Our purpose in writing this article is to set the stage for a series of activities that you can use personally or with your students to practice the strategies of the skilled thinker.  There are many ways to conceptualize the organization of these skills.  We have chosen to group them into the categories of gathering, assessing or considering, and applying.

Gathering skills can be thought of as discrete skills that are used to recall or collect bits of data that are thought to be useful in the pursuit of the solution to some sort of problematic situation.  As the data begins to accumulate, the skilled thinker considers and assesses what has been gathered and begins to sketch out potential solutions.  Often, additional gathering steps are required to fill in gaps.  Application skills blend all of the pieces into a strategic attack on the problem at hand. Read more…

Articles Thinking

OBSERVING FOR DETAILS
Bob Valiant, 11 March 2004

Thinking Skill Emphasized: Observing for Detail

Suggestions are given for teaching/learning the skill of observing for detail.
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Learning Activities Activity, Lesson, Observing, Thinking

Observing Sequence
Bob Valiant, 14 March 2004

Thinking Skill Emphasized: Observing Sequence

Activities for observing sequence are provided.
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Learning Activities Activity, Lesson, Observing, Thinking

Observing Similarities and Differences
Bob Valiant, 14 March 2004

Thinking Skill Emphasized: Observing Similarities and Differences

In this activity, students are asked to observe two or more things for detail, then identify similarities and differences.
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Learning Activities Activity, Lesson, Observing, Thinking

CATEGORIZE
Bob Valiant, 15 March 2004

Thinking Skill Emphasized: CATEGORIZE

Grouping items into categories helps us make sense of data collections.
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Learning Activities Activity, Categorize, Lesson, Thinking

CLASSIFY
Bob Valiant, 15 March 2004

Thinking Skill Emphasized: CLASSIFY/CATEGORIZE

By grouping similar things together we are able to organize vast amounts of information into manageable chunks. Read more…

Learning Activities Activity, Classify, Lesson, Thinking

ANALYSIS 1
Bob Valiant, 15 March 2004

Thinking Skill Emphasized: ANALYSIS

When we analyze a document we look for the important information.
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Learning Activities Activity, Analysis, Lesson, Thinking