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"Information literacy equips students with the critical skills necessary to become independent lifelong learners. PBS LearningMedia provides resources that address information literacy skills underlying the basic tenets of Common Core State Standards." 
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"We offer these lesson plan ideas to help teachers cover important skills in English/Language Arts and Social Studies. Each SKILLS-BASED IDEA and CONTENT-BASED IDEA suggests specific ProCon.org topics and resources that are particularly well-matched to the lesson and designed to help you meet multiple curriculum goals."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Beth Dichter's insight: ProCon is one of my favorite websites. The mission of the site is to promote 'critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisian, primarily pro-con format." There are 52 controversial topics that are available, and they have just released 20 lesson plans. Seventeen of the lesson plans are skill- based and three are content-based. The lesson plans are geared to learners in grades 5 - 12. Below is a list of two skill-based lessons and two content-based lesson, along with the grade levels. Skill-Based (material quoted from site): * Critical Thinking Quotes - Engage students in a metacognition exercise about critical thinking and also practice research and informational writing skills using ProCon.org's collection of critical thinking quotes. Grades 9 -12. * Main Ideas of Visual References - Use charts and graphs on ProCon.org to engage students in a visual literacy exercise. Grades 6 - 8. Content-Based * Exploring Controversial Issues in Literature - To introduce a novel, use ProCon.org to help students build background knowledge and examine the novel’s controversial issue(s). Grades 5 - 10. * Drug Ads Over Time: Analyzing Historical Images - Use ProCon.org's Gallery of Drug Ads to give students an opportunity to practice ad analysis and recognize how methods and messages have changed over time. Grades 5 - 10. To access the 52 issues that have detailed information and provide references (and links) to the materials used click on the Home page and you will find topics in Education, Elections & Presidents, Health & Medicine, Media & Entertainment, Money & Business, Politics, Religion, Science & Technology, Sex & Gender, Sports, and World/International.
Kathy Lynch's curator insight,
March 8, 2015 12:44 PM
Thx Beth Dichter! Great skills building via content-based articles that center on hot topics in the news related to science concepts (and others).
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This week we’ve focused on critical thinking using the model developed by the Foundation for Critical Thinking. By now you’re probably excited about the incredible potential that these tools hold…and a little overwhelmed. Where to start...
Beth Dichter's insight:
Teaching student to think...we know this is not as easy as it sounds. This post suggests looking at this through the lens of the visual displayed above (which comes from The Foundation for Critical Thinking) and recommends that you use three simple steps (quoted from post): 1) TELL students that you want them to work on their thinking. 2) Choose ONE element of thought, intellectual standard, or intellectual trait and teach students what it means. 3) Give students something to think about and ask them to practice improving their thinking. Each of these ideas are discussed in the post and suggestions are provided to help you implement this in the classroom. On Feb. 4, 2015 I posted an article "The Question Game: A Playful Way to Teach Students to Think" and a number of people have responded to it. This post provides some additional ways to teach students to think and many of them are playful also. If one of your goals in teaching is to help students gain this skill take the time to read this post.
Charles Fischer's curator insight,
February 11, 2015 7:56 AM
A few great ideas for critical thinking. I particularly liked the activity called "telephone" (not the listening game). Teachers can use all the strategies they can to help their students think better!
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I've posted about The Other 21st Skills and Attributes. This post provides links and resources about these skills as well as an educator self-assessment. This assessment contains questions to ass...
Beth Dichter's insight:
Jackie Gerstein has written quite a number of posts that look at The Other 21st Century Skills and Attributes. This post provides an infographic that includes two or three questions that you should ask yourself to see if you are 'facilitating these skills and attributes in the learning environment. Gerstein also includes links to previous posts where she discusses the specific skills and attributes in more detail.
David Baker's curator insight,
February 17, 2015 10:54 AM
The power of the Infographic is that it references both teacher and student actions and habits. I have shared it with my teachers. This might become a solid self-assessment tool for coaching conversations with teachers. 
