Why Marzano's Thinking Skills are LIFE CHANGER skills

Higher order thinking skills is an important aspect in teaching and learning especially at higher education institutions. Thinking skills practices are part of the generic skills that should be infused in all technical subjects. Students with higher order thinking skills are able to learn, improve their performance and reduce their weaknesses. Hence, the purpose of this research was to identify the level of Marzano Higher Order Thinking Skills among technical education

students in the Faculty of Technical Education (FPTek), Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. A total of 158 students of FPTek were randomly selected as sample. A set of questionnaires adapted from Marzano Rubrics for Specific Task or Situations (1993) was used as research instrument. This is a quantitative research and the gathered data was

analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. The findings indicated that students perceived they have moderate level for investigation, experimental inquiry,

comparing, deducing, constructing support, inducing and invention. However, decision making, problem solving, error analyzing, abstracting, analyzing perspectives and classifying

are at low level. The Eta analysis indicated that there is a very low positive relationship between the level of Marzano Higher Order Thinking Skills and gender, academic achievement as well

as socio economic status. Besides that, the findings also showed

that there is no statistically significant difference in gender, academic achievement and socio economic status on the level of Marzano Higher Order Thinking Skills. However, there is

significant difference in socio economic status on the level of decision making.

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Contest for Grades 4-8th ...............Let's have a winner from WGSD

“Letters about Literature” Contest is Open

For the Letters about Literature contest, students tell authors about the life-changing impact of their books:

Dear Madeline L’Engle,

Your book, A Wrinkle in Time, made me really connect with myself. You may not realize what effect your character Meg had on me, and probably others as well....

Some people think they’re trash because of the unkind treatment they have received. I used to cry myself to sleep at night when I really didn’t have to, it wasn’t my fault, just like Meg. I realized that, so what if kids weren’t nice to me, I could still be nice to them. I made friends with kids that felt the same way I did. Now the bullying isn’t so hard to take for them anymore. Bullying has to stop so the next generation doesn’t have to go through what Meg, me, and millions of other kids go through....

Olivia Van Hammond
Barry Elementary School, Appleton

Dear J.K. Rowling:

... After I had finished reading Harry Potter’s epic tale, I realized that not only my reading level had changed but also something within me. I could now go about life with a brighter perspective of the things happening around me. I knew that another world was always waiting for me if I felt like the one I was living in wasn’t agreeing with me very well. Your books inspired me to believe that life wasn’t as complex as I thought it was. Everyone needs a little unreal to make the real more fun....

Katie Stremcha
North High School, Eau Claire

Submissions to the contest, which is sponsored by the Library of Congress and the Wisconsin Center for the Book, must be postmarked by December 10, 2013, for grades 9-12 and January 10, 2014 for grades 4-8.

Contact Mary Lou Santovec, coordinator, 920-674-5280, for more information. 

Just what is close reading? Ask 4th and 5th grade teachers about their poetry activity!

Defining Close Reading 

Timothy Shanahan, University of Illinois, Chicago

Close reading by anyone's definition (including probably mine) could exclude critical reading because such reading requires the imposition of some kind of external standards of quality or value. (In other words, true close reading allows explanation, but not evaluation). However, that means a reader would not be allowed to notice logical inconsistencies or factual errors within a text during a close reading (since logic and knowledge of the world are clearly external to the texts themselves). However, when one examines famous "close reads" such as those published by Wayne Booth (his analysis of Turn of the Screw is marvelous; 1961) or William Empson (1930), it is evident that they don't reject the idea of considering value or ambiguity or inconsistency in their close readings. E. D. Hirsch (1967), when he was still somewhat entangled with the New Criticism, explicitly took the position that it was essential for the reader to understand what a text said and how it worked prior to engaging in critical analysis but, ultimately, critical analysis is part of the package, even if it comes late to the party.

The version of close reading that I like best is that espoused by Mortimer Adler and Carl Van Doren (1940). They take a similar position to Hirsch. You first have to understand what a text says and how it works, but ultimately it is legitimate to turn your attention to issues of quality and value (personal or societal) when reading. In fact, I believe that view is built into the Common Core State Standards. Look at the organization of the reading standards (Key Ideas and Details—which are clearly about summarizing what texts say; Craft and Structure—which are clearly about determining how a text works and what the author's prospective is; and Integration of knowledge and meaning—which gets into evaluative judgments and text comparisons (Adler and Van Doren's syntoptic reading).

There are important inconsistencies and problems in close reading. That, in part, is what the New Criticism eventually collapsed. The rules got too strenuous and prohibitive for good readers to trust in them, so the world moved on. CCSS is bringing back a great concept, and yet it is one that should not be policed too carefully or it will likely collapse again. 

References

Adler, M.J., & Van Doren, C. (1940).  How to read a book:  The classic guide to intelligent reading.  Touchstone Publishers.

Booth, W.C. (1961). The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago, IL:  Univ. of Chicago Press.

Empson, W. (1930).  Seven types of ambiguity.  London:  Chatto and Windus. 

Hirsch, E.D. (1967).  Validity in interpretation.  New Haven, CT:  Yale University Press.

Do you know what a COGNATE is?

What are cognates?

In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common origin. Since English has its roots in the Germanic language family, there are many English words that are similar in sound and orthography to German words such as heart/Herz, house/Haus, and bear/Bär. Few native German speakers are currently entering U.S. schools so these connections are of less interest than the Romance-based words that make up another important chunk of English vocabulary.

Educator Effectiveness Update..........from Brian and Brad

Not to far back you were graced with the presence of myself and Brian Shew to help shed some light on the Educator Effectiveness Program and Student Learning Outcomes.  After looking through the exit cards that were submitted a lot of people asked for the two presentations to be emailed to you for your own resources.


Below are the two links to the presentations we conducted at your school.  If you have any questions at any time on the content we presented on, please do not hesitate to email us.


Thank you and have a great day.


Educator Effectiveness Presentation (First Presentation)


Student Learning Outcomes Presentation (Second Presentation) 

Brad Singer

Bullying - Bystanders.........Upstanders Check this out!

Thanks to all of the facilitators, coordinators and support for the Bullying Training last week.  Here is a cool video created by Amy Gee of the Upstander Training last week.