The power of higherorder thinking skills

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The power of higher-order thinking skills

• How to facilitate students to do some thinking on
  their own

Arlen Kimmelman NJASL Nov. 2007
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Students Objectives

• To do some thinking of your own to prompt the
  content of the final research product
• To become more advanced in the research process,
  by choosing or designing your own rules of
  quality

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Box 1 (Knowledge)
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Box 2 (Comprehension)
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Box 3 (Application)
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Box 4 (Analysis)
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Box 5 (Synthesis)
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Box 6 (Evaluation)
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Step 1

• Choose a topic
• Keyword Suggestion Tool

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Step 2 Into a Word document, please

• Choose one different word from each set for a
  total of six words.
• Write down six questions about your subject, each
  using one of those six words in its own question.
• Ask only questions to which you do not already
  know the answers!

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Procedures for the Informal Mini-Research Model
Part 1

• As you find information to answer your 6
  questions, copy and paste the URL address bar
  citation from the original document into a Word
  document.
• Paragraphs (not pages!) of essential information
  from 6-8 documents are copied and pasted from the
  original documents and combined with the citation
  for each.

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Procedures for the Informal Mini-Research Model
Part 2

• 3. This Summary Document should equal about 3
  pages of information not including the space for
  the citations.
• 4. Get your teacher to evaluate this Summary
  Document before writing the report to determine
  the appropriateness and correctness of the
  information you have gathered and to help you
  organize the written report.

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Procedures for the Informal Mini-Research Model
Part 3

• 5. The signed the Summary Document gets turned in
  with the final report.
• 6. Each final report includes
• an original Executive Summary concluding
  paragraph that states your logical, sensible,
  realistic, and reasonable opinion of the overall
  topic,
• the 6 essential questions,
• the citation(s) and the supporting evidence from
  the Summary Document.

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• SAMPLE 1 TOPIC GLOBAL WARMING
• KEY WORD SEARCH causes global warming
• Mini-Research Examples
• Expand What is global warming? (expand on what I
  know look up and paraphrase)
• Compare/Contrast Compare the current weather
  patterns with past patterns to decide whether or
  not there really is global warming.
• Critique What actions by society and/or nature
  have contributed to global warming? (critique
  opinion)
• Predict Predict what will happen in the future
  if nothing is done to reverse global warming.
• Persuade Persuade the U. S. Government to pass
  laws that would help to reverse global warming.
• Evaluate Evaluate the effectiveness of the past
  actions taken by government and/or business to
  reduce global warming.

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• SAMPLE 2 TOPIC SKATEBOARDING SAFETY
• KEY WORD SEARCH
• (skateboard OR skateboarding) safety
• Mini-Research Examples
• Identify What are the top 3 safest skateboards
  and who identified those 3 as the safest? (look
  up and paraphrase)
• Classify What are the main types of skateboard
  injuries? (types classifications)
• Choose Choose the 2 most serious skateboarding
  injuries and say how to prevent them.
• Distinguish How do I distinguish between
  injuries common to amateurs and injuries common
  to professionals?
• Collect What information forms a strong
  collection of dos and donts for skateboarding
  safety?
• Defend What would I say to defend skateboarding
  to parents who think skateboarding is too
  dangerous for their teenager?

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Your Turn!

• Form small, convenient groups
• Choose a topic
• Choose one different word from each set for a
  total of six words.
• Write down six questions about your subject, each
  using one of those six words in its own question.
• Ask only questions to which you do not already
  know the answers!
• Switch your groups questions with another
  groups questions and evaluate each others
  questions.

Ask Are the Qs answerable? Worth answering?
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Thank you!

• Arlen Kimmelman
• akimmelman_at_clayton.k12.nj.us