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CHAPTER 4

Implementing Strategies for Understand-Level Thinking

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

—Leonardo da Vinci

In this chapter, you will find six instructional strategies that focus on learning at the Understand level of Bloom’s taxonomy revised (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). Each of the following instructional strategies requires students to deploy cognitive skills at the Remember level (recognition and recall), along with a combination of Understand-level cognitive applications like interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, or explaining content. Icons with each strategy indicate which steps (levels) of the taxonomy the activity touches, as well as its primary tool for engagement (movement, collaboration, or media literacy).

With each strategy, you will find a brief introduction that explains its concept and purpose, a classroom example, a series of steps for implementing the strategy, a list of variations you can choose to implement, and a section detailing additional classroom examples based on different content areas.

Strategy 1: Vocabulary-Building Movement

Vocabulary-Building Movement is a strategy to help students develop their vocabulary using movement. Education expert Eric Jensen (2019) writes extensively on the powerful connection between physical activity and students’ long-term memory and attentional focus across all age groups. In particular, he builds on the work of Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley (2003) to reflect the necessity of vocabulary building for students from poverty who often enter the classroom behind their peers.

Research also suggests that using physical movement to represent concepts is effective with younger (preK–5) students. When concepts are abstract, iconic or representational gestures can depict objects or events to enhance understanding (Kendon, 1988). For example, students might put their arms directly in front of them to represent parallel lines. Metaphoric gestures, in contrast, make references to visual images but are more abstract. Students might symbolize the word dictatorship by putting one arm above their head with one finger up, noting “one” and meaning the leader is all powerful.

For students who have trouble explaining a concept, gesturing offers insight into the students’ understanding (Church & Goldin-Meadow, 1986). Psychologist and child development expert Jean Piaget (1959) believes that gestures play an important role in students’ learning, development, and communication. In agreement, learning scientist Wolff-Michael Roth (2001) says gestures are a key component of children’s cognitive development. Using hand gestures as representations for abstract concepts enhances student learning (Collins, 2005). A vocabulary word is easier to remember if taught with a gesture.

CLASSROOM EXAMPLE

A second-grade class is learning ten vocabulary words from a story students are reading and analyzing. In pairs, students create gestures to match each vocabulary word and definition. When reviewing the vocabulary words, the students use their gestures while reciting the definitions.

Strategy Steps

Use the following three steps to help you implement the Vocabulary-Building Movement strategy.

1. Determine and then introduce the vocabulary words you want your students to learn.

2. Introduce students to a series of gesture-based vocabulary strategies. Here are several vocabulary-building movement strategy options you can use (Stobaugh & Love, 2015).

• Use hand gestures—Have students create their own representational gestures, demonstrating the word in concrete ways. In addition, students could design gestures that depict words in a more abstract fashion. For example, students might decide a concrete gesture to demonstrate understanding of precipitation is to hold their hands up high and wiggle their fingers and then slowly lower their hands to emphasize that precipitation falls to the ground.

• Form a group statue—To make it more interactive, assign students to groups and have them use their bodies to represent a word. For example, to illustrate the word conservation, two students could be in the center and the third student could wrap his or her arms around the others.

• Create a model—As an individual or in groups, give students building resources (such as sticky notes, markers, and building blocks) and instruct them to create an abstract model to represent the word. For example, students might make a small tower in which the sticky notes represent the judicial branch (it handles the sticky issues), a building block depicts the legislative branch (it makes the laws, the building blocks of societal rules), and the craft stick represents the executive branch (it has one key figure, the president, leading it).

3. Allow students to choose one of the three ways (hand gesture, group statue, or model) to demonstrate their understanding of vocabulary terms.

Variations

You can use the following variations in association with this strategy.

• Have students create a video where they create dance moves related to the terms they are learning.

• You can vary students’ use of the hand gesture strategy by having them act out their gestures and play a game of charades.

Additional Content-Area Examples

This section provides examples of some ways you can connect this strategy to your teaching in different content areas.

• A language arts teacher instructs students to develop hand motions to represent the meaning of Greek and Latin roots. For example, one group suggests a pulling motion to represent the word tract.

• In a unit on plant biology, a student group creates a gesture of spreading seeds (using hand gestures to gather seeds from a bag and shake them out onto soil) to depict pollination. The group shares aloud with the rest of the class how the gesture aligns with pollination.

• A mathematics teacher assigns students into groups of four, provides each group with building materials, and instructs them to create models related to the geometric formulas in their unit of study.

• In a unit on the civil rights movement in the United States, a social studies teacher forms groups of four students and instructs them to use the group-statue strategy to illustrate or symbolize a concept or term related to the movement. Students then provide three reasons for how their statue depicts that concept or term.

Strategy 2: Inductive Learning

Broadly speaking, inductive teaching and learning are methodologies for engaging students in higher-order thinking. Inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, discovery learning, and so on are all forms of inductive learning (Prince & Felder, 2007). The Inductive Learning strategy focuses on students using inductive learning to group and classify information to build deeper understanding. You can use this strategy as a preassessment to gauge students’ existing knowledge of a topic or as a review to assess their learning.

CLASSROOM EXAMPLE

A teacher hands out twenty key terms involved in the production of a play. These words range from script to center right. He puts students in pairs and groups the words based on common characteristics. Each student pair then creates a descriptive label for each grouping. As a class, students share their ideas and make connections between background knowledge and the groupings they created.

Strategy Steps

Use the following four steps to help you implement the Inductive Learning strategy.

