breakout session: building thinkers

Building Thinkers through Critical and Creative Learning Strategies

LouEllen Brademan ISD Rose Moore ISD Shilpi Patel DSS 2

AGENDA
Connect to PD Focus & Increased Rigor
The WHY of Critical and Creative Thinking Experience Critical and Creative Thinking Strategies (WHAT and HOW)

Planning Next Steps & Building Capacity

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Today's students need to be critical thinkers, problem solvers, and effective communicators who are proficient in both core subjects and new 21st century skills.
Ken Kay, President, Partnership for 21st Century Skills

OUTCOMES Learn the WHAT, WHY, and HOW of using critical and creative thinking strategies to raise the rigor for all students. Begin planning ways to support your staff with implementing critical and creative thinking strategies in their everyday instruction.
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Teachers will be able to: Build relationships with students that support effort and self-efficacy in reaching higher standards Recognize the 21st Century Skills (Critical & Creative Thinking) within our curriculum Plan lessons that teach 21st Century Skills (Critical & Creative Thinking) by designing instructional tasks that require high levels of thinking for the essential skills Using instructional strategies that support and promote student thinking at high levels Engaging students in intellectual discourse Raising students levels of metacognition Providing students multiple opportunities to problem solve Choose assessments that allow students to demonstrate 21st Century Skills (Critical & Creative Thinking) at high levels. 7

Will this be on the Test?

Fluency
Thinking of and listing many ideas

Flexibility
Thinking from different perspectives

Originality
Coming up with unique ideas

Elaboration
Building upon an existing idea adding details

Connect
How are the ideas and information presented connected to what you already knew?

Extend
What new ideas did you get that extended or broadened your thinking in new directions?

Challenge
What challenges or puzzles have come up in your mind from the ideas and information presented?

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THE WHY
Read excerpt from Chapter of Making Thinking Visible. Record your thinking using the PLUS , MINUS, INTERESTING (PMI) Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) strategy.
What are the plus, minus, and interesting aspects of your reading?
PLUS MINUS INTERESTING

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What are the plus, minus, and interesting aspects of your reading?

Plus
Green

Minus
Yellow

Interesting
Blue
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Why Teach Critical and Creative Thinking in All K- 12 Classrooms?

Moving away from an industrial economy

and toward a knowledge economy

innovation is a major keystone

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Source: "Tough Choices or Tough Times" 2007, National center on education and the economy

The demand for nonroutine skills is rising fast, as the need for routine and manual skills falls.
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True or False
CRITICAL THINKING is for science & math CREATIVE THINKING is for the arts & humanities

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FALSE
CRITICAL & CREATIVE thinking
can and should be applied to

ANY subject, content or problem.

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True or False
CREATIVITY is a right brain activity

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FALSE
CREATIVE THINKING requires divergent thinking and then convergent thinking.

CREATIVITY requires constant shifting between right and left brain activity.
The Creativity Crisis, Bronson & Merryman

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True or False
CREATIVITY can be taught.

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TRUE:CREATIVITY can be taught.

Practicing promotes more creative thinking.

Treffingers Creative Problem-Solving Method is composed of fact-finding, problem-finding, idea-finding, solution-finding, and plan of action and has the highest success in increasing childrens creativity.
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CRITICAL and CREATIVE Thinking

Critical and creative thinking are interrelated processes essential to problem solving. Creative thinking involves constructing something original. Critical thinking involves logic and reasoning skills. As we solve problems, we navigate between both thinking patterns across all disciplines and grade levels.
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CRITICAL and CREATIVE Thinking

Students need explicit instruction and exposure to thinking strategies in context in order to be able to apply them.
Strategies are engaging for students and teachers!

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TORRANCE KIDS
In1958, four hundred children completed creativity tasks designed by professor E. Paul Torrance The children were asked How could you improve this toy to make it better and more fun to play with?

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 Those who came up with more good ideas on Torrances tasks grew up to be entrepreneurs, inventors, college presidents, authors, doctors, diplomats, and software developers. Jonathan Plucker of Indiana University recently reanalyzed Torrances data. The correlation to lifetime creative accomplishment was more

than three times stronger for childhood creativity than childhood IQ.

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Sir Ken Robinson there is a consistent mission to transform the culture of education and organizations with a richer conception of human creativity and intelligence.
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Nine Strategies for Teaching Critical and Creative Thinking adapted from the work of . . .
Dr. Edward de Bono Dr. Richard Paul

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CHALK TALK: Round 1

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CHALK TALK: Round 2

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CHALK TALK: Round 3

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Without a combination of critical

thinking, problem-solving, effective

teamwork, and creativity, learning

remains stagnant, more useful for passing a test than solving a real world challenge.
21st Century Skills Rethinking How Students Learn p. 314

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If critical and creative thinking are being implemented in your school what will be evident? Students Teachers

Post your responses on Todays Meet at http://todaysmeet.com/CCTLeadership2013 31

What sprouted at your table discussions?

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Go as far as you can see. When you get there, you can see farther.
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Thomas Carlyle

Web Resources
www.criticalthinking.org
www.edwdebono.com www.vtshome.org http://www.sirkenrobinson.com/ http://www.creativelearning.com/ http://www.loc.gov/teachers.com

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