What's Going on at School?
Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire
Asking Questions Increases Higher Order Thinking
After attending last week's Mentor & Mentee meeting, Mrs. Dreeszen created this bulletin board to help her students write and answer questions at the different levels of thinking. Higher order thinking is more than memorizing facts. Higher order thinking increases inferencing, making connections, and applying knowledge. Parents can also encourage higher order thinking at home with the help of these question starters.
11th Grade RA English Project
Mrs. Kirk's 11th Grade RA English students read the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathon Edwards.
Figurative Language
Each student selected a line from the sermon to design a sculpture out of play dough to represent the line. Students used the highest level of thinking - create.
You hang by a slender thread,
with the flames of divine wrath flashing about.
The bow of God's wrath is bent,
and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart.
All your righteousness,
would have no more influence to...Keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a fallen rock"
The God that hold you over the pit of hell,
much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over a fire...is dreadfully provoked.
Teacher Leadership and Compensation Team
The Graettinger-Terril and Ruthven-Ayrshire Schools have taken part in the state of Iowa's initiative to improve student achievement by providing support for teachers through a teacher leadership team. Teachers provide support to each other through observations, discussions, and professional development. The teachers continue to work together at Mentor and Mentee Meetings to find effective ways to improve teaching, lessons, and student achievement. Graettinger-Terril and Ruthven-Ayrshire teachers have been working this first semester on sharing and displaying standards and benchmarks, formative assessments, and questioning.
Ruthven-Ayrshire Middle School and High School Teachers
The Ruthven-Ayrshire teachers visit during an M & M meeting about higher-order thinking skills.
Ruthven-Ayrshire Elementary Teachers
The Ruthven-Ayrshire Elementary teachers discuss how they used formative assessments to guide their instruction.
Graettinger-Terril Middle School Teachers
The Graettinger-Terril Middle School teachers watch a video on Bloom's Taxonomy of higher order thinking.
Graettinger-Terril High School Teachers
During their M & M meeting, these GTRA High School teachers discuss how they use questioning strategies in their classrooms.
Graettinger-Terril High School Teachers
This group of GTRA High School teachers is actively participating in the discussion of getting students to take risks in answering higher order thinking questions.
Graettinger-Terril Elementary Teachers
The Graettinger-Terril Elementary teachers are also watching the video on Bloom's Taxonomy. Questioning creates deeper understanding and curiosity.
GTRA High School Physics
For his physics class, Mr. Benedict set up a course for students to roll a bowling ball through. Students learned about force and motion as they changed the direction and speed of the bowling bowl. Watch the video below to see the experiment.
IMG 3819
Kindergarten and 4th Grade Students
The 4th-grade students at RA read and write with the kindergarten students with books from PBS.
Martha Speaks
Vocabulary words for the book "Martha Speaks" are introduced and discussed between the two grade levels.
Collaboration Between the Two Grades
Modeling good reading, writing, and speaking by the fourth-grade students is great for kindergarten students to see and hear. It also provides practice for the older students.
GTRA Algebra 1 -- Ratios and Proportions Project
A project enjoyed by the students in Mr. Harder's Algebra 1 class was to design creations that were in proportional scale to the actual object. The objectives met with this project included: Create equations and inequalities in one variable and use them to solve problems, solve linear equations and inequalities in one variable, and understand that by similarity, side ratios in right triangles are properties of the angles in the triangle. Congratulations to the students on a job well done!
GT Seventh Grade
The 7th graders are learning about Ancient Sumer and why it was a civilization.
Sumerian City-State
The city-state and ziggurat were the first signs of a civilization found.
Ancient World History
Studying ancient history allows students to compare cultures and understand world philosophies. This project is another example of using higher order thinking!
Creativity
Students were asked to create their own city-state using any material they had at home to construct and design the things they learned about a civilization.
Varied Materials and Size
The project needed was to be no smaller than 8 1/2 x 11 and no larger than a desktop.
Even Edible Materials
Students were graded on the quality of construction, creativity, design, the number of items, and time and effort. This project was completed at home and presented to the class. Parents were welcome to help with suggestions.
Teach Like A Pirate Book Study
A group of Graettinger-Terril middle school and high school teachers gathers every Wednesday morning at 7:30 AM to discuss ideas from the book "Teach Like a Pirate" by Dave Burgess. This book offers inspiration, techniques, and ideas that help to increase student engagement and boost creative teaching. "Like pirating, teaching is an adventure full of challenges and excitement. The way you approach your adventure can mean the difference between being shipwrecked on Burnout Island or finding buried treasure." -Dave Burgess.