Literacy and higher order thinking
Background to workshop
Too much emphasis on lower order thinking (e.g. remembering) can hurt students’ academic achievement as well as their success on standardised testing (e.g. NAPLAN). This workshop demonstrates how improving students’ higher order thinking and improving literacy (e.g. reading and writing) are related and interdependent.
Audience
This workshop can be adapted for all teachers across the curriculum from foundation to Year 12.
Length
The basic version takes 90 minutes to 2 hours. Longer workshops are available by request.
Outline
- Defining higher order thinking and (re)introducing the revised Bloom’s taxonomy
- Relating Bloom’s to a model of language-in-use
- Higher order thinking and reading strategies, e.g. QARs, three level guides, Questioning Circles and Questioning Hierarchies
- Higher order thinking and writing (creating challenging tasks, scaffolding an understanding of context, more effective planning etc)
Resources
A data projector will be required. The school will also be provided with a teacher booklet for printing.
