2.4 Higher Order Thinking Skills
Candidates model and facilitate the effective use of digital tools and resources to support and enhance higher order thinking skills (e.g., analyze, evaluate, and create); processes (e.g., problem-solving, decision-making); and mental habits of mind (e.g., critical thinking, creative thinking, metacognition, self-regulation, and reflection). (PSC 2.4/ISTE 2d)
Artifact: Internet Lesson Plan
Reflection:
As a culminating project for ITEC 7430, I was tasked with creating a Web 2.0 immersion lesson that fostered higher order thinking skills in my students. I designed the lesson for and implemented the lesson with my third grade music students. I had these students utilize three separate Web 2.0 tools: Noteflight, an online music composition tool; AudioBoo (now audioBoom), an online recording/podcasting tool; and ThingLink, an online platform for creating interactive images to which you can link different “things.” One objective for this lesson was for students to demonstrate understanding of musical form by creating an original composition and pairing with another student or group to create a musical arrangement that featured both their compositions. Another objective for this lesson was to use digital tools and resources to create an original product within the context of music.
This artifact demonstrates my ability to support and enhance higher order thinking skills through the use of digital tools and resources, as the students were continually asked to create new, original products, which is the highest level of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001). For example, the project called for students to create a new, original composition within specified guidelines, then record themselves performing their compositions in order to create an original musical arrangement with another student or group in the class by combining their composition recordings into a ThingLink product. The artifact also demonstrates my ability to support and enhance higher-order processes of problem-solving and decision-making, as students were tasked with solving the problem of applying their knowledge of rhythm and melody to create a new composition, and independently making decisions about a variety of elements to the project, including how complex or simple they wanted to make their compositions, if they wanted to perform using instruments or their own singing voices, if they wanted to create a digital image for their ThingLink through photography or drawing, and how they wanted to arrange their composition recordings to create their new arrangement. The artifact represents my ability to support and enhance mental habits of mind such as critical thinking, creative thinking, and self-regulation because students were continually asked to think creatively when developing their original products, were asked to think critically when deciding which other student or group’s composition they believed would work well with their own in the new, original arrangement, and were asked to demonstrate self-regulation for time constraints and composition complexity. This artifact demonstrates my ability to model the effective use of digital tools and resources to support and enhance higher order thinking skills, processes, and mental habits of mind because I myself went through the process of creating the lesson to include these thinking skills. Furthermore, I also implemented the lesson in my own classroom with my own students and can personally attest to its effectiveness for supporting and enhancing these thinking skills in students. I plan to further model the effective use of digital tools to support higher order thinking skills in the near future by sharing this lesson and resulting student products with my colleagues through PLC meetings, county email, the county lesson plan database, etc. in order to highlight the many ways the lesson helps students use their higher order thinking skills. This artifact also demonstrates my ability to facilitate the effective use of digital tools and resources to support and enhance these thinking skills in other teachers’ classrooms, as I included many supporting details about how I myself used such tools to support and enhance these thinking skills with my own students; these details would be useful when helping other teachers with designing and implementing similar lessons in their own classrooms.
From completing this lesson plan, I gained in-depth experience with designing and implementing lessons that involve the use of digital tools to support higher-order thinking skills in my students, particularly the skill of creativity. Although I had designed and implemented other lessons that supported and enhanced student creativity and other higher-order thinking skills before the this one, I had not yet designed and implemented one that utilized so many digital tools and resources as a means for supporting and enhancing these skills. However, as mentioned in the post-implementation reflection, my students had some trouble navigating the Noteflight tool. Although they were familiar with paper-pencil compositions strategies, they had no prior experience with digital composition tools. To improve the quality of the lesson, I would either choose an easier tool for my students to use or pre-teach the Noteflight tool so students would know how to use it during the lesson.
The work that went into creating this lesson had a tremendous impact on my students’ higher-order thinking skills as a means to foster a deep understanding of music skills and concepts. The quality of the students’ original products that resulted from this lesson can serve as a testament to their deep understanding of the music skills and concepts involved with this lesson.
