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Lesson Makeovers: 3 Big Ideas

For Teachers

After looking at dozens of lessons folks sent in, I came up with three big ideas to address.

Phrases to Join a Discussion

Want your classroom discussions to go a bit more smoothly? Train students to use a few simple phrases and it’ll make all the difference in the world.

Engagement Isn’t The Goal

For Teachers

While “engagement” is fun, it shouldn’t be our main goal.

Comparing Strengths and Weaknesses

For Teachers

Go beyond merely explaining strengths and weaknesses and get students thinking in interesting ways.

Fancy Product? Simple Thinking – Wax Museum

For Teachers

A big, impressive product doesn’t mean that there was big, impressive thinking.

Aim High, Scaffold Down in Math

For Teachers

A high level of thinking in math also requires the support of thoughtful scaffolding.

Why I Don’t Use “Create” in Bloom’s Taxonomy

For Teachers

The word “Create” can mask low-level tasks. Here’s why I avoid using it in objectives.

Not Like The Others: Branches of the US Government

How is each part of the United States Government not like the other parts?

A Lunar Survival Mission

A favorite of mine! This task is delightfully complex and ambiguous, forcing students to make choices without enough information and with no right answer. How will they survive on the moon for three days?

SCAMPER: Scaffolding Creativity

Asking students to “think creatively” won’t get you far. They won’t know how to start, they’ll get stuck with simple ideas, or they’ll just go completely wild. SCAMPER is a tool for scaffolding the process of creativity.

Disneyland Parking Structure Math Project

Your students will use estimation strategies to figure out how many parking spots are there in the parking structure at Disneyland? And you bet I reveal the real answer!

Not Like The Others: US Presidents

Four US presidents. One doesn’t belong. But which one? That depends on your argument.

Student Introductions With Depth and Frames

Want to introduce the tools of Depth and Complexity and learn more about your students and introduce the Frame graphic organizer? Have I got the activity for you!

Math Curiosity: The Coloring Problem

No video gets me more email from students! How few colors can you use to color in any map so that no two, neighboring regions are the same color?

The Resiliency Tournament

Your students will set up a tournament to determine which person or character best demonstrated resiliency.

More Specific than “Smart”

When students are told that they’re “smart”, what does this word actually mean to them? (Psst. It isn’t what we intended.)

Building Creative Analogies

We’ll take two seemingly unrelated pieces of content (say volcanoes and the human body) and then build analogies to connect the two ideas. In the end, students can create a skit, comic, or story relating the two concepts.

The Thinking Hats

So… do your students moan when forced to work in a group? Part of the problem is that lack the structure to work well with peers. Edward de Bono’s Thinking Hats are a perfect tool to help with this problem.