Media Literacy

In this activity, students learned how the media constructs reality by studying television families and comparing them to real-life families. The lesson began with a survey of student's favourite TV shows about families and what they enjoy about them. In groups, students chose a family-based television show to watch and report on using Google Slides. 

Promoting Critical Thinking

This is a great strategy for increasing engagement, understanding and independence for all students whether you teach kindergarten or grade twelve. I've been reading "Making Thinking Visible" which is a research based approach to teaching thinking. The strategy helps develop students' thinking dispositions while deepening their understanding of the topics they study. Students' thinking becomes visible as the students' viewpoints are expressed, documented, discussed and reflected upon. 


To test this strategy, I started with a "Tug of War" to introduce persuasive writing. The students were given two post it notes, on one they were asked to write a reason schools should allow cell phones and on the other they were asked to write a reason schools should NOT allow cell phones. The discussion they had was insightful and engaging. Next, we are going to explore this topic further with "what if" questions.