New Year, New Me! A Lesson for Reflective and Self-directive Thinking

I'm usually not too big on resolutions--as I generally fall off whatever wagon I started off on by February--but then I began thinking about them in terms of self-assessment. After all, isn't that essentially what resolutions are? They represent something about ourselves that we've determined needs a bit work. I dutifully started to make my regular go-to list, and then I wondered--Why not make them in lesson plan form, modeling the skills of self-assessment, reflection, and self-directive thinking for high school students in English Language Arts?

Resolutions are somewhat like a formative assessments, designed to help us see where we need to "re-teach" ourselves using self-direction. Where do I need to reteach myself as it pertains to my thinking? Where would my students need to reteach themselves as it pertains to their respective approaches to thinking, in general (and by default, learning)? I selected the 16 Habits of Mind as a theoretical foundation for this lesson as these impact how we learn and if we learn.  

“New Year, New Me!”

Resources: Habits of Mind   

Applicable Standards: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.1;CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.2;CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.4;CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.6 AND/OR CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.4;CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.5; CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.9-10.6

Objectives:

By the end of this lesson, participants will be able to:

•  identify two Habits of Mind (HOMs) that they wish to improve upon.
•  provide two evidenced-based reasons for why they wish to improve on each HOM.
• provide a short definition of each HOM in their own words, using one analogy per definition.
• identify at least five points of criteria for each of the two selected HOMs that answer the question How can I tell that a person has achieved this HOM?
•  write at least one goal for each selected HOM that reflects all aspects of SMART criteria.

Lesson Outline:

Intro Hook:

Trivia question/discussion starter: When did people first start making New Year’s resolutions?

·         Ask question or have it up on the board for a bell activity.

·         Discuss possibilities/open discussion

Segue:

·         Short discussion: Why make resolutions?

·         Presentation of teacher model of New Year, New Me! Why HOMs are being used as a framework (as opposed to general resolutions)

Activities:

·         Provide copies of HOMs and SMART criteria (or present on whiteboard) as well as the HOM brainstorming worksheet.

·         Jot down what they think they might want to work on for their resolutions.

·         Have students work in pairs or small groups (no more than four) to complete their reasons, definitions, points of criteria, and goals.

Follow up (block scheduling) or Homework (standard scheduling):

·         Develop an essay or a video podcast that explains what HOMs you’ve chosen, how and why you determined these would be your focus, your SMART goals, and how you know that they will help you

Assessment Rubric:

	Superior	Above-average	Average	Needs Further Development
Identifies personal HOMs to work on for the New Year	HOMs identified are both relevant and authentic and unmistakably  indicate reflective thought	HOMS identified are either relevant or authentic, but indicate reflective thought	HOMs identified are either relevant or authentic and may or may not indicate reflective thought	HOMs identified do not indicate relevance, authenticity, and/or reflective thought
Identifies reasons for selected HOMs	Reasoning reflects all of the critical thinking criteria: clear, precise, accurate, relevant, significant, authentic, and unmistakably reflect depth	Reasoning reflects most of the critical thinking criteria: clear, precise, accurate, relevant, significant, authentic, and reflect depth	Reasoning reflects some of the critical thinking criteria.	Reasoning reflects only one or two of the critical thinking criteria
Defines selected HOMs	Definitions are valid and relevant and indicate reflective thought	Definitions are valid and relevant, but may not indicate reflective thought	Definitions are valid and/or relevant	Definitions do not reflect validity or relevance
Establishes criteria for selected HOMs	Established criteria are clear and relevant and unmistakably indicate reflective thought	Established criteria are clear or relevant and indicate some reflective thought	Established criteria are either clear or relevant, but indicate minimal reflective thought	Established criteria do not reflect clarity, relevance, or reflective thought
Develops SMART goal for selected HOMs	Developed goal clearly reflects all SMART criteria, in additional to being unmistakably logical in application to selected HOMs	Goal reflects SMART criteria, but they are either not clearly logical or applicable to the selected HOMs	Goal reflects most of the SMART criteria, but they are neither logical nor applicable to selected HOMs	Goal reflects some of the SMART criteria, but are neither logical nor applicable to selected HOMs
Presentation of New Year, New Me!	Writes a reflective essay (standard essay format) or develops a video podcast (standard speech format) that clearly expresses what HOMs the student selected, why, and how he/she intends to reach them; presentation reflects creativity and exceptional writing or speaking skills	Writes a reflective essay (standard essay format) or develops a video podcast (standard speech format) that expresses what HOMs the student selected, why, and how he/she intends to reach them, but some points may be unclear; presentation reflects above-average writing or speaking skills	Writes a reflective essay (standard essay format) or develops a video podcast (standard speech format) that expresses what HOMs the student selected, why, and how he/she intends to reach them, but presentation may be unclear and may reflect lack of organization or some language errors	Writes a reflective essay (standard essay format) or develops a video podcast (standard speech format) that expresses what HOMs the student selected, why, and how he/she intends to reach them, but presentation is unclear and disorganized, with some language errors

