Grade+1+-+Nov.+10th+notes

Hello everyone, Tammy and I were wondering if we were on the right track. Could you have a look at what we have so far and tell us what you think?

This is a great start! I've embedded my comments in **purple** below. Hope they are helpful. - Usha

I'm sure there is a way to attach files but I don't know how to do that yet so I've tried to copy our information below...

As Kristen suggests below, you can insert files by following these steps: - once you've clicked on "Edit", click on the square in the "Editor" tool bar that looks like a framed picture. When you "hover" over it, you'll see it says "Insert Images and Files". Then, you'll have to Upload your file. And then you'll have to Insert it. However, I think it might be more powerful to simply cut and paste onto this page so that no one has to download a file. Rather we can see how the challenge evolves right here. And you can always click on "History" to see earlier versions of the challenge.

​ Thank you for your comments and suggestions. This was a great learning experience for us.

Designing Critical Challenges __Identify Key Learning__ ** The students will be able to identify the basic needs of animals.

I find it useful to frame the key learning as a statement that students might be thinking as they walk out of my classroom door (rather than using verbs about what they'll do in class). For example, do you want students to walk away understanding that "All animals have many needs, just like humans" or that "Different animals have different needs depending on their circumstances" or "To be a good pet owner, I need to really understand what my particular pet needs". I find if I frame it this way instead, it keeps me focused on what the kids are understanding rather than only focusing on the activities I want them to do in class. Does that make sense? Yes, that does make sense. I think about it as framing a big idea, where it's that enduring understanding that you want kids to walk away with and remember at the end of the day (Kristin)  || __Frame Critical Challenge__ ** Learning to use criteria to judge the better or the best (which needs are more important than others?). What you've written in brackets is the critical challenge - i.e. "Which needs are most important?" You could make it more specific by saying "Which 3 needs are most important?" or something like that if that helps to narrow it down.

In our plans, we actually did have the students rank the three most important needs - we just didn't write it that way here! || __Set Context for the Critical Challenge to Engage Students__ ** The Humane Society knows that we have been studying the needs of living things. They need our help to match up some of their pets with the best families. Great! || __Criteria for Assessment__ ** What are we assessing?

Students will be able to justify their ranking of the basic needs. Students will be able to make a reasonable judgement (matching pets with families) and then defending their decisions.

This is a good start - consider the achievement chart. Which bullet points from the achievement chart are most appropriate for this challenge?

Which achievement chart are you referring to?

How will we assess? You also may want to consider how you are going to track student growth as part of this collaborative inquiry project. Perhaps consider choosing 2 or 3 students in your class who you are going to closely track as part of this project, it doesn't mean that you won't assess all the students but for the purposes of this collaborative inquiry, it might be beneficial to pay particular, close attention to a couple students. That way when the collaborative inquiry is finished in the spring we can use the data collected from those targetted students to show measured growth over time for the student learning piece. The "teacher learning" piece will come from your own reflections through the course of this project through the use of the WIKI. (Kristin) Perhaps we should have considered a pre-assessment task. Do you have any suggestions of what would be appropriate for our next task. How do we pre-assess critical thinking?? OR are we even assessing critical thinking? Is critical thinking the vehicle for learning the curriculum?

Yes, this is a good question. I think this is probably the next thing to discuss. What exactly are we measuring and how will we measure it? If I think back to the web we created on the white board on the day we met re: what do we hope to achieve, there were many different goals listed there. I guess it will be important to choose a couple to focus on and then figure out how to measure them. That's not really an answer to your question but I think it merits further discussion. We had discussed looking at independent thinking or more postitive risk-taking and empowerment as some of the outcomes we wanted students to achieve through this project. For the teacher component, we discussed nuturing a community of thinkers among staff as an outcome. The question does come back to how do we measure that? Hmmm... I think a lot of it is going to come from anecdotal notes and paying close attention to what the students are saying as they're engaged in critical challenges. I see this as a good opportunity to go into each others class while the children are engaged in a critical challenge and then one of you can record on a clipboard what they're saying, and then you can de-brief together as teacher colleagues what they kids said and how you can support them in their learning further. Alternately, if one of you records their responses as we discussed in December using technology like audacity, you could also bring that to the table to analyze and talk about next steps. || __Intellectual Tools__ **
 * Background Knowledge ** I find it useful to also add the specific expectations from the curriculum that this challenge will help me address.

Basic needs of animals. (love, shelter, water, food, exercise, air) What makes a good pet owner. - what content will you teach here?

