But before revealing the text on the screen ask, “Jan, what do you know about frogs?” Don’t wait for a hand; ask a specific student and then another. “Ed, do you have more you could add?” “Can you share a personal experience you have had with a frog?” “Describe a frog. In what scientific category could you put a frog? Why? What else would go in that category? What would not?” Explore knowledge through oral language. You are helping students make connections through your questioning.
Project the Text of the Fable
After projecting the text ask, “What do you see here?” Many will want to get right into the content, but focus them with a question such as, “Can you describe the page?” Enlist the response, “A title and a short paragraph.” Ask, “Is the author listed?” “Do you think you might know who the author is?” Aesop should be part of a student’s vocabulary of cultural literacy. Then, “What is a fable?” Lead students by helping them restate their answers to reach a clear, concise definition. Check a dictionary prior to the lesson for clear, specific terminology.
Depending on your class, have the passage read silently or orally and then begin a group discussion on what lesson the fable teaches. You may need to provide some hints. As a class, see if you can come up with ideas. Some examples might be:
Project the Text of the Fable
After projecting the text ask, “What do you see here?” Many will want to get right into the content, but focus them with a question such as, “Can you describe the page?” Enlist the response, “A title and a short paragraph.” Ask, “Is the author listed?” “Do you think you might know who the author is?” Aesop should be part of a student’s vocabulary of cultural literacy. Then, “What is a fable?” Lead students by helping them restate their answers to reach a clear, concise definition. Check a dictionary prior to the lesson for clear, specific terminology.
Depending on your class, have the passage read silently or orally and then begin a group discussion on what lesson the fable teaches. You may need to provide some hints. As a class, see if you can come up with ideas. Some examples might be:
- Look before you leap.
- Haste makes waste.
- Think before you rush into something new.
Build Intelligence
Select one of the options and write it on the board after developing it collaboratively as a whole group. This is high-level abstract reasoning. Getting students to talk about the lesson of the fable challenges them to stretch their intellectual powers. And yours. Tell them that.
Ask: “What does this passage teach us about intelligence? How intelligent was the first frog? The second? Were they both able to learn from past experiences? What behavior of the second frog made you think he was intelligent? Can you think of an example from your own life when you were doing something similar to what the frogs did?” Be prepared to share an example from your childhood experience. Students love to hear your stories. This personalization of the fable stretches the learning into a different context, developing cognitive strengths that transfer to other learning.
These suggestions are specifically designed to build intellectual competency, and because they are intended to be answered orally by students, they have the power to direct meaningful thought processes. The power of oral language will be explored later.
Develop Cognitive Competence
As you probe student thinking through open-ended questions, you will
begin to see new cognitive skills emerge. Connecting to students’ prior
experience is always a great place to start. Engage them immediately with
what they already know or have personally experienced. Keep the dialogue
fun, light, and entertaining. This is a great time for you to share your frog
experiences!
Having your students describe the layout or format of the page in clear and precise language helps direct efficient thinking processes and evolves into the great skill of being able to predict tasks by the layout of the page, even before reading the directions. When students begin to anticipate the task based on the page format, it means they are being trained in observation skills that will eventually become internalized and automatic. So, for any new task begin with the question, “What do you see on this page?” Work toward a clear, succinct verbal response. For example: “There are no blanks on this page and no explicit instructions, so I am going to have to infer some things based on the content of the paragraph.”
The ability to put words into categories is an important cognitive skill. Noting likenesses and differences refines intellectual and verbal abilities. In addition, students benefit greatly by hearing their peers express their knowledge. Even more intellectually challenging is the ability to summarize and state a lesson the fable teaches. Have your students work in pairs in future sessions to encourage oral exploration of possibilities. Select a sentence and write it on the board to crystallize the activity. For example, you or a student may write:
Being intelligent and wise means being able to think both backwards to what
happened before and forward to what might happen.
