In thinking about the importance of NEA’s Read Across America Day, I am reminded of The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Theador Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss). As teachers, we all wear many hats, and sometimes we don’t realize how many hats we are wearing and the sheer scope of what we are trying to teach to our students. No matter what “hat” we are wearing or what subject we are teaching at the time, reading is the fundamental skill for our students’ success in that subject. Reading is the most basic of the 21st century skills our students need today to excel in “The School of Life” after graduation. This March, let’s allow Dr. Seuss to inspire us all to bring the kind of fun and imagination into our classrooms that he brings into his stories. After all, “the brains in our head” are so important; we need to make sure to have fun filling them with important information in school!
Dr. Seuss was passionate about literacy. He created fanciful characters and imaginative stories to bring fun into reading for beginning and advanced readers alike. Reading Rockets, a national multimedia project for teaching kids to read, brings this passion for literacy and the love of reading to their programs and resources. Joann highlighted some of these resources this week in honor of Read Across America Day. They offer fun, cross-curricular activities that can be used to inspire readers in many different grades and subjects. The activities tie original and playful themes from Dr. Seuss’s books to important subjects our students are learning in class every day.
If you browse through the Reading Rockets site linked in Joann’s post, you will probably find a valuable Read Across America resource you can implement into your class to do your part to encourage the importance of literacy. In fact, you will most likely find lots activities you like. The hard part is choosing which one to use! There are numerous ideas for primary students. There are lessons to learn about phonics, rhyming, themes, and idea development in writing, to name a few. These activities are presented in fun, hands-on ways that can be very memorable for students. Reading Rockets also has a link to the AdLit site, which has a section with creative activities to engage secondary students. After all, nobody is too old for Dr. Seuss, right? Some of the secondary activities studied Dr. Seuss’s political and environmental views as portrayed in his stories, comparing his work to other authors, and using his themes for original student work.
What happens when we try to bring this focus on reading out of the English classroom? Can we successfully use books by Dr. Seuss in science, social studies, art or physical education? With the resources I looked at on the Reading Rockets site and by searching for “Seuss” on the main Gateway page, I say we can! We can all have fun using a little imagination and unconventional ideas in our classrooms. Here is just a beginning list of some of the activities I found in a search of The Gateway’s materials. There are too many resources to list here; I just wanted to give you a taste of what is out there. Search for yourself, and see!
In Social Studies, you can use The Sneetches to draw students into a lesson on diversity. You can create a mock trial in your classroom based on ideas from Yertle the Turtle. Community building and team work can be stressed in the story of Horton Hears a Who.
Science classes focusing on environmental issues and biodiversity can learn a lot by reading The Lorax. Science students of all levels seem to love making and playing with oobleck, a substance inspired by the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck. (Search oobleck on The Gateway for some recipes-don’t worry it’s easy to make, and I have had fun making it with kids from preschool to high school!)
For schools that are creating school-wide celebrations for Read Across America, or for P.E. teachers who want to tie into the theme in their own classes, there is a plan for an entire field day event based on Dr. Seuss books. On this topic, if any of you are P.E. teachers or know P.E. teachers, let them know about The Gateway, too. I have come across lots of great physical activities that could bring a little extra variety into these lessons, too.
The activities for secondary students went a lot more in-depth into the themes Dr. Seuss created. One involves writing an op-ed piece trying to convince someone to try a new, strange food ala Green Eggs and Ham. Another focuses on psychoanalytic criticism introduced in the book The Cat and the Hat (and we thought it was a book just for kids!) The Butter Battle Book can serve as a whimsical foray into the use of satire in writing.
If your students are like many others, the way to their heart is food! There are plenty of ideas for bringing food into the celebration. It can be as basic as serving goldfish while you read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish to your class. Students can decorate cupcakes to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Maybe you can even whip up a batch of green eggs and ham (yum!). It can also be really fun to have students look through the books and find a food they would like to recreate. They can do this for homework and bring it in to share with the class.
Read Across America is a day is to celebrate reading, but the focus on reading and the imagination it can create will easily spread into all subject areas. As I searched The Gateway for the vast resources available on the subject, I realized that Dr. Seuss can still teach us just about anything! Let’s all try to incorporate this theme somewhere in our classrooms this week to spark some imaginations and put the FUN back in reading.
~Peggy's Corner~
Explore http://thegateway.org/ for more resources.
Showing posts with label Information literacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Information literacy. Show all posts
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Critical Thinking in The 21st Century Classroom
Teachers have the responsibility of giving students the skills they will need to thrive in the world after graduation. Historically, these skills revolved around reading, writing, and arithmetic. Organizations like The Partnership for 21st Century skills are urging educators to meld those important core competencies with the essential 4 C’s (critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation).