Anderson, Lorin W.; Krathwohl, David R., Eds. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Allyn and Bacon.
As a culminating project for ITEC 7430, I was tasked with creating a Web 2.0 immersion lesson that fostered higher order thinking skills in my students. I designed the lesson for and implemented the lesson with my third grade music students. I had these students utilize three separate Web 2.0 tools: Noteflight, an online music composition tool; AudioBoo (now audioBoom), an online recording/podcasting tool; and ThingLink, an online platform for creating interactive images to which you can link different “things.” One objective for this lesson was for students to demonstrate understanding of musical form by creating an original composition and pairing with another student or group to create a musical arrangement that featured both their compositions. Another objective for this lesson was to use digital tools and resources to create an original product within the context of music.
This artifact demonstrates my ability to support and enhance higher order thinking skills through the use of digital tools and resources, as the students were continually asked to create new, original products, which is the highest level of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001). For example, the project called for students to create a new, original composition within specified guidelines, then record themselves performing their compositions in order to create an original musical arrangement with another student or group in the class by combining their composition recordings into a ThingLink product. The artifact also demonstrates my ability to support and enhance higher-order processes of problem-solving and decision-making, as students were tasked with solving the problem of applying their knowledge of rhythm and melody to create a new composition, and independently making decisions about a variety of elements to the project, including how complex or simple they wanted to make their compositions, if they wanted to perform using instruments or their own singing voices, if they wanted to create a digital image for their ThingLink through photography or drawing, and how they wanted to arrange their composition recordings to create their new arrangement. The artifact represents my ability to support and enhance mental habits of mind such as critical thinking, creative thinking, and self-regulation because students were continually asked to think creatively when developing their original products, were asked to think critically when deciding which other student or group’s composition they believed would work well with their own in the new, original arrangement, and were asked to demonstrate self-regulation for time constraints and composition complexity. This artifact demonstrates my ability to model the effective use of digital tools and resources to support and enhance higher order thinking skills, processes, and mental habits of mind because I myself went through the process of creating the lesson to include these thinking skills. Furthermore, I also implemented the lesson in my own classroom with my own students and can personally attest to its effectiveness for supporting and enhancing these thinking skills in students. I plan to further model the effective use of digital tools to support higher order thinking skills in the near future by sharing this lesson and resulting student products with my colleagues through PLC meetings, county email, the county lesson plan database, etc. in order to highlight the many ways the lesson helps students use their higher order thinking skills. This artifact also demonstrates my ability to facilitate the effective use of digital tools and resources to support and enhance these thinking skills in other teachers’ classrooms, as I included many supporting details about how I myself used such tools to support and enhance these thinking skills with my own students; these details would be useful when helping other teachers with designing and implementing similar lessons in their own classrooms.
From completing this lesson plan, I gained in-depth experience with designing and implementing lessons that involve the use of digital tools to support higher-order thinking skills in my students, particularly the skill of creativity. Although I had designed and implemented other lessons that supported and enhanced student creativity and other higher-order thinking skills before the this one, I had not yet designed and implemented one that utilized so many digital tools and resources as a means for supporting and enhancing these skills. However, as mentioned in the post-implementation reflection, my students had some trouble navigating the Noteflight tool. Although they were familiar with paper-pencil compositions strategies, they had no prior experience with digital composition tools. To improve the quality of the lesson, I would either choose an easier tool for my students to use or pre-teach the Noteflight tool so students would know how to use it during the lesson.
The work that went into creating this lesson had a tremendous impact on my students’ higher-order thinking skills as a means to foster a deep understanding of music skills and concepts. The quality of the students’ original products that resulted from this lesson can serve as a testament to their deep understanding of the music skills and concepts involved with this lesson.
Anderson, Lorin W.; Krathwohl, David R., Eds. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Allyn and Bacon.