Golden Nuggets from Jamie McKenzie 2

These are my very brief notes from Day 2 of the Jamie McKenzie course  looking at a Toolkit of Strategies for students to learn to help them so that when they are faced with a problem, they can dig into their Toolkit of strategies.

JM feels it’s important that students learn the terms for what you’re doing with them eg Clarifying Questions – “Have you got any clarifying questions?”

The term TOPIC is the enemy – they should have a Problem to solve, or a question.

In this way, the students are not finding out how much they can “SCOOP” ie collect from the internet. They are finding out what to do about a problem.

Thinking about Strategies

Questions need connections.

Go from headings.

Cluster diagrams that show interconnections (I think these are called Concept Maps – like brainstorms or mind-mapping but with the links between ideas annotated.)

Questions have hierarchy and inter-connectness.

Remember that when you try to fix a system, – identify all the components – when you push in one place, it may go up somewhere else. (Peter Sengay)

Problem-solving is synthesis.

Slice and Dice – keep the relationship to the main idea.

Intuition (as per the new NZ Curriculum)

How does this enhance my judgement? How does it differ from Instinct? Logic?

OPERATIONALISE

Means build it into the daily life of the school or class.

Portfolios – reflection – 3Log/artifact/link to Key to Success/Reflective writing.

Projecting (feed forward) the next stage of learning.

Voicethread

Golden Nuggets from Jamie McKenzie

It’s always a delight to me to see Jamie in operation. Even if some of the material is things I’ve heard before, there is always a new slant. This time, it is of course, the new NZ Curriculum, and how JM ideas relate to this. Here are some of the points I got from today’s session.

ENGAGING STUDENTS in the MAKING of GOOD NEW IDEAS

1. When running a computer classroom:

• Set up the classroom so that you as the teacher can see most, all the screens easily.
• Make sure people at the back aren’t suffering from neck twist when you want them to look at you.
• Get FULL attention when you want to show the class something – eg Shut computers.
• 100% eye contact.

2. Focus on GOOD in the title – not all ideas are good. Make sure students are aware that we are looking for GOOD ideas – discussion/judgement on GOOD.

3. Beyond Cut and Paste

JM uses real life examples which create a visual mind picture when explaining concepts.

Proficient Readers Use:

• Inferring
• Questionning
• Picturing
• Recalling
• Synthesizing
• Flexing

4. NZ Curriculum

• It’s important that the Assessment Model matches the curriculum/teaching methods.
• Discussion and comment about actually making it happen. Sense that while the new curriculum is terrific – will it ever be allowed to happen? Do governments actually want a population that is able to think critically and ask difficult questions?
• When reading texts about politics (or anything else) children need to learn to question whose interest it is written in.

5. The Crucial Role of Questions

• Information is photo-shopped – no-one wants you to know the truth.
• Is the text Primary (data, fact based) or Secondary (Smushed by somebody.)

6. Strategies

• SCAMPER – Have seen this before, but it was good to do more in-depth work about it. I haven’t actually ever used it in the classroom despite have been given sheets about it, but now having tried it out in this session I expect I will use it more often!
• S – Substitute
• C -Combine
• A – Adapt
• M – Magnify/Minify
• P – Put to other purposes
• E – Eliminate
• R – Reverse

We had to use this with hamburgers and make up 10 different ones using the SCAMPER strategies.  We then used it in another way.

7. Comment re De Bono’s Black Hats – Jamie says he uses a Purple hat not a Black Hat – Calling people Black in America is seen as a derogatory, negative term. Ergo a Black Hat being related to negatives is seen as a reinforcement of a negative view of black people.

8. Quotes – we looked up quotes about Originality on the internet and put them as notes in an Inspiration. This could be a useful activity for students re topics they are studying.