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: WebQuest
Reflection:
For standard 2.4, Higher-Order Thinking Skills, I am providing a link to the Webquest website project that I created as apart of my ITEC 7445 course, Multimedia and Web design. This Webquest website was designed and built for a particular unit of study for my honors English 10 course. The unit was implemented with students in the fall of 2013. It was developed for tenth grade students and it demonstrates my ability to model and facilitate the use of technology to support higher order thinking skills. The website was built using Weebly platform and is currently being used by this years tenth grade English teacher in my school.
Standard 2.4 states that candidates will model and facilitate the effective use of digital tools and resources to support and enhance higher order thinking skills; processes; and mental habits of mind. In this Webquest, technology resources and digital tools were used to model and facilitate a creative learning experience that requires students to engage in higher order thinking tasks to complete the project. The Webquest asks students to use higher order thinking skills by having them analyze and evaluate various online sources of information regarding the 1920’s. Students demonstrated their higher order thinking processes by making decisions and problem solving for each online source they researched. Finally, students demonstrated higher order mental habits of the mind by creatively thinking about the research, synthesizing it into a simulation and, in the end, reflecting on the process.
Through the development, modeling, and facilitation of this Webquest, I learned the necessary components that make up a successful web-based classroom resource. I learned the necessity of easy accessibility, intuitive navigation, and clear instructions. Above all, I learned about the power of technology to facilitate higher order thinking skills. Modeling and facilitating the use of digital tools to enhance students’ higher order thinking allowed me to learn about the myriad of tools available and the variety of ways in which students can demonstrate their learning in a challenging and engaging way. If I had the opportunity to improve this lesson, I would collect more data at the beginning and end of this lesson to illustrate the extent of student growth and learning.
Fostering higher order thinking skills is a necessary and crucial part of educating students for the rapidly growing world. With the essential skills that higher order thinking provides, students will be able to grapple with problems that exceed our boundaries of knowledge in the present day, and forge futures that we hadn’t previously considered possible. Digital tools and resources are constantly emerging to facilitate this kind of learning. My Webquest, in particular, uses online tools and resources to bolster content area standards and students mastery of them through students’ use of higher order thinking skills. Furthermore, current tenth grade English teachers, to further develop higher order thinking skills among this current generation of students, are using this Webquest.
Reflection:
For standard 2.4, Higher-Order Thinking Skills, I am providing a link to the Webquest website project that I created as apart of my ITEC 7445 course, Multimedia and Web design. This Webquest website was designed and built for a particular unit of study for my honors English 10 course. The unit was implemented with students in the fall of 2013. It was developed for tenth grade students and it demonstrates my ability to model and facilitate the use of technology to support higher order thinking skills. The website was built using Weebly platform and is currently being used by this years tenth grade English teacher in my school.
Standard 2.4 states that candidates will model and facilitate the effective use of digital tools and resources to support and enhance higher order thinking skills; processes; and mental habits of mind. In this Webquest, technology resources and digital tools were used to model and facilitate a creative learning experience that requires students to engage in higher order thinking tasks to complete the project. The Webquest asks students to use higher order thinking skills by having them analyze and evaluate various online sources of information regarding the 1920’s. Students demonstrated their higher order thinking processes by making decisions and problem solving for each online source they researched. Finally, students demonstrated higher order mental habits of the mind by creatively thinking about the research, synthesizing it into a simulation and, in the end, reflecting on the process.
Through the development, modeling, and facilitation of this Webquest, I learned the necessary components that make up a successful web-based classroom resource. I learned the necessity of easy accessibility, intuitive navigation, and clear instructions. Above all, I learned about the power of technology to facilitate higher order thinking skills. Modeling and facilitating the use of digital tools to enhance students’ higher order thinking allowed me to learn about the myriad of tools available and the variety of ways in which students can demonstrate their learning in a challenging and engaging way. If I had the opportunity to improve this lesson, I would collect more data at the beginning and end of this lesson to illustrate the extent of student growth and learning.
Fostering higher order thinking skills is a necessary and crucial part of educating students for the rapidly growing world. With the essential skills that higher order thinking provides, students will be able to grapple with problems that exceed our boundaries of knowledge in the present day, and forge futures that we hadn’t previously considered possible. Digital tools and resources are constantly emerging to facilitate this kind of learning. My Webquest, in particular, uses online tools and resources to bolster content area standards and students mastery of them through students’ use of higher order thinking skills. Furthermore, current tenth grade English teachers, to further develop higher order thinking skills among this current generation of students, are using this Webquest.