2. Online tools helps to create active learning
environments where students can engage in
discussions, analyze information, pursue
investigations, and solve problems. You can
find teaching resources, including lesson
plans, assessment strategies, and technology-
enriched project ideas for all K–12 subjects.
3. Mobile Learning offers an exciting opportunity to make
learning truly personal and more powerful. mobile
learning or, as it’s referred to in some settings, digital
learning. Some definitions align to a particular model,
such as 1:1 or BYOD, while others focus on devices.
Again and again, however, a handful of ideas stand out:
Ubiquitous access to content and material via internet-
connected devices
Equity of access to technology and content
Greater opportunity for students to collaborate with peers
(from their classroom and across borders of school,
district, or geography)
Enhanced ability for students to take initiative to
personalize learning experiences
4. The Visual Ranking Tool brings focus to the thinking
behind making ordered lists. Students identify and
refine criteria as they assign order or ranking to a list.
Items in the list may be represented by images.
Students must explain their reasoning and can
compare their work with each other in a visual
diagram. This tool supports activities where students
need to organize ideas, debate differences, and reach
consensus.
5. The Seeing ReasonTool students create visual
maps of the factors and relationships in a
cause-and-effect investigation.These maps
make thinking visible and promote
collaboration as students work together to
refine their understanding.
6. For Students, This is a Conversation Tool
By organizing their ideas about a system into a visual diagram,
students have a common reference point to reason with each
other about cause-and-effect relationships. As they work, they
talk about their ideas—both with each other and with their
teacher.
ForTeachers, Seeing Reason is a Monitoring and Observation
Tool
Because the maps are representations of student understanding
of a system, teachers have a reference point for conversing with
students about their reasoning.
Mapping the Road to Reason
The map below shows a student's initial conception of the cause-
and-effect relationships involved in a traffic jam. It includes both
simple relationships (increasing the number of cars increases
traffic jams) and more complex ones (increasing snow increases
accidents, which increases traffic jams).
7. Showing Evidence Tool helps students learn how to construct
well-reasoned arguments and prove their case with credible
evidence. The tool provides a visual framework to make
claims, identify evidence, evaluate the quality of that
evidence, explain how the evidence supports or weakens
claims, and reach conclusions based on the evidence. This
thinking tool supports activities where students debate
differences, make and defend decisions, and analyze
conflicting information. The tool and related resources are
available for free, from any computer that is connected to
the Internet. Students may work on their claims and
evidence at home or at school, and can be paired with
another team to review their ideas.
8. Argumentation is essential to human thinking and
discourse. People construct and evaluate arguments
everyday in school, work, and informal settings to
resolve issues as simple as what brand of soda to buy
to as complex as whether stem cell research should
be legalized. The ability to evaluate and construct
arguments is particularly important in today’s society
where individuals are constantly confronted with new
information. Argumentation is about making claims
and providing justification for those claims.
Justification means that people can question why they
should believe an assertion or claim. A claim should
not just be an individual’s opinion, but should be
justifiable if another individual challenges it.
9. The Showing Evidence Tool provides a scaffold to
support students as they create a claim and then
support or refute it with appropriate evidence. When an
argument is complicated, the components of the tool
help students think through justifying a claim. A debate
about stem cell research, for example, might lead to
multiple claims that could be supported by evidence.
The Showing Evidence Tool prompts students to
consider the quality of the evidence (Do they trust the
source?), and the strength of the evidence to support
their claim (Is the evidence central to their argument?).
Students use the tool to explicitly link evidence to their
claim and provide their reasoning as to why the
evidence supports their claim .
10. When assessment drives instruction, students learn
more and become more confident, self-directed
learners. Assessing Projects helps teachers create
assessments that address 21st century skills and
provides strategies to make assessment an integral
part of their teaching and help students understand
content more deeply, think at higher levels, and
become self-directed learners.
