ladder A A 3 A 2 Title of Reading Selection A 1

15. The Ant and the Dove A thirsty ant crawled to the edge of the river to quench its thirst. The rapidly moving stream snatched the ant as it rushed by and almost drowned it. A white dove sitting on a tree plucked a leaf and let it fall into the stream close to him. The ant climbed on the leaf and floated to safety on the bank of the river. Not long after this event a hunter came and stood under the same tree from which the dove had watched the struggling ant. The hunter sighted the dove and drew his bow to pierce his target. The ant, perceiving his plan, stung him on his foot. The hunter cried out in pain and dropped his bow. The noise made the dove fly away. Moral: One good turn deserves another.

16. The Ant and the Dove Ladder A

17. Case Closed Jacob’s Ladder A A 3 A3 A 2 A2 Title of Reading Selection A 1 A1

18. Ladder B – Focus on Generalizations • Rung 3, Generalizations • Readers use the lists and categories generated in Rungs 1 and 2 to develop two to three general statements that apply to all of their examples from the lists. • Rung 2, Classifications • Readers categorize examples and details based on characteristics. • Rung 1, Details • Asks the reader to list examples or details from what they have read and/or to list examples they know from the real world or ones they have read previously.

19. Jacob’s Skill Ladders Jacob’s Ladder B B 3 B 2 Title of Reading Selection B 1

20. Our Generalizations about Ancient Egypt • Religion was an integral part of the Egyptian civilization. • Ancient Egypt was a well-developed civilization that had all 8 components of a civilization. • The Egyptian civilization succeeded because of the Nile River. • The ancient Egyptians relied on their natural resources and the geography to survive. • Egyptians cared about their appearance of their land, buildings, and their own personal style. • Egyptians used their knowledge and resources to create their civilization and survive. • Ancient Egyptians valued culture, leaders, beauty, and infrastructure.

21. Students’ Thoughts about Designing Their Own Generalizations • Generalizations help me organize my learning. I design my own, like we did for Egypt, and keep it in the back of my brain to store what I’ve learned. • Generalizations help me organize the different eras we’ve studied in my head so that I can see their commonalities. • It helps me connect to ELA because we have to create main ideas and thesis statements with support. It’s extra practice for me.

22. Chances Jacob’s Ladder B B 3 B3 B 2 Title of Reading Selection B2 B 1 B1

23. MoLi Stone Jacob’s Ladder B B 3 B3 B 2 Title of Reading Selection B2 B 1 B1

24. MoLi Stone – M3 Study the photograph from an ancient wall in Egypt. Make at least four observations about the carvings on the wall. Ladder B Rung 1 Ladder B Rung 3 Make three generalizations about Egyptian symbols based on your examples and categories. Wall of ancient Egyptian numerals at Karnak. http://ancient-tides.blogspot.com/2009/09/earliest-zero-was-placeholder.html

25. Compare the symbols in this photograph with the one on the previous slide. Make three generalizations about how the Egyptians used their number symbols. Ladder B Rung 3

26. List in order of importance five images or details portrayed in the picture.

27. Describe the setting of this image.

28. Ladder C- Focus on Themes Goal – to develop literary analysis skills based on their already established understanding of the literary elements

29. Ladder C – Focus on Themes • Rung 3, Theme/Concept • Asks the reader to state the central idea or theme for the reading. • Rung 2, Inference • Asks the reader to think through a situation in the text and come to a conclusion based on the information and clues provided in the reading. • Rung 1, Literary Elements • The reader identifies or describes one of the literary elements and sometimes compare them to the elements from other texts (characterizations, setting, plot, etc.)

30. Jacob’s Skill Ladders Jacob’s Ladder C C 3 C 2 Title of Reading Selection C 1

31. Delilah She has blue eyes like the ocean. Her tongue like a rose. Her nose like a heart. Her tail like a fan. Her black coat like the night sky. By Casey Carroll Grades 4-5 Honorable Mention Center for Gifted Education Talent Search

32. C 3 C3 C 2 C2 Delilah C 1 C1

33. The Skating Lesson Mama and I are skating on the pond in our back yard. She’s a really good skater but I think its very hard. Mama glides around me and shows me what to do. How is she able to do that? Oh, how I wish I knew! Mama smiles at me warmly as she watches me fall and fall. She says that getting up again Is the most important lesson of all. The Mindful Garden of Verses by Marie Ciota

34. Habits of Mind Jacob’s Ladder C C 3 C3 C 2 Title of Reading Selection C2 C 1 C1

35. Jacob’s Skill LaddersJacob’s Ladder D D3 D2 D1

36. Ladder D – Focus on Creative Synthesis Goal – to develop skills in creative synthesis in order to foster students’ creation of new material based on information gleaned from a text.

37. Ladder D – Focus on Creative Synthesis • Rung 3, Creative Synthesis • The reader will create something new using what he/she has learned from the reading and their synopsis of it. • Rung 2, Summarizing • Asks readers to summarize larger sections of text by selecting the most important key points within a passage. • Rung 1, Paraphrasing • The reader restates a shorter passage using their own words.

38. Analyze This The US finishes the London Olympics on top with 46 gold medals, the most it has ever won in a non-boycotted Olympics since 1904. Rich Clabaugh/Staff http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Olympics/2012/0812/Olympic-medal-count-USA-sets-historic-gold-medal-mark

39. Analyze ThisJacob’s Ladder D Using the data on the table, create a different way to represent this data. Write an article for a newspaper sharing the information from the table with your readers. D3 Summarize the information from the table. Include the terms mean, median, and mode in your summary. D2 In your own words, state two facts from the table. D1

40. Using your own words, what is happening in this photo?

41. Analyze ThisJacob’s Ladder D Using evidence from the picture write a paragraph about your situation from the point of view of the people in the photograph. D3 Based on evidence from the photograph, what story is the photographer trying to share with the audience? D2 What image does the photographer want you to notice in this photograph? D1

42. Jacob’s Skill LaddersJacob’s Ladder D

43. The Gettysburg Address (5th) By Abraham Lincoln Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

45. Norman Rockwell Study the painting. Pay attention to the people and their faces. Summarize: In your own words, tell what is happening in this painting.

46. Norman RockwellFreedom of Speech Creative Synthesis: Has there ever been a time in your life when you felt compelled to speak out on an important topic? What happened? How would you illustrate the freedom of speech if you were asked to create a poster? Why did you use the images you placed in your illustration?

47. Hope is the Thing with Feathers – E. Dickinson Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune – without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I’ve heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me.

48. Ladder E – Focus on Emotional Development • Goal – to develop skills in using one’s emotional intelligence in order to regulate and modulate learning behavior. • It moves from the student’s understanding of emotion in self and others, to expressing emotion, to channeling emotion for cognitive means.

49. Jacob’s Skill Ladders Ladder E E3 E2 E1

50. Norman RockwellFreedom of Speech Using Emotion: Have you ever had to take a stand on a topic in front of other people? What emotions did you feel as you made your point? What emotions helped you make your point understood by others?