Bookmark

Sign up or login to use the bookmarking feature.

42 Thinking and Writing

Page
359
from
Write Ahead

Thinking and Writing Chapter Opener

Start-Up Activity

Bring an interesting prop to class (perhaps an ugly home decoration, a slightly unsettling toy, an unusual piece of furniture, or some other weird object that will engage students). Hold up the prop and give a command:

  • Describe this.

Have one or two volunteers describe it. Then give another command.

  • Name the parts of this.

Have one or two volunteers do so. Continue giving commands and taking responses.

  • Put this thing into a category.

  • Tell what it is worth and why.

  • Compare this to something else in the room.

  • Guess where this came from and why it is here.

  • Tell me something that you could use this for.

  • Tell me how you could use this to make something new.

Afterward, point out all of the different ways that students have been thinking about the prop: classifying, comparing and contrasting, tracing causes and effects, evaluating, applying, and creating. Point out how much better the students understand the thing now than when you first presented it.

In the same way, students can use many different thinking strategies to explore anything they are learning about. They will discover these strategies on the next pages.

Think About It

“He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.”

—Confucius

State Standards Covered in This Chapter

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.7

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.8

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.9

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3

LAFS Covered in This Chapter

LAFS.910.W.3.7

LAFS.910.W.3.8

LAFS.910.W.3.9

LAFS.910.W.1.3

TEKS Covered in This Chapter

110.36.c.11

110.37.c.11

110.36.c.11.E

110.36.c.11.F

110.36.c.11.G

110.37.c.11.E

110.37.c.11.F

110.37.c.11.G

110.36.c.5.C

110.37.c.5.C

110.36.c.9

110.36.c.10.A

110.37.c.9

110.37.c.10.A

TEKS Covered in This Chapter

Page 360 from Write Ahead

Guidelines for Thinking and Writing

This revised version of Bloom's Taxonomy of Thinking include six types of thought, listed from basic to complex.

  • Remembering is the foundation of all thought. Until a student can remember who, what, where, or when, he or she can do no other thinking about a subject. However, remembering is also the most basic and shallowest form of thinking.
  • Understanding shows that the student knows the why of specific information, explaining what something means. Understanding builds on remembering and leads to applying.
  • Applying means using information, showing that the student knows the how of it. Applying makes information active.
  • Analyzing means breaking down information into its parts, studying the parts closely, and learning how they relate to each other and the whole.
  • Evaluating means judging the worth of something, using a set of criteria to determine value.
  • Creating means using information in new, original, and varied ways—synthesizing something new out of something old.

To truly engage a subject, students should work through each of the levels of thought. Because the first three levels are the easiest to test, much of the learning students do in school requires just these basic levels of thought. Whenever students are required to think more deeply about a topic, they will gain greater mastery of it.

The next pages take a closer look at each level of thought.

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.W.3.7
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.11, 110.37.c.11
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.2.c

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
21st Century Skills:
Critical Thinking

Page 361 from Write Ahead

Remembering Information

Use this page to teach students about the most basic level of thought—remembering. Ask students to indicate activities that require memorization, such as memorizing lines for a school play, memorizing the playbook for the football team, memorizing dates and battles for history class. In each of these situations, memory establishes the foundation for performance. You can't act if you don't know your lines, you can't work as a team if you don't remember the plays, and you can't discuss history if you don't remember what happened.

Use the bullets in the center of the page to give students specific strategies for remembering. Then lead them through the example quiz below, which tests memory.

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.W.3.7
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.11, 110.37.c.11
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.2.c

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
21st Century Skills:
Critical Thinking

Page 362 from Write Ahead

Understanding Information

Use the top part of this page to explain what actions demonstrate understanding. Use the middle third to give students specific strategies for moving past mere remembering to reach understanding. Use the bottom of the page to show how the second and third strategies work: rewriting information in one's own words and explaining the information to someone else.

Present students with a current topic of study and have them use one of the strategies from the orange square bullets to demonstrate their understanding of the topic.

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.W.3.7
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.11, 110.37.c.11
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.2.c

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
21st Century Skills:
Critical Thinking

Page 363 from Write Ahead

Applying Information

Use the first three bullets on this page to explain what applying means. Then use the next four bullets to give students specific strategies for applying. Finally, present the example at the bottom of the page.

Afterward, name a topic that you have been studying and have students use one of the four strategies (with the square blue bullets) to apply the information.

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.W.3.7
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.11, 110.37.c.11
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.2.c

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
21st Century Skills:
Critical Thinking

Page 364 from Write Ahead

Analyzing Information

Analysis consists of breaking a topic into parts, examining each, comparing and contrasting them, sorting them into categories, and tracing the connections between parts. Note that these analytical processes provide the basis for many forms of explanatory writing: classification, definition, comparison-contrast, and cause-effect.

Have a volunteer read the comparison-contrast paragraph at the bottom of the page. Then pick a pair of related topics that you have been studying and lead a discussion in which students compare and contrast the two topics.

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.W.3.7
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.11, 110.37.c.11
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.2.c

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
21st Century Skills:
Critical Thinking

Page 365 from Write Ahead

Evaluating Information

Use the top of the page to explain evaluating to your students, and use the three bullets in the middle of the page as a strategy for this type of thinking. Then have a volunteer read aloud the evaluation paragraph at the bottom of the page.

Afterward, name a specific short story, novel, or film that the class has experienced and have each student write a paragraph evaluation of it. Remind students that they need to base their evaluations on criteria, for example characters, plot, description, and action, or historical significance, or place within the literature of the time, and so on.

Ask students to share their paragraph evaluations with a partner. Then have partners discuss their separate evaluations. Did they agree? Why or why not?

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.W.3.7
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.11, 110.37.c.11
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.2.c

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
21st Century Skills:
Critical Thinking

Page 366 from Write Ahead

Creating Information

The highest level of thought, creating, draws upon all of the other levels. To successfully create something new, one must remember, understand, apply, analyze, and evaluate, over and over. Yes, on the one hand, creative forms such as stories and poems often are a starting point for beginning writers in kindergarten, but they are also the highest achievements of human culture made by the greatest geniuses. They are simultaneously the easiest forms to start (because we all learn through unstructured play) and the hardest forms to master (because they require high-level decision making throughout.)

Lead your students through this page. Then challenge them to write a poem or a piece of flash fiction (a short short story) based on a topic that you have recently studied. Have students present their works to the class.

State Standard Reference:
LAFS Standard:
LAFS.910.W.3.7
TEKS Standard:
110.36.c.11, 110.37.c.11
NE ELA Standard:
LA 10.2.2.c

Related Resource Tags

Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site

Level:
Grade 9Grade 10
Mode:
Creative Writing
Form:
StoryPoem
21st Century Skills:
Critical Thinking
English Language Arts:
Writing