Kristen McDaniel's curator insight,
April 3, 2015 12:05 PM
Interesting graphic with some great ideas on interpreting 21st century skills as they pertain to teaching
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Beth Dichter's insight:
How do students learn? There are many concepts that look at this question, and the visual above in one way to view this. To the left you have a box that shows that students take in content by reading, writing, listening and experiencing, and that to comprehend and interpret content they must have prior knowledge, make observations, identify main and supporting ideas and gather evidence. In the midle section the student has to take the input and use critical thinking skills. To do this they must also be engaged in and committed to the learning process. And the final section looks at their output, how does the student show what they have learned. In all phases technology may play a role. This visual would be great to spark discussion amongst faculy.
Raquel Oliveira's curator insight,
September 23, 2014 7:21 PM
Aprendizagem requer mudanças no cérebro. Uma conversa interessante sobre pensamento critico.
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"ISTE has long had available technology standards to help promote informed use of technology by students. These standards are broken down into 5 categories for students, teachers, administrators, coaches, and computer science educators."
Beth Dichter's insight:
For students whom are visual learners this graphical look at the ISTE standards for students and technology. Below are the six areas that are covered by ISTE : * Creativity and Innovation * Communication and Collaboration * Research and Information Fluency * Critical Thinking, Problem Solving & Decision Making * Digital Citizenship * Technology Operation and Concepts As you design projects, consider how you might incorporate one or more of these skills for your students.
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Games give players agency and teach the core 21st century skills of critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity better than any tradition...
Beth Dichter's insight:
Students love to play games, and games have the potential of teaching 21st century skills. This video discusses why games work and provides a look at a number of games and skills that they teach students. Key to this is the need for the teacher to help the students transfer the knowledge they are learning in the games to other areas. The video is short (under 5 minutes) and may provide you with some new information.
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"The difference between students and learners is something we’ve discussed before. On the surface it’s a matter of tone and compliance, but it also has to do with purpose–why are they learning? How much of themselves are invested in the process? And does it lead to personal change, or mere performance? So below are 32 habits–or strategies, actions, or behaviors–that can lead to that critical shift that moves students from mere students to learners who are able to think critically for themselves. Key themes? Patience, scale, and perspective."
Beth Dichter's insight:
How often have you tried to get your students to show their critical thinking abilities and walked away frustrated as they struggled to reach the depths you had hoped for? This post shares a wide range of habits (or strategies, actions, behaviors, use the word that suits you) that will help students reach the depths of higher order thinking. Four of the suggestions are below. Click through to the post see all 33 (that's right, one more has been added). * Thinks laterally, endlessly connecting this to that, here to there. * Can move back and forth from micro to macro thinking. * Asks “Why?” almost annoyingly. * Values questions over answers.
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An essential part of online research is the ability to critically evaluate information. This includes the ability to read and evaluate its level of accuracy, reliability and bias. When we recently as
Beth Dichter's insight:
Yet research tells us that middle schoolers: * "are more concerned with content relevance than with credibility." * "rarely attend to source features such as author, venue or publication type to evaluate reliability and author perspective. * "their judgments are often vague, superficial and lack reasoned justification." What should we do? 1. Teach the Dimensions of Critical Thinking - Relevance, Accuracy, Bias/Perspective and Reliabilty 2. Model and Practice - Use demonstration lessons to focus on the four dimensions above 3. Prompting - Provide written prompts to help guide students; have them cross-check claims through more than one source 4. Help them become healthy skeptics More information on these factors may be found in the post.
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Are our schools doing a good job of preparing students for a world where questioning is a survival skill?
