Farrah ... I'm extremely impressed by your use of WBT! Your students are on task, responsive and have mastered a surprising quantity of core knowledge. Some of the material you are covering like bar graphs and place value often aren't introduced in California until later grades.
In general, we use a simple three level model for learning. Memorization is the initial level, followed by paraphrasing and completed by what we call original thinking (this seems a better, clearer term than "critical thinking.") A key characteristic of original thinking is students presenting information that they have synthesized on their own from memorization and paraphrase. In other words, they are responding to tasks and questions with answers that they haven't heard before. So, here are several suggestions for original thinking that might be used in the lessons you presented:
1. Ask, "Who can use September in a sentence?" Or, "Monday," "31," any other bit of core knowledge. When you've heard and evaluated a few sample answers, ask students to talk to each other and generate a few more answers.
2. Ask, "What is the difference between Fall and Spring?" Or, between a month and a week, or any two concepts ... again, evaluate a few sample answers and then have students teach each other their own answers.
3. To move up still higher, you might say, "Who can use September and graph in a sentence?" Or any other odd combination and, occasionally, you'll find a student who makes a wonderful connection. Or, slightly easier, ask, "Who can use 31 and 14 in a sentence?" Combine any two similar terms and see how your kids do.
Great job! We look forward to more videos!!
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