We were drawing from the children's responses to this question based on their investigation with our pets and their schema. ​  Express their thoughts/opinions in a clear and logical manner. ||

Criteria for Judgement **

Most important needs of pets (love, shelter, water, food, exercise, air). keep them safe keep them alive keep them healthy keep them happy

These are good - you might be able to collapse "safe" and "alive" || Habits of Mind ** Critically minded Open-minded || Thinking Strategies ** U-shaped discussion line || Critical Thinking Vocabulary ** Criteria Judgement Inference || Here is an outline of our lessons Critical Thinking Challenge - Living Things 1. Brainstorm needs of living things/animals (web). Discuss what each of those needs are and the importance of them. 2. Students write name on a yellow post-it with their choice for most important need. Then go to "corner" with the matching poster. 3. While there, discuss with others of that group why you chose that need as the most important. 4. Then go to talk with someone else from a different group - teacher does the pairing. Repeat with a partner from a different group. If their opinion has changed, students may choose to change groups at this point. 5. In small groups decide what they will say to defend their choice to larger group. Come together in a learning circle and each group justifies their choice of most important need with the group. 6. On a different colour post-it, rank order the three most important basic needs of pets and have a few students justify their decision. I love the way this is scaffolded - lots of opportunities for students to talk about their ideas before committing to an idea. I think it will help to ultimately use this to unpack the criteria, though. You've asked a "type 2 question" - which need do you think is most important. Consider how you might use their answers when they justify their choices to draw out the criteria for judgement you've listed above. I find that their thinking is always more sophisticated if we all agree on that criteria and then have it front and centre as the rest of the challenge unfolds. Could you further explain why our task is a type 2 question (rank order the three most important basic needs of pets and justify why you made that choice). We are unclear how to make it a type 3 question/task.

Sorry - I think I was unclear... In your step #1 in the above section, when you brainstorm the needs and then do the "4-corners" activity re: which need they feel is more important - that is a type 2 question because it's based on a "gut feeling" so far - no criteria yet. But that's a perfect start for drawing out criteria so that they get to a good decision by the time they get to your step #6 (rank order and justify - which IS a type 3 question). So I think you've got a great progression here - what I was suggesting was that the 4-corners activity is a good way to activate their initial opinion and use their initial explanations to draw out the criteria for "most important need". Then, when the students justify their rank ordering by the end, they can use the criteria the class developed. This is like when I asked you which was image of the underground railroad you liked the most. That was a type 2 question but through the discussion that ensued, I was able to draw out the criteria for a powerful image (evocative, informative, provocative) - I'm wondering if you think that same structure or progression might work here. Does that make any more sense than it did the first time?

7. Is Mrs. Hildebrandt a good owner for Lizzie (the guinea pig)? Combine classes for discussion of Lizzie’s needs and Mrs. Hildebrandt’s skills as an owner. Think, pair, share then whole group discussion. 8. Mrs. Sacco visit with Toby (the dog). Discuss Toby’s needs and Mrs. Sacco’s skills as an owner. 9. Is Mrs. Sacco a good pet owner for Toby. U shaped discussion. Students will justify their spot on the line and listen to others. They can change their mind and explain why. Again - great scaffolding as you gradually release responsibility by first modelling, then have them do guided practice through various iterations of the discussion. It might be helpful to insert another "thinking strategy". What if for each scenario (owner + pet), you had check marks or "x's" cut out and you could place them next to the 3 or 4 criteria you had posted on the wall as kids discussed their answers. Then they might be able to "see" how the criteria was being met or not in each situation. What do you think? In hindsight, we see that both of our pet owners were good owners. Perhaps next time, we should use a book or story that illustrates an owner with some downfalls. Is it necessary to always have a visual of the criteria?

10. Humane Society match up. 3 pictures of pets (dog, cat, fish) and 5 pictures of different families (athletic family with a dog, sneezing child, older couple, young couple no kids, family with older parents and only child). Students match the pet with the family they feel would make the best owner and justify their reason for making those matches. We also created the materials for the lessons above but I am having trouble attaching them (probably because of the pictures used). Did you try going to Manage Wiki and then click on files (to upload?). I'm just learning how to use the WIKI too, so I'm no expert but we'll learn together! (Kristin)

The "Designing Critical Challenges" outline is not complete but we went any further we wanted to make sure we were on the right track. Any comments, concerns, etc. would be appreciated. Thanks!