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1. The Connection Cube (A Thinking through Transfer activity)
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Arguably, the most important job of education is to provide students with knowledge that they can transfer in meaningful ways to other aspects of their present or future lives. For example, we do not teach history simply so students can pass a quiz, but so that they can reason better about the world around them.
Yet research has shown that the transfer of knowledge does not happen nearly as much as we would like. Too often, students do not make the connections they should between new knowledge and prior knowledge, between one school subject and another, between school learning and everyday life.
Use the Connection Cube to help students connect learning to new contexts.
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2. One-Minute Papers: An Instructional Resource for Student Self-Assessment
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1-Minute Papers provide learners with an opportunity to step back and think about their thinking. Thinking about thinking often is a neglected, but vital part of the learning process. Reflection allows learners to pause and assess not only the product of one's thinking but also the quality of the thinking itself.
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When to use 1-Minute Papers
- as a thinking-centered activity to close a lesson
- after completing a project or unit
- during a lesson as an on-going assessment check
- during the introduction of a new or complex topic to as an on-going assessment check
- at any point where you want students to be aware and take stock of their thinking
How to use 1-Minute papers
- use as a tool to introduce students to the concept mental management and reflection
- use as a learning tool to help students identify patterns (both strong and weak) in their thinking over time
- use as a communication tool to help students articulate their thinking processes
- use as an assessment tool to help students set standards for good thinking
Ideas for Follow-Up
- have students save their 1-minute papers as part of a fuller assessment portfolio
- compile a series of 1-minute papers in other subjects and encourage students to seek strong (and possibly troublesome) patterns in their thinking; identify possible impact of those patterns on students' learning
- use to help students (or class) establish or refine learning goals
- use to help students identify interesting and new lines of inquiry
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