Exit Ticket:

·         On sticky notes (or perhaps via a quick google survey), students anonymously answer the following question and post their responses in designated area: To what degree or extent do I think this assignment is relevant to my life, and why do I think that?

To print out this lesson plan separately, click on this link.

 Let me know what you think! : )

The Crutch of Should

I don't think I'm going to let my students use should anymore. The use of should in a persuasive or argumentative essay thesis may be impeding their reasoning skills.

Consider that should implies an evaluative criteria of some sort when it's used for argument. If we argue that someone "should" do something (or not do something), then we are essentially enforcing our value system on the intended reader, who, by virtue of the purpose for writing, disagrees with us. 

Another possibility is that we're using should as a means of garnering support from those who already agree with us,  a sort of solidarity-meter, which then defeats the purpose of having to convince anyone or argue, anyway.

But its use may also bypass some aspects of critical thinking. For example, in persuasive essays, students who use should statements often fail to expand on their reasoning. Or, there may be a disconnect between their reasoning and the should thinking.

It also tends to (not always) cause students lean towards personal conviction as their reasoning--a sort of knee jerk approval or disapproval. Rather, if we can get them to fully understand WHY they have that sense of approval/disapproval, then we may be better able to help them move forward in their ability to think critically. 

Should also implies a sense of rightness or wrongness, which can certainly be subjective. And if someone is jumping on the "it's right or wrong" train, they will most likely fail to effectively persuade someone who is on the opposite end of the controversy.

Actually, it was the recent hoopla with the Coca-Cola commercial is what got me thinking about "should." The controversy, by the way, raises the possibility for an excellent topic for a persuasive essay. My English-teacher spidey-sense was tingling with this prompt:

          You are the public awareness director for Coca Cola. Convince the company to use or          not to use this commercial as their headline advertisement for the Superbowl.

The controversy raged quite visually on the social media. In a discussion I had on Facebook on this topic, someone argued:

          "Coke shouldn't have put that commercial on, given the venue and what's happening in 

           America, today."

When I asked whether the message/intent of the commercial was clearly understood, the person claimed to understand the message, but still felt the company was wrong to present it.  

When pressed to examine the reasoning behind the should statement, though, this person listed what was considered to be "bad things" happening (the economy, the immigration issue, etc.), the Superbowl is an American tradition, Americans are Christians, and English is our language.

I didn't find these points convincing because there was little connection in reasoning.

This person's goal was to convince me (persuade me) that Coke was "wrong" in their choice. Since I found the commercial quite compelling and positive, this person would have to resort to stronger reasoning to get me to see the "wrongness" of the company's choice.

The discussion concluded when, after the person was asked to clarify, the conversation politely came to a halt. My guess is that he/she was unable to reason further because of the should. It was a glaring hurdle in the reasoning process.

I'm wondering, though, what would have happened if the individual had removed should from the thinking altogether. Rather, what might have happened with his/her reasoning skills if the person thought in terms of effectiveness, based on the author (Coke) and the intended audience (all American citizens)?

What is it about the state of the country's economy that suggests a commercial with an intended positive message about the diverse cultures of America is not an effective marketing choice for Coca-Cola?

 

Here, the individual would be forced to make the connection without the crutch of "should."

Another negative aspect of the use of should with a persuasive essay is that it compels some readers (those with lower critical thinking skills) to NOT use critical thinking and reason to arrive at a logical conclusion. Consider these two points:

          Smoking causes wrinkles, so you should not smoke.

          Research suggests that smokers have three times the number of wrinkles that non-         

          smokers do.

The lower-level thinker would jump at the "should" statement without much ado. Wrinkles? Eep!

However, the second point requires that the reader arrive at the conclusion that he or she should not smoke. While the "should" statement might be convincing, reasoning through and arriving at the conclusion is more likely to induce a permanent or authentic response in favor of the argument.

What do you think? To should or not to should?