Thinking-RPI-18/07/2025

 Thinking-RPI-18/07/2025

We began the day by going into our breakout groups and sharing how our 'vocab' activities went. We all agreed that it was great we had time during day 6 of this course to prepare our vocab activities/lessons as this meant we could get straight into the teaching without losing momentum. 

Dorothy then introduced us to the topic of: 'Smart thinking for smart learners: Kaupapa and Shared Pedagogy'. She pointed out that  of The Four C’s: Critical Thinking, Communication, Creativity, Collaboration, critical thinking is the most important skill to have in the 21st century, and this thinking needs to relate to the following: 

We then looked at AI and how pervasive it is. Of course, AI can be a great aid but it is vital to teach our students to be able to use AI as a positive learning experience and to be able to recognise when AI is creating fake content. I have found AI to be a fantastic tool for lesson planning. It certainly still needs much adapting to make lessons  relevant but is an excellent, time-saving tool.

Kiri then introduced us to higher order thinking. We looked back on levels of thinking:

Here are the levels of higher order thinking:

We then went into our breakout group and did 3 activities on literal, interpretative and evaluative thinking. They were simple yet effective activities that I'll be able to use with my year 9's:

Kiri then focused on analysing text as a basis for unlocking higher order levels of thinking and did a useful activity that involved highlighting parts of a pdf. I didn't even know that tool was available for pdfs! We then looked at 'zooming in (what word does the author use to show us...) and zooming out (what other evidence connects to the big idea of…)' at word levels. 

Next we went into breakout groups-I was in the secondary students group. Naomi and Janet focused on reading and interpreting academic language of text(s). We looked closely at nominalization and at how the use of such words can make it difficult for students to make sense of the text. This can be overcome by teaching students how to break down words and focus on the base word of the nominalization to make sense of the text. 

Naomi then introduced 'Critical Analysis to Read Critically'. We looked at the use of provocation in research and discussion. These role prompts will be useful to use in class discussions. We then looked at quality learner reflection. Next, we went into our breakout groups to have a discussion about the idea of 'Climate change is a hoax', while we took on different roles in the discussion. This was fun and I found it highlighted how a person's viewpoint can change your perception of them. 

Kiri then took us through key approaches to critically reading and challenging text(s). We looked at positioning and the importance of including this in one's teaching:

We were reminded of how planned unit and teaching moments can weave together. The importance of providing opportunities for students to challenge and resist was also covered. We then went onto Canva to create an outline of a lesson we'll teach in regards to this. here is my lesson outline:

I'll be using The Stuntman and the Geologist as the text for this lesson.

This will be my focus for reading  the next 3 weeks:

The highlight of today's session for me was the idea of using provocation as a catalyst for higher level thinking. Not only is it a valuable tool but it can be easily implemented into a variety of lessons.