Thinking with Technology

Activity 2.1

Step 3: Targeting assessment standards that may be supported by the Thinking Tools

Use the Help Guide if you need assistance in completing any of the following ICT skills

Considering the assessment standards you have identified in the previous step, what assessment standards are best served by one or more of the thinking tools? Could the thinking tools be used to help learners in any of the following areas?

Visual Ranking	Seeing Reason	Showing Evidence
Would these assessment standards require or be supported if learners:	Would these assessment standards require or be supported if learners investigate:	Would these assessment standards require or be supported if learners:
Compare Consider perspective Contrast Differentiate Prioritize Rank Other	Cause-and-effect relationships Consequences Impacts Influences Outcomes Systems Other	Analyze Argue Debate Evaluate Hypothesize Investigate Persuade Theorize Other

Note: In your search of the assessment standards, do not be limited by these key words. You may need to look for the hidden opportunities for higher-order thinking, especially if your assessment standards focus mainly on very specific knowledge-based tasks or understanding.

Open your Project Plan.
Copy the assessment standards that relate to any of the elements above —ones you may use in your project — into your Project Plan. You will be narrowing the actual assessment standards that you will use in the following steps.
Use the Highlight tool in Microsoft Word* to note key words in your assessment standards that may indicate a good match between your targeted assessment standards and the strengths and intended uses of each tool. Highlight any of the following words that you find in your assessment standards. You may want to consider using a different colour for each thinking tool, which will help you identify the specific areas for the thinking tools at a later time.

a) Key words for the Visual Ranking Tool—compare, contrast, differentiate, order, organize, perspective, placement, point of view, rank, sort

b) Key words for the Seeing Reason Tool—affect, cause, effect, impact, influence, inspire, produce, result, system

c) Key words for the Showing Evidence Tool—analyze, argument, conjecture, debate, evaluate, evidence, hypothesis, investigate, persuade, position, premise, social issue, thesis

Note:If the Highlight button does not appear on the Formatting toolbar, change your settings so that all buttons appear.

Considering the wide range of assessment standards you may have initially selected and the smaller subset that would match well with one or more of the online thinking tools, which assessment standards will you choose to target in this project? Delete those assessment standards in your Project Plan that you will not be targeting in this particular project.
Save your Project Plan, but keep it open for the next step.

Next: Proceed to Step 4 of Activty 2.1