HTAV Annual Conference: Simple Routines to Develop Deeper Understanding

1. HTAV Annual Conference:Simple Routines to Develop Deeper Understanding Kathryn D’Elia Goulburn Valley Grammar School deliak@gvgs.vic.edu.au

2. Card Game • Take a card from the board • Write about today WITHOUT using your letter.

3. Card Game continued • How could you use this? • Difficult task – but forces you to think about a topic to search for words that are unusual – forces a deeper connection rather than just the most obvious answer.

4. 20 Words • Brainstorm 20 words about a particular topic.

5. 20 Words continued • Write for one minute about the topic without using any of the words on the board. • Why? Again, forces student to avoid the first thought that pops into their head and instead to delve deeper for a better description.

6. How are these 2 things similar? (1)

7. How are these 2 things similar? (2) • Pharaoh and a pair of glasses • Pharaoh and Your Parents • Pharaoh and Prime Minister • Fascism and Reality TV • Fascism and Democracy

8. How are these 2 things similar? (3) • Venn Diagram – similarities and differences.

9. Position Descriptions • For particular people in history, have students create a position description. • For example, for Hitler, have students create a position description for his job. • Allows for comparison between personal characteristics and those that allowed success in the position (eg charisma). • Could lead to discussion on whether or not a different person in the same position (or same person in a different position) could have lead to same outcome?

10. Headlines • At the end of every lesson (or unit etc) have students write a succinct, catchy headline to summarise the topic.

11. Here Now/There Then • 1. Identify a controversial issue or fairness topic that has changed significantly over time and uncover student’s basic knowledge about the topic. • ♦ Column A: List present stances, values and judgments about the topic. • 2. Ask students to imagine they could travel back to a time when the attitudes about the fairness of this topic were different. • ♦ Column B: List past stances, values and judgments about the topic. • 3. Compare the past and present perspectives in Columns A and B. • ♦ Why do you think things have changed? Why did people in the past not think the way we do today? How could we find out more about other perspectives?

12. Here Now/There Then • Works best with issues that at a different time (or currently in a different place) were/are considered controversial. • Topics where we have strong stances that are not necessarily shared by people from other cultures or by people from the past work well. • Examples of these topics might include: slavery, holocausts, genocide, human rights, women’s rights, child labour, war, etc. • Works best when students have had some experience with the topic and have at least a basic knowledge of its historical development.

14. Change the Form • Take any piece of writing – a newspaper article; information from text; movie etc – and write in a different form: eg recipe; comic strip; flow-chart; narrative; poem; song.... • Difficult but really helps information “stick”.

15. Semantic Grids • A visual approach that helps organise similarities and differences; also requires evidence (page number) which is helpful for writing tasks.

16. ChalkWalk • Activity involves several topics on large paper (eg causes of WWI – imperialism, militarism etc). • Students walk between paper and silently write on these. • Encourages quieter students to contribute. • Can then turn into a generate, sort, connect.

17. See Think Wonder & Step Inside • What do you see? • What do you think about that? • What does it make you wonder? • then • What can the person or thing perceive? • What might the person or thing know about or believe? • What might the person or thing care about?

18. Hot Spots: When Truth is at Issue • Identify a topic or situation – Is this idea clearly true, or false, or where between the two? • What makes is so uncertain? (or almost certainly true or false)? • How important is it? What makes it important (or not important?)

19. Do Not Pass, Paraphrase • A revision technique. • In pairs or groups of 4. • One student begins by providing a fact or piece of information. • The next student cannot add a new piece of information until they have accurately paraphrased the previous piece of information. • Helps to avoid students skipping over information they don’t understand.

20. Question Sorts • 1. Individually or as a group brainstorm a large set of questions on the topic and write each question on post it notes or note cards. 2. Create a horizontal continuum using masking tape on the table or draw one on the white board. This horizontal axis will represent generativity, that is, how likely the question is to generate engagement, insight, creative action, deeper understanding, and new possibilities. As a group, discuss and place each question on the horizontal line 3. Create a vertical continuum (axis) bisecting the horizontal axis. This line represents how genuine, that is, how much we care about investigating it, the question is. As a group, discuss and place each question by moving the post note up or down on the vertical axis.

21. Claim Support Question • Make a CLAIM about a topic  An explanation or interpretation of some aspect of the topic. • Identify support for your claim  things you see, feel, and know that support your claim. • Ask a question related to your claim What’s left hanging? What isn't explained? What new reasons does your claim raise?

22. Peel The Fruit • A map for using with the whole class (or groups, or for a project....)