Beth Dichter's insight:
The complete title of this post is Why It's Imperative to Teach Students to Question as the Ultimate Survival Skill? Do you believe this is important? If so, how do you go about teaching your students to ask good questions? This post begins by looking at the importance of questioning, and notes that many leaders in the high-tech world began with a Montessori education, a system that encourages curiousity from a young age. The ability to ask insightful questions is something that may be more critical as we move forward. The question is how to we do this. The post notes that many teachers do not feel like they have time for students to ask questions. If this is true what should we do? It suggests that we make it both "safe" and "cool" to ask questions, and also suggests looking at resources available from The Right Question Institute and from Question Day 2014.
Nancy Jones's curator insight,
March 18, 2014 2:52 PM
Risk taking and questioning have always been learning skillls. It just seems that students, and possibly their parents, aren't willing to acknowledge them as the best way to learn. The whole idea of thinking critically and making a "best guess' seem to be unacceptable to some folks. What does that say about the whole quality/gift of wonder?
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"Critical thought is a cognitive process that proposes the systematic analysis of information, opinion and statements that we accept in our daily life as valid or true. It is a basic skill for a competent, free and responsible citizen."
Beth Dichter's insight:
How do we teach students to become critical thinkers? This post provides a visual as well as a more detailed list of the seven components that students need to learn: * Reflection * Analysis * Acquisition of information * Creativity * Commitment * Debate * Structuring arguments In addition five values that critical thinking promotes: * Humility * Courage * Responsibility * Commitment * Respect What do you think? Do you agree that these are key aspects to teach our students to be critical thinkers or is there a component missing? Do you believe that the values are an integral component? How do you teach critical thinking in your classroom?
María Dolores Díaz Noguera's curator insight,
March 18, 2014 8:35 AM
Critical Thinking: Educating Competent Citizens 
Susan Walker-Meere's curator insight,
November 9, 2014 12:49 PM
I would add: Trans-disciplinary thinking; systems thinking for sustainability. Most people can not see the forest through the trees so miss the larger connections of the impacts that action, goods & services have on both environmental systems and human systems. 
Willem Kuypers's curator insight,
November 16, 2014 3:48 PM
La pensée critique, une competence clé du 21ème siècle avec tant d'information qui nous arrive.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
Here is a visual that may help your students with critical thinking skills. The post in Edutopia provides addtional information on this and the image came via twitter and that link is at the end of this post. As you read the five questions you may find that might change a few. For example, if you are working with younger students you might want to change the first question to "What do you think you know?" and you might also want to change the fourth question to "What more can you tell me?" Do you have other ideas? Share them by adding a comment. The link to the visual is at https://twitter.com/shannonclark7/status/404336242625892354/photo/1/large
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Beth Dichter's insight:
What are the top ten skills that are needed in the workplace today? The University of Phoenix has published this infographic that provides a look at the top ten skills as well as information on how to acquire the skills. Are you providing your students the opportunity to learn and/or practice these skills?
Audrey's curator insight,
November 29, 2013 2:26 PM
These skills make a lot of sense and all tend to be included in education, right now. In addition to learning the standard topics, most educational establishments incude socio-cultural, moral and practical lessons for students to be able to cope with life in the 21st century.
audrey@homeschoolsource for http://www.homeschoolsource.co.uk |
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Beth Dichter's insight:
When we ask students to become better questioners we are asking them to use critical thinking skills. The infographic/visual above is based on an article published by Edutopia called 5 Ways to Help Students Become Better Questioners. The post, by Warren Berger, suggests five ideas to encourage learners to ask more questions: * Make it safe. * Make it "cool" * Make it fun * Make it rewarding * Make it stick Additional information is found in the post.
SMARTERTEACHER's curator insight,
March 19, 2015 1:29 PM
Because student questions and curiosity should drive the learning. @ramusallam
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Regardless of whether you think every infant needs an iPad, I think we can all agree that technology has changed education for the better. Today's learne
Beth Dichter's insight:
Where will technology make the biggest impact on education? This post shares nine areas, based on research, where the use of technology is making an impact. What are the ten areas? Below is a list of the top five. Find additional information on each by clicking through to the post, as well as links to other resources. 1. Critical Thinking - In this area four kinds of thinking are discussed: Analogical, Expressive Experiential, and Problem Solving. 2. Mobile Learning 3. Access to Education 4. Continuous Feedback 5. Unlimited and Immediate Learning Please note that the title on the post days there are ten areas, but number four is missing in the document (or there are only nine areas). I renumbered the areas above so that they are consecutive.
