Habits of Mind in the Classroom 5/6M Adam McMahon



Habits of Mind in the Classroom 5/6M Adam McMahon

Session 1- Discuss as a whole class what it means to be successful. Look at successful people in different fields such as famous inventors, sportspeople, wealthy people and talk about what personality traits they would need to become the best in their field.

Children in groups of three get a poster with a habit and icon. They have 4 tasks to complete.

1. Define any unknown words or verbs. Write their groups’ meaning.

2. Discuss as a group and write what they believe the icon means and represents.

3. List examples of behaviour or tasks where using this habit may be beneficial.

4. Report as a group back to the class.

As children report back to the group ‘audience members’ are to take notes to gain an understanding of other groups’ habits.

As there are only 8 habits covered in each session it requires two sessions to complete this. I chose to do this in two 90 minute sessions, one on Monday P.M., one on Tuesday P.M.

Session 3- In computer lab, begin a Habits slideshow for the children’s digital portfolio using Powerpoint. To begin with there are 16 slides, one with each heading and the child’s definition for each habit. In future sessions throughout the year written work, assessment tasks, presentations, scanned work and specialist tasks will be hyperlinked into appropriate habit to form mini shows within a main Habits slideshow.

Session 4- Children compare their definitions with the definitions given on the summary sheet provided. Discuss as a class.

Children then get into groups and match laminated icon cards with definitions. Discuss reasons why icons and definitions should be linked using examples. (Immersing the children in the language)

Ask children to order Habits from most important to least important. (Aim of the activity is to have the children realise that each habit is equally important and that is the context and situation that determines which habits should be used when.

Session 5- Habits Posters. Children in pairs come up with a slogan (Eg. Managing Impulsivity- Stop, think, do!) and illustrate the icon and heading. Posters are then laminated and displayed in the classroom or around the school.

Session 6- Mathematics. Super Nines- ( I chose to do this session in a pink party hat as a trigger to refer back to at a later date, finding humour)

1. Children write down 9xtables and try to memorise.

2. Children then shown a way to do their 9 times tables on fingers linking each finger to place value. Method is successful up to 9x98=882 (Refer to …)

3. Children given a number and asked to move around the room to demonstrate the theory works. Compare to the written algorithm to check if answer is accurate.

4. Discussion about the differences between writing compared to gathering data through all senses, persisting, striving for accuracy, thinking flexibly, applying past knowledge to new situations, managing impulsivity, thinking about thinking, questioning and posing problems, finding humour, taking responsible risks and remaining open to continuous learning. The children came up with these habits from this one activity. I can refer to this session to the students to illustrate that learning can be fun, but it is effective when the child takes ownership of their learning though the use of multiple habits when appropriate.

Ongoing assessment tasks-

Book review of take home reader or class story. After children rewrite the plot of the story they include their opinion. My feedback is given with three sections; positives, suggestions for improvement and considerations. (Like an ongoing self assessment journal between the student and myself. I deliberately chose to introduce self-assessment with an ongoing task that the children are familiar with. The opinion section began with the children writing a sentence or two saying things like “The story was good because it was interesting” in weeks 1 and 2 of the term. They moved on from there to offer positive and negative feedback on the literature, moving from there to using DeBono’s Thinking Hats (weeks 3,4,5) At this point I had children self assess their reviews by writing their own comments (week6) and then in week 7 children were asked to peer assess using Habits of Mind. There is quite a progression growth shown since the beginning of the year.

Magic Number- weekly maths warm up activity. Ten minutes before Monday numeracy session. A number is written on the board (it has moved from whole numbers to decimals, to percentage, to fractions). This number is the answer to a potential question the child has to write down. I encourage thinking flexibly, striving for accuracy, remaining open to continuous learning, persisting, managing impulsivity, thinking about thinking, creating, imagining and innovating and applying past knowledge to new situations. Progression is monitored and feedback is given (positive, suggestions and considerations). Work is scanned for digital portfolio.

Oral Presentation on Theme based work that involves multi dimensional tasks. (The trip of a lifetime) Children negotiate a rubric after discussing the task. As part of their self assessment using DeBono’s Thinking Hats children need to state which Habits they have used for each task within the project and how. Presentation is video taped to be hyperlinked to Digital Portfolio.

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