breakout session: building thinkers 1

Building Thinkers through Critical and Creative Learning Strategies LouEllen Brademan – ISD Rose Moore – ISD Shilpi Patel – DSS 2

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AGENDA Connect to PD Focus & Increased Rigor The WHY of Critical and Creative Thinking Experience Critical and Creative Thinking Strategies (WHAT and HOW) Planning Next Steps & Building Capacity 4

OUTCOMES Learn the WHAT, WHY, and HOW of using critical and creative thinking strategies to raise the rigor for all students. Begin planning ways to support your staff with implementing critical and creative thinking strategies in their everyday instruction. Today's students need to be critical thinkers, problem solvers, and effective communicators who are proficient in both core subjects and new 21st century skills. Ken Kay, President, Partnership for 21 st Century Skills 5

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Teachers will be able to:  Build relationships with students that support effort and self-efficacy in reaching higher standards  Recognize the 21 st Century Skills (Critical & Creative Thinking) within our curriculum  Plan lessons that teach 21 st Century Skills (Critical & Creative Thinking) by designing instructional tasks that require high levels of thinking for the essential skills  Using instructional strategies that support and promote student thinking at high levels  Engaging students in intellectual discourse  Raising students’ levels of metacognition  Providing students multiple opportunities to problem solve  Choose assessments that allow students to demonstrate 21st Century Skills (Critical & Creative Thinking) at high levels. 7

Will this be on the Test? 8

Fluency Thinking of and listing many ideas Flexibility Thinking from different perspectives Originality Coming up with unique ideas Elaboration Building upon an existing idea – adding details 9

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THE WHY Read excerpt from Chapter of Making Thinking Visible. Record your thinking using the PLUS, MINUS, INTERESTING (PMI) Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) strategy. –What are the plus, minus, and interesting aspects of your reading? 11 PLUSMINUSINTERESTING

What are the plus, minus, and interesting aspects of your reading? Green Plus Yellow Minus Blue Interesting 12

Why Teach Critical and Creative Thinking in All K- 12 Classrooms? Moving away from an industrial economy and toward a knowledge economy innovation is a major keystone 13

14 Source: "Tough Choices or Tough Times" 2007, National center on education and the economy The demand for non- routine skills is rising fast, as the need for routine and manual skills falls.

CRITICAL THINKING is for science & math True or False CREATIVE THINKING is for the arts & humanities 15

CRITICAL & CREATIVE thinking can and should be applied to ANY subject, content or problem. FALSE 16

CREATIVITY is a right brain activity True or False 17

The Creativity Crisis, Bronson & Merryman CREATIVE THINKING requires divergent thinking and then convergent thinking. CREATIVITY requires constant shifting between right and left brain activity. FALSE 18

CREATIVITY can be taught. True or False 19

Practicing promotes more creative thinking. Treffinger’s Creative Problem-Solving Method is composed of fact-finding, problem-finding, idea-finding, solution-finding, and plan of action and has the highest success in increasing children’s creativity. TRUE: CREATIVITY can be taught. 20

CRITICAL and CREATIVE Thinking Critical and creative thinking are interrelated processes essential to problem solving. Creative thinking involves constructing something original. Critical thinking involves logic and reasoning skills. As we solve problems, we navigate between both thinking patterns across all disciplines and grade levels. 21

Students need explicit instruction and exposure to thinking strategies in context in order to be able to apply them. Strategies are engaging for students and teachers! CRITICAL and CREATIVE Thinking 22

TORRANCE KIDS In1958, four hundred children completed creativity tasks designed by professor E. Paul Torrance The children were asked “How could you improve this toy to make it better and more fun to play with?” 23

Those who came up with more good ideas on Torrance’s tasks grew up to be entrepreneurs, inventors, college presidents, authors, doctors, diplomats, and software developers. Jonathan Plucker of Indiana University recently reanalyzed Torrance’s data. The correlation to lifetime creative accomplishment was more than three times stronger for childhood creativity than childhood IQ. 24

Sir Ken Robinson … “there is a consistent mission to transform the culture of education and organizations with a richer conception of human creativity and intelligence.” 25

Dr. Edward de BonoDr. Richard Paul Nine Strategies for Teaching Critical and Creative Thinking adapted from the work of... 26

CHALK TALK: Round 1 27

CHALK TALK: Round 2 28

CHALK TALK: Round 3 29

21 st Century Skills Rethinking How Students Learn p. 314 Without a combination of critical thinking, problem-solving, effective teamwork, and creativity, learning remains stagnant, more useful for passing a test than solving a real world challenge. 30

If critical and creative thinking are being implemented in your school what will be evident? StudentsTeachers 31 Post your responses on Today’s Meet at

What sprouted at your table discussions? 32

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Go as far as you can see. When you get there, you can see farther. Thomas Carlyle 34

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