Making Thinking Visible Strategies in Social Studies - 4th and 5th Grade

BISD – April 2014

Let’s get started

• Before we start, let’s review what it feels like to be a teacher

• What its like every day

Think – Puzzle – Explore

What do you think you know about Making Thinking Visible strategies?

What puzzles you about Making Thinking Visible strategies?

How can you explore more about Making Thinking Visible strategies?

What will we do today?

• 4th Grade – 21st Century Texas• 5th Grade – 20th Century and 21st Century

Think-Puzzle-Explore

What do you think you know about the Great Depression?

What puzzles you about the Great Depression?

How can you explore more about the Great Depression?

What akes you say that?

What makes you say that?

How does this relate to the TEKS?

• Process Skills– 4.22C – express ideas orally based on research and

experiences– 5.25C – express ideas orally based on research and

experiences

How would you use Think-Puzzle-Explore in your classroom?

Time for a:Turn & Talk

Explanation Game

Step 1 •NAME IT•Share with a partner/small group.•Discuss and record features of the object/artifact/text. Try to notice as many details about the PARTS as possible.

Step 2•EXPLAIN IT•Begin explanining the list of features from step 1.•Come up with as many explanations as possible for how these particular PARTS work to make up the WHOLE

object/artifact/text.•Sticky Notes are a great tool for documenting this step.

Step 3•GIVE REASONS•Generate reasons/evidence for why their explanations are plausible.•What evidence do you have for why a certain feature is explained a certain way? What do you see that makes you

explain it that way?

Step 4

•GENERATE ALTERNATIVES•Press for alternative explanations.•Pay attention to relationships between the PARTS, why they are the way the are, and how the PARTS affect the

WHOLE.•Ask one another, "Why makes you say that?" after each alternative explanation is offered.

Explanation Game

• Helps students break down visuals and analyze information

• Helps slow down and focus students such as those with attention issues and English Language Learners

Let’s Play the Explanation Game 1. Name it –

Name what you see.

2. Explain it – Explain what it is

you see.

3. Give reasons – What in the

picture makes you think that?

4. Give alternatives –

What else could it be?

How does this relate to the Social Studies TEKS?

• 4.12E – Explain how developments in transportation and communication have influenced economic activities in Texas.

• 4.21A Process Skill– differentiate between, locate, and use valid primary and secondary sources such as computer software; interviews; biographies; oral, print, and visual material; documents; and artifacts to acquire information about the United States and Texas

Headlines

• Headlines is used to focus on the synthesis of learning

• This is done after a learning experience

What is a headline?

• The head of a newspaper story or article usually printed in large type and giving the gist of the story or article that follows.

4.11A, 5.11A – summarize the main idea and

supporting details in ways that maintain meaning

What does this headline mean?From this

headline, can you tell what

the article will be about?

Let’s Learn about George W. Bush• 4.18A – identify leaders in state,

local, and national governments, including the governor, the local members of the Texas Legislature, the local mayor, local U.S. representatives, and Texans who have been president of the United States

• 5.19B – identify past and present leaders in the national government, including the president and various members of Congress, and their political parties

You could also use….

TCM Primary Source Readers

Back to process skills….

• 4.21B – analyze information by sequencing, categorizing, identifying cause-and-effect relationships, comparing, contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making generalizations and predictions, and drawing inferences and conclusions

• 5.24B – analyze information by sequencing, categorizing, identifying cause-and-effect relationships, comparing, contrasting, finding the main idea, summarizing, making generalizations and predictions, and drawing inferences and conclusions

I used to think…now I think…

• Students record their original thinking on a topic before learning occurs

I used to think...

• Students record their "new" thinking on a topic after new learning has occurred

Now I think....

I Used to Think… Now I Think

I used to think _______ about George W. Bush

Now I think _______ about George W. Bush.

What makes you say that?

What makes you say that?

What makes you say that?

Explanation, Evidence,

Reasoning, Thinking

Student Response

I Used to Think… Now I Think

I used to think _______ about Making Thinking Visible strategies.

Now I think _______ about Making Thinking Visible strategies.

Where could I find this information after the training?

Strategies and Structures is located under Yearly Content

Documents

Where could I find this information after the training?

Brain Break!

• Numbers & Letters– Stand up– Draw the letter ‘A’ in the air

while saying ‘one’- Draw the letter ‘B’ in the air while saying ‘two’- Speed it up and see if you can make it through Z!