EDUC 5268 - A1 Planning and Justification Portfolio
Lesson 4 - 21/11/23
Higher Order thinking is the primary focal point of lesson 4 and it focuses on assessing assignments formatively. Our planning is informed by higher order thinking (QTM) skills by aiming to engage students in a series of activities that require critical analysis, creativity, and reflective thinking (Ladwig, 2006, p. 18). We also planned an activity where students select and share images representing their identity. They must have a reason behind their choices, this can encourage the students to think deeply about the symbolic and emotional significance of these visuals. The following activity that we are planning is similar where we push the students to evaluate the audio elements that reflect on their identity which promotes the impact of sound in storytelling (Barnett, 2012, p. 202). The final activity that we planned is to have the students to plan and storyboard their digital story. This includes strategic thinking as they have to decided on an effective way to convey their narrative through visual and audio storytelling. These activities all relate to higher order thinking because the structure of this lesson plan highlighted in figure 1.5. This structure promotes students to think deeply about this symbolic significance of visuals and sound storytelling (Brookhart, 2010, p. 135). This helps to foster cognitive skills in the learning process for lesson 4.
1.4 Higher Order thinking
1.4 Evidence
Figure 1.5
This lesson plan for lesson 4 promotes higher order thinking by engaging students in activities to reinforce their higher order thinking. Activity 1 highlights a quiz that prompts students to apply their prior knowledge. Our planning also consist in activity 2 where we aim to encourage students to think critically about selecting images that reflect on their identity. In summary, this has informed our planning by thinking about higher order thinking through the cognitive processes such as analysis, evaluation and creativity.
Demonstrating higher order thinking in a classroom also requires different forms of planning which includes using the QTM element deep understanding 1.2 (Ladwig, 2006, p. 14). Deep understanding in this lesson was planned by a well structured and engaging sequence of activities. This lesson starts with a quiz to look back on the student’s prior knowledge from the start of this unit. This ensures that the students are demonstrating deep understanding by having the students to demonstrate their knowledge through a quiz. As shown on figure 1.6, the second and third activity prompts the students to focus deeper into the concept of the student’s identity through imagery and audio selection. We planned that the deeper understanding would go through our activities because we believed the activities is the best way to test the student’s deep knowledge and understanding (Fletcher, 2019, p. 833). Figure 1.6 demonstrates a good example of this where the fourth activity fosters deep understanding by requiring the class to plan a digital story; having the class to think critically about the content. The content planned in this lesson also stimulates higher order thinking and creativity. The feedback section shown in figure 1.6 provides an opportunity for the students to demonstrate their deep understanding in the lesson. This also encourages the students to reflect on their learning process and what they may need to improve on in the next lesson.
1.2 Deep understanding
1.2 Evidence
Figure 1.6
This is the lesson 4 plan where it introduces activity 2. The second activity lets the students choose two identity related images, describing what is meaningful to them. This promotes self-expression and deep understanding by having the students to reflect on their own identity. The third activity describes and introduces the audio selection, with students explaining and relating their chosen audio clips to their identity. These activities promotes and encourages critical thinking, personalization, and deeper understanding.
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Activity 4 informs our planning by allowing the students to plan their production where it encourages the class to prepare for their digital story by using a storyboard style template.
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The last section of this lesson offers room for feedback for students. This allows promotes that encourages self-evaluation by asking the students on expectations and their confidence for the next lesson.
References
Barnett, J. E., & Francis, A. L. (2012). Using higher order thinking questions to foster critical thinking: a classroom study. Educational Psychology (Dorchester-on-Thames), 32(2), 201–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2011.638619
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Brookhart, S. M. (2010). How to assess higher-order thinking skills in your classroom. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.
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Fletcher, T., Ní Chróinín, D., & O’Sullivan, M. (2019). Developing deep understanding of teacher education practice through accessing and responding to pre-service teacher engagement with their learning. Professional Development in Education, 45(5), 832–847. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2018.1550099
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Ladwig, J & Gore, J (2006). ‘ A classroom practice guide” in Quality teaching in NSW public schools. 2nd edn. State of NSW, Department of Education and Training, Professional Learning and Leadership Development Directorate, New South Wales, pp. 05 – 59.