TIPC Ratings

Developing: The students assemble and synthesize information related to water conservation gained through research. The students choose their internet resources to determine average water usage statistics and strategies for water conservation. The students use various resources and tools of their choice and display their information and suggestions for ways in which they and their peers can conserve water. The teacher formatively assesses the students completion of tasks related to the project. This includes research, brainstorming, documentation, and execution of ideas. The teacher provides guidelines for research but the students have an unlimited amount of resources for gathering data and creating unique ideas for water usage and conservation.

Approaching: The students select technology resources and digital tools to collaborate with their team members and develop their campaign. They are able to choose their own tools for researching water conservation and usage. They have the freedom to communicate with their group members and determine the most effective digital media format to portray their ideas. They are able to assign roles within the group to maintain effective collaboration. They determine ways to share their ideas with other classmates and the rest of the school. They work together to set up goals for future growth in the field of water conservation. The teacher monitors group interaction and facilitates tasks with the students are working together. This is done through research, brainstorming strategies, and discussion of how to best create a final product.

Approaching: One of the key goals throughout the course of the lesson is to engage in problem solving and come up with solutions to the problem of water usage. The students respond to questions related to usage statistics and evaluate suggested strategies for cutting back on water usage. The students work together and engage in critical thinking and decision making based on which area to highlight in the public service announcement, which strategies to include in their complete project, and which form of digital media to use. The teacher supports the students as they engage in problem solving.

Approaching: The students use existing and self-generated knowledge by completing the water usage survey and analyzing the results of the survey. They brainstorm ideas as a group and reflect on their creative and innovative suggestions for water growth as well as determining more effective ways to promote their ideas. They have complete freedom to choose which conservation ideas to highlight, create their own public service announcements and creatively decide how to portray their ideas. Some groups used their creativity to create commercials using ideas, visual displays, and props to enhance their ideas. They were able to further enhance their products using audio accompaniment.

TIPC Ratings

Students were required to research different techniques to keep an apple from turning brown with teacher provided resources. Since this was not the focus of the lesson the teacher facilitated the process through discussion with student groups as they worked through setting up their experiment.

Although this was not the focus of the lesson students communicated within the class through the creation process developing collaborative strategies to accomplish the experiment they created. Students also utilized edmodo as a communication tool to organize themselves outside of the classroom environment.

Target: Students applied critical thinking and problem solving strategies to solve an authentic task. When you cut apples, they turn brown, so students had to think of ways to prevent this real world problem from happening. The students themselves participated in quality decision making to solve this problem by conducting research, planning and implementing an investigation via an experiment to answer their questions. Because the nature of this lesson is to apply what they have learned, students are acting as scientists, and this demonstrates the highest level of critical thinking and problem solving.

Some students took risks by selecting products which had not been introduced as a standard “fruit fresh” agent but based on the knowledge of the product thought it would a successful trial. Although the end product did not focus on creating an original product the experiment stretched students to create new ideas based on prior knowledge.

TIPC Ratings

Developing: The students apply search techniques on building materials and budget as demonstrated by the teacher. The students are prompted to analyze building scenarios and use prior gained information to solve mathematical calculations for surface area and volume. The teacher instructs the students on how to determine accuracy of their calculations.

Approaching: Throughout the completion of the lesson students had to communicate and collaborate effectively with their chosen project partner. They had to work together to research, brainstorm, create models and solve practical problems with a common end goal in mind. They took on roles which placed them in a position of leadership and responsibility for various aspects of the assigned project. Group norms were established to help facilitate their collaboration. They made use of the internet, Google SketchUp and School Space to help facilitate their collaboration. They were able to work together to use technology and determine the most efficient plan for completing their assignment.

Target: The main goal throughout the course of this lesson was to engage in critical thinking and solving of practical problems related to geometry and real-life uses of geometric formulas. The students used multiple resources to gain background information, research materials and budgets ideas and use critical thinking to determine the most efficient way to construct parts of a home. They used critical thinking and problem solving to solve surface area and volume problems. They had to use critical thinking to describe how changing measurements of a prism or cylinder impacts its volume and surface area. They had to relate these changes to real-life scenarios and use problem solving to determine impacts to budget and quantities of materials. The teacher engaged in formative assessment of critical thinking and problem solving skills through the means of observation and questioning. Summative assessment was completed based on submission of completed products.

Developing: The students used technology and prior knowledge to create assigned models of parts of a home. The students had to question, summarize and solve problems related to prior knowledge of surface area and volume of three dimensional shapes.

TIPC Ratings

Approaching: Students had to generate their own questions about what they wanted to learn about their chosen hero and this is what guided their research. They had to find their own research tools and resources relevant to their hero in order to create the digital story. Once information was gathered, students had to narrow down their material, organize their ideas and research, in order to create a digital story that met the requirements of the rubric.

