Thinking with Technology

Module 3 Summary

Review the central ideas in this module and the plans or materials you created to help improve learner learning.

Module 3 Key Points:

Closed questions that ask learners to understand facts and procedures are important, but if learners do not frame those facts within a conceptual understanding, the interconnectedness and patterns of those ideas will often be lost. Curriculum-Framing Questions help to provide a conceptual understanding.
Curriculum-Framing Questions can be created from the bottom up (content-specific ideas to the big idea) or the top down (big idea to the content-specific ideas). They consist of:

Critical Questions, the overarching "big idea" questions that help learners see the big picture across units or disciplines
Focus Questions, the open-ended questions that support the exploration of one part of the Critical Question
Content Questions, the supporting, fact-focused questions that are required to understand and begin to answer the Critical and Focus Questions

Curriculum-Framing Questions are used throughout a project to focus learning on important concepts and to promote higher-order thinking.

Accomplishments:

Gained a greater understanding of Curriculum-Framing Questions through examples, discussion, and practice
Created a set of Curriculum-Framing Questions for my classroom

In the following modules, we will build upon these concepts as we discuss ways we can support and assess higher-order thinking skills in classroom projects.

Thinking with Technology Module 3 - Curriculum-Framing Questions to Support Thinking Skills

	Module 3 Summary Review the central ideas in this module and the plans or materials you created to help improve learner learning. Module 3 Key Points: Closed questions that ask learners to understand facts and procedures are important, but if learners do not frame those facts within a conceptual understanding, the interconnectedness and patterns of those ideas will often be lost. Curriculum-Framing Questions help to provide a conceptual understanding. Curriculum-Framing Questions can be created from the bottom up (content-specific ideas to the big idea) or the top down (big idea to the content-specific ideas). They consist of: Critical Questions, the overarching "big idea" questions that help learners see the big picture across units or disciplines Focus Questions, the open-ended questions that support the exploration of one part of the Critical Question Content Questions, the supporting, fact-focused questions that are required to understand and begin to answer the Critical and Focus Questions Curriculum-Framing Questions are used throughout a project to focus learning on important concepts and to promote higher-order thinking. Accomplishments: Gained a greater understanding of Curriculum-Framing Questions through examples, discussion, and practice Created a set of Curriculum-Framing Questions for my classroom In the following modules, we will build upon these concepts as we discuss ways we can support and assess higher-order thinking skills in classroom projects.