The NELA Problem of Practice Project is an opportunity for each Fellow to focus on one key aspect of the school and make a significant, positive impact on teacher practice and school culture. The individual Problem of Practice Projects focus on a specific challenge faced at their Principal Residency site.
Project Description:
Reading comprehension is one of the most important skills students need to acquire and continuously improve in order to be successful in school. A teacher spent one week teaching the 8 thinking maps to one civics class with a focus on when and how to effectively use each map. Whole class instruction and an independent activity was part of the instruction. Students were given a survey before the initial instruction to assess their current note taking strategy and familiarity with thinking maps. At the end of 8 weeks, students were given another survey to assess students use of thinking maps, student perception of the effectiveness of thinking maps in understanding the content and if the maps affected their academic achievement. Assessments from the Civics class that used thinking maps were compared to a Civics class in which thinking maps were not used.
Thinking Maps
Intended Outcomes: Students will be able to organize their thoughts and the content taught. Thus, student comprehension will improve and student content knowledge will increase. Regularly scheduled assessments will be utilized to monitor student progress. As the students use thinking maps as a note taking strategy, the teacher will use thinking maps as a part of his instructional delivery. If successful, I will offer PD on thinking maps to each department.
Results: Overall, students who used thinking maps performed better on assessments and saw the benefits of using thinking maps as a note taking strategy. Students also reported that the teacher using the thinking maps to explain information was helpful as well.
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