Approaching: Students worked in groups throughout this project. Groups were student selected and effectiveness of the groups was assessed daily using a collaborative group work rubric. The teacher instructed students on how to collaborate purposefully without direct supervision. See rubric for details on group expectations.

Ideal: Students were given guidance and digital resources for how to create their digital story. From there, groups had to engage in critical thinking and problem solving in order to determine the appropriate application of tools to implement in their digital story. Samples were shown and in class, students evaluated other digital stories to determine the effectiveness of each element. Students had to be knowledgeable about their hero as well as their dramatic question in order to communicate their intended message.

Ideal/Target: Students had to synthesize many resources (i.e. Audacity, digital images, MovieMaker etc) as well as self-generated material (the narrative essay) in order to create a unique product beyond the assignment’s parameters. Students were given a great deal of time to explore the different resources. This promoted the risk-taking of several students as they learned to use digital tools in new and innovative ways. At the end of the process, students wrote journal entries to reflect upon their creative process.

TIPC Ratings

Teacher: Approaching – designed Art exchange challenge to promote synthesis of a wide variety of resources to address an authentic task
Student: Approaching – constructed questions to guide exchange partner research, selected appropriate digital tools and information sources to make initial exchange happen and maintaining contact with various partners.

Teacher: Target – Art Exchange challenge promoted collaboration within and beyond the classroom, students engaged in meaningful communication and purposeful collaboration with each other as well as exchange partners
Student: Target – Groups established norms, organized roles, selected appropriate digital tools to communicate and collaborate with peers and experts (RPS Art teacher/students, VCU Professor/College Art Ed students/Teachers travelling and working in Costa Rica) regardless of physical distances, reflected on how Art Exchange went so far and set goals for future growth as student artists.

Teacher: Target- Designs questioning strategies to promote student generated solutions, promotes meaningful questioning among student groups; planning and implementing the art exchange required high levels of critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Student: Target- Uses critical thinking and problem solving strategies to figure out every detail of Art Exchange challenge, Who,What, When, Where, Why and How! Reflects on how the Art Exchange unfolded and how they would like to see it continue?

Teacher: Target- Designed Art Exchange challenge for students to apply critical thinking skills from start to finish; develops and facilitates an open studio environment for students to feel empowered creatively
Student: Target- Synthesized existing knowledge (what do I already know about my own art, how do i define exchange, how can I expand on this, make it work?). Students individually and as a group reflect on their creative process.

TIPC Ratings

Approaching (video evidence provided in lesson development):
The teacher model keyword searching and the importance of comparing multiple sources to validate information. Students used a variety of search techniques to locate the required information/criteria outlined in the project expectations. Students developed questions for the expert conference to ensure they had all the required information for their project. Students shared good websites which was one way the teacher judged the types of websites they were using to gather information. Projects were required to have a bibliography as well. Once the first two days of research were complete group members were asked to rate each other and themselves based on our expectations of research.

Ideal (video evidence in lesson development):
Students identified the good and the bad of group work and developed rules to help create a positive and productive environment to complete the project. Although students were placed in teacher selected groups they were asked to decide on the roles so that each person completed equal parts of the work. Students decided that group meetings at the end of the day would assist with assigning work and keeping track of what has been completed. Students were told that everyone must have the work available in case someone was absent. They were able to decide how to share the information and this usually happened during the group meeting. Students also had to find an expert outside of the classroom to gather interesting facts about their Biome you may not find in basic research. Students chose the appropriate to digital tool to present their information to the class. Each member of the group reflected on their collaboration through their surveys and conversations with the teacher.

Approaching: Students were constantly problem solving how to work in groups and how to present their information in the most effective and creative way. Groups were constantly questioned throughout the process to allow students to elaborate on their creative decisions as well as what information they decided to include about their Biome. Students were asked to look at their Biome over a period of time and understand how the environment and organisms within the Biome and explain the significance of those changes. Students used a variety of digital tools to display food webs and energy pyramids so that other students would be able to understand the information presented. Students generated questions for their expert and some students were also questioning the groups after their presentations. The decisions made throughout the entire project, from what tool to use to present or what picture to use to best show the terrain, required critical thinking and compromise and/or problem solving.

Approaching: Each class discussed the project criteria with specific regards to being clear, neat, detailed, and concise. The creative portion of the rubric was also stressed to the class. Students reflected on what they liked when teachers presented to them and what they did not like to help make their presentations more dynamic. Students were asked to look at their Biome over a period of time and understand how the environment and organisms within the Biome and explain the significance of those changes. The student project was their opportunity to create an interesting and innovative presentation so other students could learn from their work.

TIPC Ratings

The students are analyzing information, the book reviews, to assemble their own responses to that information. In some parts of the lesson the students are also selecting their own digital tools in order to meet the needs of the assignment.