Matthew M.'s curator insight,
March 4, 2015 12:32 AM
This post relates to the readings because it talks about the way critical thinking is important to acquiring knowledge and how technology affects our learning. One of the significant aims of education is to produce learners who are well informed, that is to say, learners should understand ideas that are important, useful, beautiful and powerful. Another is to create learners who have the appetite the appetite to think analytically and critically, to use what they know to enhance their own lives and also to contribute to their society, culture and civilization.
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"Big idea: Teaching kids to ask smart questions on their own A four-year-old asks on average about 400 questions per day, and an adult hardly asks any. Our school system is structured around rewards for regurgitating the right answer, and not asking smart questions – in fact, it discourages asking questions. With the result that as we grow older, we stop asking questions. Yet asking good questions is essential to find and develop solutions, and an important skill in innovation, strategy, and leadership. So why do we stop asking questions – and more importantly, why don’t we train each other, and our future leaders, to ask the right questions starting from early on?"
Beth Dichter's insight:
What are the questions students should ask to help them problem solve? What questions should we help students learn to ask at an early age? Warren Berger, who wrote A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas suggests that the "question needs to be phrased openly and positively in order to achieve positive results." He also suggests three questions: * Why questions help to find the root of the problem * What If questions open the floor for creative solutions * How questions focus on developing practical solutions The article explores this in more depth and provides directions to The Question Game. You can see the cube you can create in the image above. Although this was written by a parent and discusses how she used it with his children this could be used in a classroom. You may find that you would like to have more than one cube (and therefore additional questions).
Gust MEES's curator insight,
February 8, 2015 7:03 AM
Big idea: Teaching kids to ask smart questions on their own A four-year-old asks on average about 400 questions per day, and an adult hardly asks any. Our school system is structured around rewards for regurgitating the right answer, and not asking smart questions – in fact, it discourages asking questions. With the result that as we grow older, we stop asking questions. Yet asking good questions is essential to find and develop solutions, and an important skill in innovation, strategy, and leadership. So why do we stop asking questions – and more importantly, why don’t we train each other, and our future leaders, to ask the right questions starting from early on?"
Learn more: - http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching?tag=Critical-Thinking 
Jewelelelel's curator insight,
February 8, 2015 7:56 AM
I agree with the fact that recently,students have been 'trained' to give the correct and not ask smart questions.In school ,teachers usually ask us questions and if we answer that correctly, we get praised.For subjects sciences and humanities require a lot of questioning and thinking in order to understand and to learn more quickly.In my opinion, i think that teachers should give students a chance to ask questions that they have and not go through a topic blindly.If the students is shy to ask, the teacher could create a website so that the whole class can ask questions whenever they feel like and both the teachers and students themselves can answer the questions.This would enable the student to think out of the box to ask and answer questions by themselves
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"Project-based learning is one aspect of the Common Core’s with extra buzz. PBL engages students in purposeful ways by providing opportunities to develop a laundry list of 21st century skills in areas including critical thinking, research strategies, collaboration, communication, and literacy. If your head is spinning and you are wondering how you are going to make time for and create appropriate PBL opportunities for your elementary students, don’t worry! The good news is there are many ways to incorporate practical project-based learning into your elementary classroom. "
Beth Dichter's insight:
If you are considering project-based learning, but have questions about just what to do, this post may assist you. There are many suggestions about practical PBL projects that are appropriate for students in grades K - 5. The post also includes a quick overview of the stops in PBL as well as a list of read-aloud books that may inspire students to ways they might create a project that will help their community. You will also find a list of ten ideas for projects and three other sections: * Inspire Projects with Hand to Heart/Paw/Earth * Teach Students to Ask Questions/Research Across Texts * Try Ready-Made Books and Projects with Heifer Project-based learning provides authentic learning opportunities for students to be highly engaged and to focus on the four C's that the Partnership for 21st Century and Common Core would like us to address: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity.