As Dr. Peter Facione more eloquently put it, “Education is nothing more, nor less, than learning to think!” In the 21st century, we are inundated with information coming at us from a multitude of sources. There are emails telling us of new scams to avoid. Our GPS tells us where the traffic is and the best alternate route. Great new apps on our phones let us keep up with friends we hardly remember on facebook, while we learn of all the latest current events in the world wherever we have cell phone coverage! If we are feeling bored, we can play a few games on our handheld video game systems. Our exercises are tracked by little chips in our shoes that report to our ipods and to an online site. There is hardly a time in the day when we are not finding and sending information through one type of technology or another. With all this information around us, it is important for our students to learn to use it wisely. Critical thinking will prove to be a key 21st century skill for successful members of our society.
The internet is a major source of information for students and teachers. We can learn about almost any subject we can think of just by typing it into the search bar of our computer. We need our students to be able to look at this information critically and separate fact from fiction. What good is a huge bank of knowledge when a student has not been trained how to deal with that knowledge effectively?
We can teach our students to use the internet effectively and to use critical thinking skills at a very young age. If students grow up understanding how to decipher fact from fiction on the internet, it will be second nature for them to use this lifelong tool. Joann’s Picks this week are great activities designed for students to practice using internet research. The topics of the activities can be tweaked to fit into many different subject areas. There are also some neat enrichment activities for younger students here that teach students how to use critical thinking in their every day lives. http://www.thegateway.org/browse/8273 If students can think for themselves, the knowledge they gain in school will be much more useful in their lives.
After teaching internet skills in your classroom, your students will be able to do self-directed internet research projects. These activities can allow students the freedom to choose their own topics, within your boundaries. That seems to be really fun for them, since they don’t always have control over what they are learning. The students are discovering new things for themselves, a great way to make the learning stick! If they do a creative presentation at the end of the project, they will learn even more by teaching the rest of the class. If you really let them be creative in their presentations, they can be a lot of fun to watch, too. I have even had each student make up a few questions covering their material to include in a quiz at the end of the presentations.
We are currently in the process of adding more wonderful resources to the Gateway, so keep checking back. Do you teach internet research or critical thinking skills in your classroom? We would love to hear your success stories. Our goal to create thinkers for tomorrow starts with great ideas to teach these important concepts today.
As Dr. Peter Facione more eloquently put it, “Education is nothing more, nor less, than learning to think!” In the 21st century, we are inundated with information coming at us from a multitude of sources. There are emails telling us of new scams to avoid. Our GPS tells us where the traffic is and the best alternate route. Great new apps on our phones let us keep up with friends we hardly remember on facebook, while we learn of all the latest current events in the world wherever we have cell phone coverage! If we are feeling bored, we can play a few games on our handheld video game systems. Our exercises are tracked by little chips in our shoes that report to our ipods and to an online site. There is hardly a time in the day when we are not finding and sending information through one type of technology or another. With all this information around us, it is important for our students to learn to use it wisely. Critical thinking will prove to be a key 21st century skill for successful members of our society.
The internet is a major source of information for students and teachers. We can learn about almost any subject we can think of just by typing it into the search bar of our computer. We need our students to be able to look at this information critically and separate fact from fiction. What good is a huge bank of knowledge when a student has not been trained how to deal with that knowledge effectively?
We can teach our students to use the internet effectively and to use critical thinking skills at a very young age. If students grow up understanding how to decipher fact from fiction on the internet, it will be second nature for them to use this lifelong tool. Joann’s Picks this week are great activities designed for students to practice using internet research. The topics of the activities can be tweaked to fit into many different subject areas. There are also some neat enrichment activities for younger students here that teach students how to use critical thinking in their every day lives. http://www.thegateway.org/browse/8273 If students can think for themselves, the knowledge they gain in school will be much more useful in their lives.
After teaching internet skills in your classroom, your students will be able to do self-directed internet research projects. These activities can allow students the freedom to choose their own topics, within your boundaries. That seems to be really fun for them, since they don’t always have control over what they are learning. The students are discovering new things for themselves, a great way to make the learning stick! If they do a creative presentation at the end of the project, they will learn even more by teaching the rest of the class. If you really let them be creative in their presentations, they can be a lot of fun to watch, too. I have even had each student make up a few questions covering their material to include in a quiz at the end of the presentations.
We are currently in the process of adding more wonderful resources to the Gateway, so keep checking back. Do you teach internet research or critical thinking skills in your classroom? We would love to hear your success stories. Our goal to create thinkers for tomorrow starts with great ideas to teach these important concepts today.
