What I need to know
What I know
What others know
What’s knowable
What’s not knowable
What’s most interesting
What’s most important (see #1 and #2)
How can/should I break this down into learnable bits and piees?
Where should I start?
How will I know I’ve learned?
What should I do with what I learned?
Students needed to see what a ‘quality’ reading response looked like. Once these questions were demystified a bit, it was all downhill.
It could be argued—and probably argued well—that what a student fundamentally needs to know today isn’t much different than what Tom Sawyer or Joan of Arc or Alexander the Great needed to know. Communication. Resourcefulness. Creativity. Persistence. How true this turns out to be depends on how macro you want to get. If we want…
Structure 1. Form precise simple sentences 2. Form powerful complex sentences 3. Create sentences using available writing strategies 4. Vary sentence length for effect 5. Structure paragraphs effectively for clarity and effect (SRE, SEE, CEC) Organization 1. Use logical idea organization (Cause/Effect, Chronological) 2. Vary idea organization for effect 3. Use clear introduction, body, and…
32 Habits That Make Thinkers 1. Doesn’t always seek to please others 2. Is a charismatic listener 3. Can learn from anything 4. Asks “Why?” almost annoyingly 5. Is comfortable with uncertainty 6. Writes for their own understanding, not performance 7. Values questions over answers 8. Thinks laterally, endlessly connecting this to that, here to…
Question-based learning is a type of inquiry where the learner is guided by forming and refining a guiding question or questions.
Literary Terms and Devices Allegory A symbolic narrative in which the surface details imply a secondary meaning. Allegory often takes the form of a story in which the characters represent moral qualities. The most famous example in English is John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, in which the name of the central character, Pilgrim, epitomizes the book’s…