After watching the video in class on Thursday, I kept thinking about the debates and how it allowed the students to think on a higher level. I was greatly impressed with how much their vocabulary expanded and how their reading and comprehension increased. I would love to use something like that in an elementary classroom, but I don't know what. Does anyone have any ideas as to what kind of higher thinking strategies I can use in an elementary classroom?

I'm vaguely remembering concepts that covered this sort of thing in Ed Psych. But, I think it's important, no matter the subject, to be creative. I'm going to be teaching Spanish, and I often think about what I would do in an elementary, middle or high school classroom to keep the material engaging, interesting, and the most effective way to help my students to learn. I think that with younger children, it's important to teach in a variety of ways so that they'll understand the material. For example, if the topic was to learn different types of fruit in Spanish, I might bring in real fruit, spell out the names of the fruits, have the children call out the names (or repeat them after I said them). Once I knew they had a grasp of the names, I might ask them to tell me which ones they like better (comparison) and why (analysis). Then I might have them say an English sentence using one of the fruits, but the name of the fruit would be in Spanish. (I'm thinking kindergarten or first grade here.) This type of thing could be tailored to older children, as well. Perhaps the important thing to remember is to ask questions that don't go over their head but still make them think critically, analyze, summarize and recall basic facts. I'm sort of going by Bloom's taxonomy. I do understand that you have to adapt or change your plans/questions/etc. according to their level of understanding, what they know from previous experience, whether it's too easy, etc. But then again, I think teaching is also a learning experience and you learn to ask the right questions and how to assign the kinds of assignments that will maximize learning while still balancing interest.

Cynthia,

I agree, creativeness in learning is vital to the progress of your students. I believe that the more inventive teachers become with material the better the results.

As far as elementary classrooms I don’t have any great suggestions, but I imagine with the older students you could do some type of debate on a topic that is of great interest to them. That is one of the reasons the students on the video learned so much from there debates the topics where current events that the students could relate to.

Tracy

I agree with Cynthia, that creativity is important to a classroom. It allows the students to come up with things on their own. It turn, this will help them remember things more than just giving them notes and worksheets over and over.
How to use this in an elementary classroom is a good question. I am not sure, but I saw a teacher take it and put it into an activity. They turned the classroom into Ellis Island. The students really enjoyed this and got a better understanding of Ellis Island. I feel like that if you take something like this to teach the students, they are going to remember it for years to come. You just have to use something that is fun, yet a learning exercise.

This doesn't have to be extremely complicated. Even with third graders (students old enough to spell and write) you could divide a class into two groups and have each group make a list of advantages and disadvantages of whatever subject you are talking about--should we have a separate black history month? Should children be required to drink milk? Should everyone have to learn the multiplication tables when they could use calculators? Then each group could take turns reading the items on their list while the teacher moderates a discussion. It's not a real debate but it introduces the concept.

I like what Dana had to say about this. There absolutely are activities that can be done with elementary age. Of course it will be better with 4th and 5th, but you just have to think about there level of thinking. I tutor 3rd and 4th graders and I would say that my 4th graders could handle some type a guided debate.
Another type of activities I wa thinking of was having a trial and letting the students act out all the roles. Of course they will need help, but I really think that is the issue was something they can connect to then it would be possible.
Just get creative and so will the students.

I remember back to my elementary school years and one activity that really stuck out in my mind was and afterschool program I was involved in. From grades 3-5 I was a member of one of the five "Odessey of the Mind" teams that we had at my elementary school. For those of you who don't know what "Odessey of the mind" is, it is a program where students spend one afternoon a week working together to create a play for competition in April or May. We created our own backgrounds, costumes, and dialogues. Competition had two parts. One part was the play that we created and the other was a set of trivia questions. I became very involved in this program and it was so much fun!! Most elementary schools do not offer this program but I believe that it worked well for me and would be beneficial in many schools. This is an excellent program that requires some higher learning skills for students.

I agree also with Dana; that guided debates can really get the brain cells pumping. Any sort of creative endeavor that is interesting will provide the scaffolding for effective learning. It varies from student to student, but opportunities like class plays are excellent for this. My third grade class did a play; it blew my little mind away! In fourth grade we did a lot of writing, and I recall creating stories and illustrating them. They were laminated into "real" books; and every student read their book in front of the class and our parents on one special occasion. Fifth grade brought me opportunities to create skits about photosynthesis and the solar system. To this day these subjects are unforgettable, because of how much I learned in the group-project context. Everyone who has posted here is right on: creativity is the key.

I think one way to increase their vocabulary would be to introduce one new word a day to them. This would be similar to the SAT question of the day but of course you would use words closer to their grade level. You could begin by writing the word on the board and ask them to guess what it means or present it with a list of different definitions. Once they determine the meaning, you could have them create a sentence using this word or to draw a picture representing that word. Then once they have learned a number of new words, you could create games using those words (IE: BINGO – call out definitions and they must decide which word it is).
No matter what subject or grade you teach, you will have to make learning interesting to capture all the students.

One way to tell the level of comprehension of children is to see how they categorize things. Children love putting things into categories and even as adults we group things. Some good activities would be let children categorize things. As a teacher you can see what they have learned and also gain some insight on how and why students group things.

I remember an activity from school that was creative. We were studying pirates and we decided to make our own boats. We had to set up a proposal to the King based on what we had learned. We had to read instructions and make of boat with cardboard. By the end of the project we had studying social studies, math, language arts, and science. We had so much fun and learned a lot. So as a teacher creativity is definately the best way to go.

I just wanted to say thanks for all the great ideas. I knew I wanted to use higher thinking strategies in an elementary classroom, but I just was not sure what would really be considered "higher thinking." I guess I was making it out to be harder than it really is. I am so nervous about actually teaching because I want to be such a great teacher. I want my students to learn and have as much fun as possible. I guess learning most of this stuff will come with experience. Anyways, thanks again.