Internet Research Skills
“Basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I am doing”
– Wernher von Braun
Recently, we received a request to cover research skills in the classroom. While many lessons offer a research component, there appear to be very few K-12 schools requiring research skills as a core competency. In the 21st century, shouldn’t we require students to be fluent in research methods upon graduation, instead of waiting until college where many students have to scramble to learn these skills (or not) on the fly? Feel free to discuss on our Facebook and Twitter pages. In the meantime, here are some resources for the classroom.
Internet Research Assistant
http://www.thegateway.org/recordBase/dcrecord.2010-01-17.1764931603/
Subjects: Information Literacy, Research skills
Grade: 9-12
Interested in putting your students to work? In this extended activity, students become Internet Research Assistants to school staff or to other members of the community. Tackling any topic, students must use various search engines, evaluate Web sites and the information they find, and cite their sources. This lesson, written by Janice Kesel of the Waverly Community School District (MI) is aligned to Michigan state standards.
I like that this lesson has real-world applications. Students provide a service to someone in their local community by researching a subject or problem and packaging the data for presentation to their “client,” which is exactly what professional researchers do. This activity could also make for a good community service project.
Wading Through The Web: Teaching Internet Research Strategies
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-01-15.1928293148
Subjects: Language Arts, Research skills
Grade: 6-8
Just because it’s on the Internet, it must be reliable information, right? In this lesson, students learn to evaluate and cite Internet sites in their quests to become more effective and efficient researchers. What I like about this lesson is that students get hands-on experience conducting Internet research, as well as learning the differences between various types of both traditional and non-traditional research materials. Offered by ReadWriteThink, a project of the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English, this peer-reviewed lesson is aligned to NCTE/IRA Content Standards.
Internet Investigations: Unsolved Mysteries
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-01-15.3232904610
Subjects: Information literacy, Research skills, Language Arts
Grade: 4-5
So, the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot were sailing in the Bermuda Triangle when…..What? You’ve heard this one already? Oh. Well, nevermind. Anyway, in this lesson, students become Internet gumshoes as they uncover what’s fact and what’s fiction in a variety of unsolved mysteries. Students use a variety of print and online resources to research topics and evaluate their sources of information. One of the things that I like about this lesson is that students are required to sift through conflicting information accounts, and use their reasoning skills to form their own opinions as to the veracity of each mystery. This lesson was created by Ruth Sunda at Kyrene de las Brisas Elementary School in Chandler, Arizona.
– Wernher von Braun
Recently, we received a request to cover research skills in the classroom. While many lessons offer a research component, there appear to be very few K-12 schools requiring research skills as a core competency. In the 21st century, shouldn’t we require students to be fluent in research methods upon graduation, instead of waiting until college where many students have to scramble to learn these skills (or not) on the fly? Feel free to discuss on our Facebook and Twitter pages. In the meantime, here are some resources for the classroom.
Internet Research Assistant
http://www.thegateway.org/recordBase/dcrecord.2010-01-17.1764931603/
Subjects: Information Literacy, Research skills
Grade: 9-12
Interested in putting your students to work? In this extended activity, students become Internet Research Assistants to school staff or to other members of the community. Tackling any topic, students must use various search engines, evaluate Web sites and the information they find, and cite their sources. This lesson, written by Janice Kesel of the Waverly Community School District (MI) is aligned to Michigan state standards.
I like that this lesson has real-world applications. Students provide a service to someone in their local community by researching a subject or problem and packaging the data for presentation to their “client,” which is exactly what professional researchers do. This activity could also make for a good community service project.
Wading Through The Web: Teaching Internet Research Strategies
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-01-15.1928293148
Subjects: Language Arts, Research skills
Grade: 6-8
Just because it’s on the Internet, it must be reliable information, right? In this lesson, students learn to evaluate and cite Internet sites in their quests to become more effective and efficient researchers. What I like about this lesson is that students get hands-on experience conducting Internet research, as well as learning the differences between various types of both traditional and non-traditional research materials. Offered by ReadWriteThink, a project of the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English, this peer-reviewed lesson is aligned to NCTE/IRA Content Standards.
Internet Investigations: Unsolved Mysteries
http://www.thegateway.org/browse/dcrecord.2010-01-15.3232904610
Subjects: Information literacy, Research skills, Language Arts
Grade: 4-5
So, the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot were sailing in the Bermuda Triangle when…..What? You’ve heard this one already? Oh. Well, nevermind. Anyway, in this lesson, students become Internet gumshoes as they uncover what’s fact and what’s fiction in a variety of unsolved mysteries. Students use a variety of print and online resources to research topics and evaluate their sources of information. One of the things that I like about this lesson is that students are required to sift through conflicting information accounts, and use their reasoning skills to form their own opinions as to the veracity of each mystery. This lesson was created by Ruth Sunda at Kyrene de las Brisas Elementary School in Chandler, Arizona.
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