Thursday, April 28, 2011

Printable Bookmarks with Thinking Skills/Thinking Stems/Summaries

I’ve blogged about the successful use of thinking skills in promoting reading comprehension and the huge increase I saw in reading levels here: Reading Levels Jump 5 Months in just 2.5 Months!   

 

I started thinking how great it would be if each student had a bookmark detailing the thinking skills AND thinking stems/summaries.  So I made a bookmark that includes the thinking skills on one side, and the format for thinking stems and summaries on the back.  The thinking skills mirror those on my Good Reader poster.  The students love them and use them regularly.  Feel free to print the bookmarks out for your own students. 

Side one is here: Bookmark Front
Side two is here: Bookmark Back
The bookmarks are in a .jpg format.  If you would like the .pub format… email me at diane.dahl(at)edmondschools.net.  Please put ‘bookmarks’ in your subject line in case the spam filter grabs it. 

Also, if you are interested, here are the rubrics I use for my thinking stems and summaries....

Have fun, and happy reading!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Increase Study Skills and Test Performance through Predictions

Students taking a test at the University of Vi...                        Image via Wikipedia
More things I'm learning through BrainSMART...     
     Making predictions utilizes the higher-order thinking skills of our frontal lobes.  Teach students the metacognitive power of predictions to ensure interest, motivation, as well as current and future academic success. 

     Before a test, encourage students to predict what information will be on it.  The first couple of times walk students through the process.  Question them about the information they feel is most likely to be on their test and why.  Share ideas for determining importance.  Encourage them to write their predictions down.  This process will increase student interest while exercising their logic and judgment skills.  After the test, ask students to review their predictions.  What predictions were correct and why? What will they do differently next time? 

     Before the next test, let students work individually or with partners to make their predictions.  I recommend checking the relevance of the predictions students are making.  This is an excellent opportunity to hone study skills for specific students by providing a window into their thinking.  After each subsequent test, allow students time to review their predictions with their partner or groups. 

     Making predictions is a valuable metacognitive teaching and learning tool.  It involves a review of material, increased interest and motivation, and the higher level thinking skills of the frontal lobe.  Give it a try!
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