Thinking Skills - Mysteries


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<p><a href="home/learningandwork/educationandachievement/cpd/cpd-teaching/cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskills-strategies/thinkingskills-mysteries.htm#mysteriesoverview" > Overview</a></p>
<p><a href="home/learningandwork/educationandachievement/cpd/cpd-teaching/cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskills-strategies/thinkingskills-mysteries.htm#mysteriesthinking" > Thinking skills objectives</a></p>
<p><a href="home/learningandwork/educationandachievement/cpd/cpd-teaching/cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskills-strategies/thinkingskills-mysteries.htm#mysteriestask" > Task management</a></p>
<p><a href="home/learningandwork/educationandachievement/cpd/cpd-teaching/cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskills-strategies/thinkingskills-mysteries.htm#mysteriesmetacognitive" > Metacognitive plenary</a></p>
<p><a href="home/learningandwork/educationandachievement/cpd/cpd-teaching/cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskills-strategies/thinkingskills-mysteries.htm#mysteriesassessment" > Assessment for learning</a></p>
<p><a href="home/learningandwork/educationandachievement/cpd/cpd-teaching/cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskills-strategies/thinkingskills-mysteries.htm#mysteriesexamples" > Examples of lessons</a></p>
<p><a href="mysteries.doc" > Solo level sheet with information for Assessment for Learning [Word 36KB]</a></p>
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<p><a name="mysteriesoverview"></a><b>Overview:</b></p>
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<p>A Mystery is a collection of different data which pupils use to find a reasoned answer to a central question. The information used can be text, images, objects, charts or a combination.</p>
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<p><img src="halfline.gif" width="350" height="5" alt=" " class="imgspacing" /> </p>
<p><a name="mysteriesthinking"></a><b>Thinking skills objectives:</b></p>
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<ul><li> Make sure you have a thinking skill objective for the lesson</li>
<li> Tell pupils what the objective is at the beginning of the lesson and refer to it throughout.</li></ul>
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<p>Thinking Skills you can develop through a Mystery lesson are:</p>
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<ul><li> Reasoning</li>
<li> Classification</li>
<li> Information Processing</li>
<li> Creative thinking</li></ul>
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<p><img src="halfline.gif" width="350" height="5" alt=" " class="imgspacing" /> </p>
<p><a name="mysteriestask"></a><b>Task management:</b></p>
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<p><b>A: Groupings.</b> </p>
<ul><li> A group of 3 pupils works well</li>
<li> Make sure that they are sitting on the same table</li></ul>
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<p><b>B: Information Sets:</b></p>
<ul><li> Can your pupils read the material?</li>
<li> Is the font size appropriate?</li>
<li> Are there too many cards? Too few cards?</li>
<li> Have you got enough challenge for the gifted and talented?</li>
<li> Have you thought about SEN?</li></ul>
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<p><b>C: Role of the teacher during the task:</b></p>
<ul><li> Try not to tell pupils the answers!</li>
<li> If pupils seem stuck, prompt them by asking questions.</li>
<li>If pupils come up with too limited an answer; ask them how they could develop their sub sets further. You could always have some extra cards with different ideas to present later and prompt further thought.</li>
<li> Listen to all your groups for examples of thinking to use in the metacognitive plenary later.</li></ul>
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<p><b>D: Timings:</b></p>
<ul><li> This will vary according to the task, group structure and number of cards; but usually lasts for 10 to 25 minutes.</li></ul>
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<p><img src="halfline.gif" width="350" height="5" alt=" " class="imgspacing" /> </p>
<p><a name="mysteriesmetacognitive"></a><b>Metacognitive plenary:</b></p>
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<p>In the metacognitive plenary you need to include questions like:</p>
<ul><li> How did you start this task?</li>
<li> How did you move on?</li>
<li> What did you do next?</li>
<li> What was hard about the task? Why?</li>
<li> What did you assume?</li>
<li> Did you reject any of the information? Why?</li>
<li> How would this way of thinking help you develop a piece of extended writing?</li>
<li> How could this skill be used in another subject? Or elsewhere?</li></ul>
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<p><a name="mysteriesassessment"></a><b>Assessment for learning:</b></p>
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<p><img src="halfline.gif" width="350" height="5" alt=" " class="imgspacing" /> </p>
<p><a name="mysteriesexamples"></a><b>Examples of lessons:</b></p>
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<p>Click on the subject button for a list of materials. Each lesson will have a brief summary of how the teacher intended it to be used and copyright free resources. In some instances the teacher concerned has indicated where the resource used might be found.</p>
<ul><li> <a href="cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskillssubjects/thinkingskillsart.htm" > Art</a></li>
<li> <a href="cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskillssubjects/thinkingskillscitizenship.htm" > Citizenship</a></li>
<li> <a href="cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskillssubjects/thinkingskillsdesigntechnology.htm" > DT</a></li>
<li> <a href="cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskillssubjects/thinkingskillsgeography.htm" > Geography</a></li>
<li> <a href="cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskillssubjects/modernlanguageskills.htm" > German</a></li>
<li> <a href="cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskillssubjects/thinkingskillshistory.htm" > History</a></li>
<li> <a href="cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskillssubjects/thinkingskillsmaths.htm" > Maths</a></li>
<li> <a href="cpd-teaching-thinkingskills/thinkingskillssubjects/thinkingskillsscience.htm" > Science</a></li></ul>
<p>Have you prepared a thinking skills lesson that has worked well for you and that you are prepared to share?</p>
<p>If so please complete the <a href="thinkingskillsresourcesappform.doc" > attached form [Word 35KB]</a></p>
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