The students helped to guide a discussion on how the partner groups should be formed. The teacher asked them for ideas on how they could partner up with someone that may have a different point of view. Some examples of the ideas that the students came up with include; boy/girl, different favorite genres, and personality types.

The students are choosing the most appropriate digital tool for their chart of positives and negative and their templates. They are also questioning and using critical thinking skills in order to assess how well a book review is written. They are doing this in order to create their own book review template, which they will use to create their own website for the school. They will reflected on how well they did with the positives and negatives when looking at their peer results in the google doc and when voting on the winning template. A future goal for all students will be to continue to write book reviews containing the positive characteristics discussed.

The students are using the information gained from the book review critiques to create their own book review template. This task is both meaningful and authentic to them because they will be using the winning template to write their own book reviews.

TIPC Ratings

Students were guided through the Van Allsburg web site to investigate the strategies Chris Van Allsburg utilized for creative writing, drawing, and inference on moral lessons. Emphasis was modeled on his imagery writing and his inference for students to acquire and evaluate imagery; and inferred themes. These strategies were selected to challenge students to synthesize and create their own imagery character, setting and themes using Van Allsburg’s style of writing after the research. Examples were provided for each element and discussed thoroughly. In the research process, the teacher assessed groups to ensure information was interactive.

Students:
After the student-formed collaborative groups read and evaluated the books, groups assembled and organized the stories key elements to garner information. Students used problem-solving techniques to select appropriate information as they researched and assembled the information for the key elements in characters and settings and inferred themes. Students completed the task as they choose appropriate digital tools to display their information. Once students began the brainstorming, groups applied the information collected to create their own imagery for a new character, setting and theme.

Students organized teams and group roles to communicate and collaborate with peers using digital tools as they evaluated stories and garnered information for key elements in the Van Allsburg stories. The groups were able to discuss with their peers, ideas both for the setting, theme and characters as they practiced these new techniques. During research, each team had students who read the story while one person typed as the students discussed the key elements in the story. The groups continued to work together as they brainstormed their ideas for the imagery characters, setting and morals for their new stories. Students used their choice of digital tools such as Google Docs or Google Power Points for collaboration

Students used higher order thinking to transfer their prior and new knowledge to design their own characters, setting and themes from the images and quotes from Holman Middle School. The lesson was set to model a range of approaching critical thinking for problem solving as students read the Van Allsburg books and identified the key elements of Van Allsburg’s style within the books. Students used critical thinking and decision making as they brainstormed for new stories using a new style of writing.

Students at the beginning of the lesson analyzed the key elements and made predictions based on the Van Allsburg stories that led students to create their own original short stories. Using Van Allsburg’s inspiration of his style of writing; students continued to self-generate new ideas for a setting, character and them. As students self-generated idea in pairs, the work began to take on new meaning depending on the ability of the student. Taking all the key elements and creating new ideas in collaboration with other peers’ work took the assignment into new parameters from analyzing and evaluating to creativity and innovation. Students began to reflect on the difficulty of creativity and innovative process of not only writing new stories but developing a new style from a famous author.

TIPC Ratings

All option in this project were examples of “authentic tasks” because they not only had cross-curricular opportunities, but also challenged students to trouble-shoot issues that came up as they used different programs. Students used a variety of tools to display and interact with information, such as the Active Inspire presentation analyzing the main character’s progress.

Students were given opportunities to collaborate with one another on this project. They completed Quia surveys after the lesson to set goals for future growth and reflect on the project.

Students were given a choice in the media they used, and were challenged to trouble-shoot issues that came up as they used different programs. Students used a Quia survey to assess one another, and after each presentation gave feedback on the strengths and areas for improvement, helping their peers to grow as critical thinkers. They completed Quia surveys after the lesson to reflect on their roles as critical thinkers and what they had learned through using these new programs.

Students were able synthesize what they had learned through the story by acting, selecting songs to represent the theme, sifting through art, and even posing as scientists. Again, they reflected on their use of creativity through a Quia survey at the end.

TIPC Ratings

Approaching: Students had to make their own connection between the parts of their city and the parts of the cell. They were given the freedom to select the most appropriate digital tools and information sources. The student groups initially used Google Earth to explore the design, land features, and structures found in their city. They collected their research and organized it into a google doc. Following teacher comments inserted into the shared document, students refined their research as needed.

Students selected their own partners and digital tools to communicate and collaborate. They organized their roles within the group to gather research and share with on another whether at school or at home through the use of Google Docs. Most groups also selected a media tool that all members could collaborate .

Approaching: Students had to determine how to compare the parts of a cell to the city they selected based off their research. Digital tools were applied to think critically and solve a task that involved higher order thinking skills.

Approaching: Students created meaningful, original work within the guidelines set forth by the teacher. Students were very creative in comparing the parts/functions of their city to the parts/functions of the cell