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Critical thinking is the study of clear and unclear thinking. A simple definition, maybe, but that's how it should be. The term was popularised long ago-
Beth Dichter's insight:
This post begins with a number of definitions for critical thinking, from the basic (as seen above) to more complex (as seen through the eyes of Common Core). It then goes on to look at: Where did the concept come from? The next section, "What does the term really mean?" provides two lists. The first list is "what we know critical thinking isn't. Below are two of the items on this list. * Simply mimicking others thinking. * Being biased towords (or against) one way of thinking. The second list, "what we know critical thinking is." This list includes: * Willingness to be wrong. * Questioning one's own thinking. The final section provides Three Rules of Thumb - one for Essays, one for Discussions and one for Tests. Below is one example from each of the Three Rules of Thumb. * Discuss the phrasing of prompts. * Highlight the mysterious. * Include the "how" and "why" in multiple choice questions. Each section of this post provides additional details.
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How to use open-ended, close-ended, and a double question technique to inspire deeper thinking in your students.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Teaching students to ask questions is not an easy task. This is the first in a series of two posts that will explore ways that teachers may ask questions to help their students "learn more from text and from the world around them." He is using the book Goldilocks and the Three Bears to model a number of strategies to use in the classroom * Tell - Read the story or have them read the story. Ask questions that refer back to the text * Suggest - Provide "children with choices about what might happen next or possible opinions they might have." * Ask a closed question - "These questions generally elicit yes or no answers. They can bring students to different temporal areas or elaborations of details, but the extent of this is structured by the question." * Ask an open ended question - questions that provide lots of options. * The two-question rule - follow the first question with a second question allowing students to probe more deeply (and sometimes a third question). Find examples of questions for each area listed above as well as the reasoning behind why the two-question rule is a good one to use.
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"Recently I participated in a discussion on 21st century skills where one educator posed the question 'can you teach 21st century skills without technology?'"
Beth Dichter's insight:
Think about the skills that are defined as 21st century skills: * collaboration * communication * critical thinking and problem solving * creativity and innovation Are these skills that can be taught without technology? If we look to the past, we would answer yes, they are skills that can be taught without technology. We are often asked to teach these skills today with technology. What if we introduce these skills with technology, providing students the opportunity to collaborate and learn how to effectively communicate face-to-face, learn about visual cues and more. This post explores how each of these skills may be taught without technology. You can take the information and consider how to them augment the skills with technology to help your students deepen their understanding.
Siphiwe Kubeka's curator insight,
May 22, 2014 8:06 AM
Technology has made education to be much easier and more interesting in information literacy
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"Understand what critical thinking means and how critical thinkers think. Learn to express yourself clearly and develop a balanced argument."
Beth Dichter's insight:
This site provides a range of materials to help students learn critical thinking skills. The resources include: * A video that helps guide you on ways to improve your critical thinking skills. * An infographic (see image above) that helps you visualize the questions to consider asking. * Top Tips for Critical Thinking - Five tips are provided with additional information under each. * An Apply Section which has three questions that students may answer. * Enhance Your Wellness - learn a few tips that will help your mental and physical health that may allow you to improve your focus and your grades. There is a lot of excellent information in this post. Although it is geared to college students much of this may be used in upper elementary, middle and high school.
