Higher Order Thinking Skills
Artifact: Ottoman Empire Webquest
Reflection:
During the summer of 2015, I was preparing to teach a new grade level and content area. I met with my content area team over the summer several times to discuss plans for the following year, and the Ottoman Empire Webquest was a result of those ideas. This webquest was created for ITEC 7445 during the summer of 2015, and would serve as our 7th grade social studies team's introduction to Middle Eastern History. I proposed several learning styles to teachers, and with their commentary designed the webquest.
This webquest supports higher order thinking skills, processes, and mental habits of mind because of the way it forces students to think critically about the information they are consuming. Students received the content in multiple modalities and the information was scaffolded throughout each step. Students were not simply recalling information, but using higher order thinking skills to analyze maps and modern day implications of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Throughout the process, mental habits of the mind were used by including graphic organizers for students to utilize and having daily checklists for work completion. Throughout the project, the teacher facilitated conversations as openers and closers to force students to draw connections from the content they were learning. Additionally, class discussion etiquette was modeled for many students who were completing their first formal class discussion. After all these learning processes were combined, the students were able to understand the modern day implications of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (instability in the Middle East) and see how it is impacting current events.
This artifact was difficult to implement because initially the students resisted using their critical thinking skills. However, by the end of the project they were very proud of the conclusions they had drawn and the work they had accomplished. To ease student stress in the future, I would devise more strategies that remediate and extend the work in the webquest to ensure each student is challenged, but not defeated. One thing I enjoyed about the webquest was the ease of use. Although the content was difficult, students had clear expectations on what to do.
This project impacted the students. Students were pushed out of their comfort zone in order to draw connections between multiple sources. Despite the challenging work, students were able to remember these concepts throughout the school year and able to refer to this throughout our unit on Middle Eastern history.
Reflection:
During the summer of 2015, I was preparing to teach a new grade level and content area. I met with my content area team over the summer several times to discuss plans for the following year, and the Ottoman Empire Webquest was a result of those ideas. This webquest was created for ITEC 7445 during the summer of 2015, and would serve as our 7th grade social studies team's introduction to Middle Eastern History. I proposed several learning styles to teachers, and with their commentary designed the webquest.
This webquest supports higher order thinking skills, processes, and mental habits of mind because of the way it forces students to think critically about the information they are consuming. Students received the content in multiple modalities and the information was scaffolded throughout each step. Students were not simply recalling information, but using higher order thinking skills to analyze maps and modern day implications of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Throughout the process, mental habits of the mind were used by including graphic organizers for students to utilize and having daily checklists for work completion. Throughout the project, the teacher facilitated conversations as openers and closers to force students to draw connections from the content they were learning. Additionally, class discussion etiquette was modeled for many students who were completing their first formal class discussion. After all these learning processes were combined, the students were able to understand the modern day implications of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (instability in the Middle East) and see how it is impacting current events.
This artifact was difficult to implement because initially the students resisted using their critical thinking skills. However, by the end of the project they were very proud of the conclusions they had drawn and the work they had accomplished. To ease student stress in the future, I would devise more strategies that remediate and extend the work in the webquest to ensure each student is challenged, but not defeated. One thing I enjoyed about the webquest was the ease of use. Although the content was difficult, students had clear expectations on what to do.
This project impacted the students. Students were pushed out of their comfort zone in order to draw connections between multiple sources. Despite the challenging work, students were able to remember these concepts throughout the school year and able to refer to this throughout our unit on Middle Eastern history.