Again, the skill of a master teacher in the learning process provides the structure your students need to direct their own learning. Through your questioning, you are teaching them how to learn. Then the “what,” or content, will come more easily. You are building fluid, intellectual competence. As you purpose to raise your expectations above your students’ actual levels of performance, you will be amazed at the hidden propensities that emerge. Begin by:
Select one of the options and write it on the board after developing it collaboratively as a whole group. This is high-level abstract reasoning. Getting students to talk about the lesson of the fable challenges them to stretch their intellectual powers. And yours. Tell them that.
Ask: “What does this passage teach us about intelligence? How intelligent was the first frog? The second? Were they both able to learn from past experiences? What behavior of the second frog made you think he was intelligent? Can you think of an example from your own life when you were doing something similar to what the frogs did?” Be prepared to share an example from your childhood experience. Students love to hear your stories. This personalization of the fable stretches the learning into a different context, developing cognitive strengths that transfer to other learning.
These suggestions are specifically designed to build intellectual competency, and because they are intended to be answered orally by students, they have the power to direct meaningful thought processes. The power of oral language will be explored later.
Develop Cognitive Competence
As you probe student thinking through open-ended questions, you will
begin to see new cognitive skills emerge. Connecting to students’ prior
experience is always a great place to start. Engage them immediately with
what they already know or have personally experienced. Keep the dialogue
fun, light, and entertaining. This is a great time for you to share your frog
experiences!
Having your students describe the layout or format of the page in clear and precise language helps direct efficient thinking processes and evolves into the great skill of being able to predict tasks by the layout of the page, even before reading the directions. When students begin to anticipate the task based on the page format, it means they are being trained in observation skills that will eventually become internalized and automatic. So, for any new task begin with the question, “What do you see on this page?” Work toward a clear, succinct verbal response. For example: “There are no blanks on this page and no explicit instructions, so I am going to have to infer some things based on the content of the paragraph.”
The ability to put words into categories is an important cognitive skill. Noting likenesses and differences refines intellectual and verbal abilities. In addition, students benefit greatly by hearing their peers express their knowledge. Even more intellectually challenging is the ability to summarize and state a lesson the fable teaches. Have your students work in pairs in future sessions to encourage oral exploration of possibilities. Select a sentence and write it on the board to crystallize the activity. For example, you or a student may write:
Being intelligent and wise means being able to think both backwards to what
happened before and forward to what might happen.
Again, the skill of a master teacher in the learning process provides the structure your students need to direct their own learning. Through your questioning, you are teaching them how to learn. Then the “what,” or content, will come more easily. You are building fluid, intellectual competence. As you purpose to raise your expectations above your students’ actual levels of performance, you will be amazed at the hidden propensities that emerge. Begin by:
- Engaging the quiet ones
- Not calling on the first hand you see
- Moving strategically around the room
- Helping students restate their weak verbal responses
- Being one of the learners
- Setting appropriate challenges
- Modeling your own love of learning
- Building respect for all sincere responses.
REFLECTION
We have begun to infuse some new ideas into the intelligence dilemma. Are you beginning to wonder in your mind and heart if in your classroom in this year you might actually be able to change your students’ abilities to think, reason, remember, and reflect? And to do the same with your own? As teachers, we are not called to simply build fact upon fact; instead, we have the great privilege of renovating the mind’s architecture—in particular, constructing a skylight, a window in those man-made ceilings.
Teaching is both art and science. As you become more confident and competent in your ability to get students talking in meaningful ways to you and to each other, you will begin to equip them with tools that will keep getting better and better. The secret will be unwrapped in the concepts of cognitive modifiability and mediated learning. We will examine both in the next chapter.
We have begun to infuse some new ideas into the intelligence dilemma. Are you beginning to wonder in your mind and heart if in your classroom in this year you might actually be able to change your students’ abilities to think, reason, remember, and reflect? And to do the same with your own? As teachers, we are not called to simply build fact upon fact; instead, we have the great privilege of renovating the mind’s architecture—in particular, constructing a skylight, a window in those man-made ceilings.
Teaching is both art and science. As you become more confident and competent in your ability to get students talking in meaningful ways to you and to each other, you will begin to equip them with tools that will keep getting better and better. The secret will be unwrapped in the concepts of cognitive modifiability and mediated learning. We will examine both in the next chapter.
