Two Techniques for Teaching the Brightest Early Teens

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Two Techniques for Teaching the Brightest Early
Teens

• By Chris Gunn
• www.bogglesworld.com
• University of Incheon

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Measuring Effective Communication

• Effective Active negotiation of meaning
• Ineffective Passive negotiation of meaning.

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Measuring Effective Communication

• Effective Precise, clear speech.
• Ineffective Imprecise, speech as a result of a
  tendency to economize.

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Strengths of High Scoring Middle School Students

• Good Vocabulary.
• Knowledge of Grammar
• Ability to read short texts fairly easily,
• Intrinsically motivated by problem solving

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Weaknesses of High Scoring Middle School Students

• Passive.
• Inexperienced
• Tendency to economize.

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Negotiation of Meaning

• The process of pinning down the meaning so that
  two speakers both agree that what was said was
  what was meant.
• And what was said was understood.

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What the Process of Negotiating Meaning Involves

• Interrupting
• Clarifying
• Signaling Confusion
• Signaling Comprehension
• Rephrasing
• Giving Examples
• Spelling things out
• Confirming
• Asking for details

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Designing Articles for Technique I

• Key expressions seeded into both articles.
• Detailed information that is not common
  knowledge.
• Numbers presented in various forms such as dates,
  percentages, fractions, and decimals.

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Riddle Sample I Lights and Switches

• You are in a room and there are three light
  switches that are on off. The light switches are
  connected to three light bulbs that are in a
  different room. You do not know which switch is
  connected to which light bulb. You cannot see
  into that room. But you are allowed to go into
  that room exactly once. How can you figure out
  which switch is connected to which light bulb?

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Canonical Solution Lights and Switches

• Turn the first switch on and wait for twenty
  minutes. Then, turn the first switch off and turn
  the second switch on. Quickly go into the room
  where the light bulbs are. The light that is on
  is the second switch. Touch the remaining two
  light bulbs. The light that is off and warm is
  the first switch and the light that is off and
  cool is the third switch.

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Riddle Sample II Crossing the River

• A family consisting of a mother, a father, and
  two children was walking in the woods one day.
  They came to a river and wanted to cross the
  river so they looked for a way to cross the
  river. At last, they found a small boat. But the
  boat was too small to carry the whole family. It
  could only carry one adult or two children. How
  can the whole family the far bank of the river?

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Partial Canonical Solution Crossing the River

• First, the two children get in the boat and go
  across the river. One child gets out and the
  other child goes back across the river. The child
  in the boat gets out and the mother gets in the
  boat and goes across the river. When the mother
  reaches the other side, she gets out of the boat.
  The child who is across the river gets back in
  the boat and goes back across the river. The
  child who is waiting on the near bank of the
  river gets in the boat and they both go across
  together.

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Precision

• Identifying all subjects, objects, and directions
  so that there is no room for confusion on the
  part of a listener.

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Sample of Precision

• Sample student answer
• Two children get in the boat and go across the
  river. One child gets out. One child goes across
  the river.
• More Precise
• One child gets out and the other child goes
  across the river.
• One child gets out. And the child who is still in
  the boat goes across the river.

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Precision is Created by Using Several Tools

• Relative clauses The light that is on . . .
• Prepositional phrases The boy by the boat
• Participial Phrases The boy wearing a blue
  jacket
• Determiners
• Indefinite articles A, An, Some
• Definite articles The
• Quantifiers Some, Few, Both, Many, All
• Numerals One, Two, The first, The second
• Demonstrative Pronouns This, That, These, Those
• Possessive Adjectives My, Your, His, her