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"I have been working on a tool for students to do a self assessment/reflection and feedback...The tool is based around the work of Stephen Dinham which is used be DET NSW and New Zealand eductors John Hattie & Helen Timperley."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Andrew Church has created a tool for Self-Assessment and Reflection that asks students to answer 4 questions: * What can I do? ((How am I going?) * What can't I do? (How am I going?) * How does my work compare with others? (How am I going?) * What can I do better? (Where do I go next?) And then students are asked to look ahead with this question: * What are my next steps? (What actions are you going to take as a result of your reflections? Who can help me? Where to next?) You can download two versions of this as a pdf file. One is in portrait mode and one in landscape mode. Church also asks that you provide him with feedback.
Carol Thomson's curator insight,
April 6, 2014 3:35 PM
Have been looking for something i can use with students that they understand and dont panic about.
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Every student has the capacity for rich, meaningful learning experiences. How can educators tap into the motivation that helps drive a love of learning in students? They key might be found in the "deeper learning" movement.
Beth Dichter's insight:
What is deeper learning? This post defines it as the following six competencies: * mastering content * critical thinking * effective written and oral communication * collaboration * learning how to learn * developing academic mindset The post shares an example from one school that uses deeper learning, provides additional resources on how to cultivate academic mindset, and deeper learning and the common core, educators and deeper learning, and getting started with deeper learning.
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Infographics are modern, written artifacts about collected resources in a dynamic, visual format. Infographics should be viewed as complex, standalone texts, not simply a text feature or graphic element.
Beth Dichter's insight:
This paper looks at digital literacy, specifically how infographics can be used to meet Common Core standards. A well designed infographic will have: * A Purpose * A Style * Evidence * Format The paper also includes a section "How can I teach comprehension with infographics?" This section includes two infographics and has the students critique them using the following questions: * What is the author's purpose or question? * What evidence supports the author's claim? * What are the strongest elements of this design? * How could the design be improved? You could use these same questions and have students in your class critique their infographic and their classmates. And last but by no means least they provide a list of locations where you can create an infographic. Infographics support reading comprehension and writing skills. They also allow students to strengthen their critical thinking skills and synthesis skills.
niftyjock's curator insight,
January 19, 2014 7:12 PM
I often get very bored with infographics, but these techniques will help me not only read them better but have a go at c reating my own 
Greenwich Connect's curator insight,
January 20, 2014 7:28 AM
Slightly overblown tone, presumably to help what is a useful overview of infographics sound more "academic" - read between the lines for what students should think through and how they should approach their own infographic production 
Kerri Schaub's curator insight,
January 20, 2014 8:10 AM
Visualizing is a powerful multisensory technique.
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7th grade Geography teacher, David J. at Graded-The American School of Sao Paulo, was planning an in-depth country data study and interpretation. He decided to allow his students to explore the use...
Beth Dichter's insight:
Take a look at this post to see one way to use infographics to help teach critical thinking. The post provides a look at what makes a good infographic as well as two suggestions for free tools to help students create them. There are also a couple of videos that will help students learn more about infographics as well as the need to cite sources, samples of infographics made by the students and more! Think about finding a topic that your students could research and consider having them make infographics to show their understanding...chances are they will be engaged in the process.
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![Top 10 Skills for the 21st Century Young Professional [Infographic] | Eclectic Technology | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/z5P_zLpU88v4IZDB1kUQxjl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
PBS LearningMedia is continuing to add resources and lessons to their website. This post shares five resources that help teach information literacy, with a focus on gathering, evaluating and analyzing. The five resources are listed below with brief explanations. For more information click through to the post.
Gathering Information
* Exploring Social Media with #Hashtags - for students Grade 6 - 13+
Evaluating Information
* ARTHUR'S Guide to Media Literacy - for students PreK - 4
* Evaluating the Validity of Information - Did the Chinese Discover America in 1421? Grades 6 - 8
Analyzing Information
* Analyzing Information - Can Pigs be Pets - Grades 3 - 5
* Media Arts: How to be a Critical Viewer - Grades 6 - 13+
You will need to create a free account if you do not already have one to access all their materials.