Higher Order Thinking Skills

Information and Research Skills & Curricula:

• 21st Century Literacies: Tools for Reading the World This EXCELLENT resource created by Debbie Abilock on her NoodleTools website explores LANGUAGE LITERACY, VISUAL LITERACY, HISTORICAL LITERACY, CULTURAL LITERACY, INFORMATION LITERACY, MEDIA LITERACY, SCIENTIFIC LITERACY AND MATHEMATICAL LITERACY. This site is a must see for understanding the new literacies of today's info world.
• Information Power From the ALA, information literacy skills, standards, and guidelines.
• The Big 6 Developed by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz, the Big6 is the most widely-known and widely-used approach to teaching information and technology skills in the world.
• The Big 6 Kids Research process steps of the Big 6 for the elementary student.
• The Research Cycle Jamie McKenzie's guide to research steps.
• ISMA 21st Century Information Fluency Portal Free online micro learning modules that offers short courses on search strategies, web evaluation, citation and copyright.
• Information Skills Rubric A rubric for evaluating information literacy skills.
• Elementary How-To The Oregon School Library System has put together an amazing array of resources for both students and teachers. There are modules for everything from How to Take Notes to How to Do Research.
• Secondary How-To Same as above at the secondary level.
• How to Ask Good Questions From the Big6 website, this is an excellent place to send your students to as they work on formulating research questions.
• Fact Fragment Frenzy From ReadWriteThink, elementary interactive guide which allows students to practice finding facts in text, type the facts and print them out.
• Taking Notes: It's Not Rocket Science! Another great resource from the Big6 website that guides students through the process of taking notes.
• Collecting Resources Worksheet This is a PDF file checklist of resources to gather information from developed by the Searingtown School Library Media Center.

First Things First!  Evaluate and Cite Your Sources!

Evaluating Websites:
Is the web site reliable? Should you cite it as a valid resource?  These sites provide excellent help:

• Web Page Evaluation Form - MidLink's evaluation tool.  Is the site valid?  It's easy to add up the points and decide for yourself!

• Evaluating Web Resources: Evaluation Checklists from Widener University.

• University of Waterloo Library : How to evaluate resources for reports and research.

• Kathy Schrock's Evaluating Web Sites Tremendous list of resources to help your students learn how to differentiate between good websites and info-garbage.
• The Quality Information Quiz Excellent resource for teaching elementary to middle school students how to evaluate a website.

Citation and Bibliography Resources:

• How to Cite Sources From The Oregon School Library System, excellent resource for students
• MidLink's How-to-Cite

Free Bibliography Wizards:

• Citation Maker Based on MLA style, an interactive citation maker that allows you to create, save, and print your citations from OSLS.
• EasyBib Another MLA style wizard that allows you to create, save, and print your citations.
• Landmark's Citation Machine an interactive Web tool designed to assist teachers and students in producing reference citations for crediting information from other people.

Copyright, Fair Use, Plagiarism and Cheating:

• Copyright in a Digital World by Caroline McCullen, Instructional Technologist, SAS inSchool and Mary Musacchia, Legal Counsel, SAS Institute Inc.
• Copyright and Citing Resources Includes a quiz
• Copyright With Cyberbee interactive question and answer activity for students will teach them the basics about copyright.
• Online! Explains how to document online resources in the MLA style.
• Copyright Web Links Gateway to copyright links
• Form letters Ask permission to link to other sites or use their graphics
• What is Plagiarism and How to Avoid It From OSLS, an excellent resource to take your students to so that they understand about this very  important topic.
• Cheating and How to Avoid It A PDF file to print out that is a student guide to cheating, plagiarism, and intellectual property use by the Makato Area Public Schools District.

• Study Skills Self-Help Information This excellent resource from Virginia Tech covers:
  • Time Scheduling Suggestions
  • Where Does Time Go?
  • More Information on Time Scheduling
  • Acronyms
  • Study Skill Checklist
  • Concentration - Some Basic Guidelines
  • Control of the Study Environment
  • Note Taking - The Cornell System
  • Editing Lecture Notes
  • How to Read Essays You Must Analyze
  • Constructive Suggestions Regarding Motivation
  • Note Taking and In - Class Skills
  • Proofreading
  • How to Read a Difficult Book
  • Remembering
  • Skimming and Scanning Scientific Material
  • SQ3R - A Reading/Study System
  • Strategies to Use with Difficult Questions
  • Study Environment Analysis
  • Suggestions for Improving Reading Speed
  • Procedure for Writing a Term Paper
  • Vocabulary: An On Going Process
  • Writing Papers

• The Critical Thinking Consortium All about critical thinking including many resources.
• Process Guides Guides for both teachers and students, including building consensus, persuasive arguments, and using primary documents.
• Think Tank - Think Tank is designed to help students (grades 3-8) develop a Research Organizer (a list of topics and subtopics) for reports and projects. Based on the subject assigned, the students can refine it by choosing from a variety of suggestions and by using a random subtopic generator. This helps students learn how to refine a subject so that it is more manageable for Internet research.
• A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words  Graphical Organizers as Thinking Technology by Jamie McKenzie
• Bloom's Chart  Tasks and Products PDF (University of Nebraska)
• Critical Thinking Applying Bloom's (LaGrange College)
• Filling the Tool Box Classroom Strategies to Engender Student Questioning by Jamie McKenzie
• Higher Order Thinking Skills  Ideas for asking better questions and preparing better lessons (Covington City Schools)
• Higher-Order Thinking Strategies for the Classroom Classroom-Ready Teaching Strategies that Promote Higher-Order Thinking (Matt Thomas, Ph.D., U. of MO, Kansas City)
• How to Read Essays You Must Analyze From Study Skills Self-Help Information, good info for students.
• Task Oriented Question Wheel. ^©2001 St. Edward's University Center for Teaching Excellence. <www.stedwards.edu/cte/bwheel.htm>
• Using Graphic Organizers To Organize Thinking Practical ways to implement them in the classroom - Brethren Christian High School
• Verb Lists:
  • Taxonomy Verb ListVerb - Use in constructing HOTS activities and objectives (I Love Teaching.Com)
  • Lists for Specific Subjects - Verbs to use in constructing HOTS activities and objectives in every subject - (I Love Teaching.Com)
• What is Concept Mapping?  Shuzo Katsumoto, Cornell University
• Graphic Organizer Page Treasure chest of all types of graphic organizers

Socratic Seminar - Critical Thinking:

• Socratic Seminar Grading

• Socratic Seminar Study Guide