1. Create a list of terms, visuals, or data. When you are developing students’ vocabulary, for secondary students, use fifteen to twenty-five terms. For younger students (grades preK–5), fewer terms are appropriate (around five to ten). The terms you select should be relevant to the ongoing learning in your class.

2. Determine a delivery method for allowing students to see and interact with the selected terms. For example, you could display the terms on a digital wall or provide students with written or printed materials.

3. Have students sort and group words based on common characteristics or shared features, either individually or as a group. Students should identify descriptive titles for the groups of words they categorize together.

4. Conduct a class discussion on how students determined their groupings and what categories they came up with.

Variations

You can use the following variations in association with this strategy.

• Have students brainstorm terms to use for this activity instead of using teacher-provided terms.

• Use this strategy as a preassessment to see if students understand the relationships between terms.

Additional Content-Area Examples

This section provides examples of some ways you can connect this strategy to your teaching in different content areas.

• A language arts teacher gives students twenty pivotal quotes from a novel they have read and asks them to sort and classify the quotes.

• A science teacher selects a list of various animals and instructs students to determine groups and classifications for them. Students consider and discuss each animal’s behaviors, appearance, habitats, and so on.

• A mathematics teacher instructs students to group various shapes based on their attributes.

• In a unit on Native American culture, a social studies teacher instructs students to work in groups and gives each group a box of items representing a specific Native American tribe. Students work together to classify the artifacts.

• A visual arts teacher gives students various pieces of artwork and instructs them to use their existing knowledge to group the pieces according to how they look or appear to look. The teacher uses the students’ results to lead a discussion on art history, color usage, brushstrokes and techniques, and movements in art.

Strategy 3: Matrix

The Matrix strategy exposes students to a variety of perspectives while at the same time assesses students’ understanding of a topic or lesson. The Matrix strategy involves having students examine two variables or ideas and observe how those ideas interact. Each axis represents a variable on a scale of 0 to 10, and students then consider their viewpoint before determining where they would appear on the matrix (see figure 4.1). The strategy provides time for students to deeply think about two ideas while physically moving to post their data points. When determining what criteria to apply, note that many informational texts pose arguments that consider two opposing ideas. The Matrix strategy is an excellent conversation starter for these kinds of texts.

Figure 4.1: Matrix activity graph.

CLASSROOM EXAMPLE

A teacher gives each student an individual matrix while posting a large display on chart paper in the classroom. Students consider the educational benefits of using cell phones in class while also reflecting on the risk of distraction. Students decide how they rate each item. For example, one student loves using technology in class and rates a nine on that axis, but he is also a little concerned about the distraction and rates that a six. However, two others at his table rate slightly differently. Students place their rating on their matrix, then plot it on the classroom matrix (see figure 4.1). The teacher organizes students into small groups to reflect on the data and consider topics for a whole-class discussion.

Strategy Steps

Use the following seven steps to help you implement the Matrix strategy (Stobaugh & Love, 2015).

1. Select two variables to use in forming the matrix. The interaction of these variables should spur thought-provoking discussions and expose diverse viewpoints.

2. Have each student create a matrix on paper and mark his or her rating. For example, a student might apply a rating of 9 on a scale of 0 to 10 to a topic of high importance (preserving the environment) but apply a rating of 2 to a topic of minimal importance (financial support of environmental projects). The student would then mark the intersection of those points on his or her matrix.

3. Instruct students to use the space below their matrix to justify their opinion in several sentences. Encourage students to use readings or other materials to support their answer.

4. Create a large matrix on chart paper, and post it on the wall. Have students use sticky notes (or dots) to mark their rating on the classroom matrix, creating a cluster graph.

5. Form students into two concentric circles—an inside and outside circle with students facing each other. Instruct students to examine the data and ask them the following questions.

• “What do you notice in the data?”

• “Do you observe any patterns, and what do they tell you?”

• “What surprises you?”

• “What can you infer, and what conclusions might you draw?”

After each question, invite students to discuss their answers with the student in front of them.

6. After discussing, have the students on the outside circle move three spots to the right so they are with a new partner to discuss the next question.

7. Have students share their conclusions in a whole-group discussion.

Variations

You can use the following variations in association with this strategy.

• Near the end of a unit of study, put students in groups and have each group generate a topic and two variables to analyze based on their unit learning. The class should then select one or more of the group-generated ideas and complete the matrix activity.

• To gauge how opinions have changed from the beginning of the Matrix strategy to the end, have students use different color sticky notes (or dots) to indicate if their opinion changes at the end of the discussion. This provides a useful visual for how many students changed their minds about the topic.

Additional Content-Area Examples

This section provides examples of some ways you can connect this strategy to your teaching in different content areas.

• A language arts teacher designs a matrix that analyzes the importance of the format relative to the impact of haiku writing.

• A science teacher designs a matrix that analyzes the importance of studying space with the costs involved.

• A mathematics teacher designs a matrix that analyzes the importance of the process to solving a mathematical problem to the importance of finding the correct answer.

• A social studies teacher designs a matrix that analyzes how much risk a business can take relative to the potential profit involved in taking that risk.

• A careers teacher asks students to chart how much effort they put into a resume on a scale from 10 to 1 (10 being maximum effort and 1 being minimal effort) and their grade on the assignment (from one to ten points).

Strategy 4: Ten Most Important Words

Vocabulary is very important to students, particularly those who come from poverty (Jensen, 2019); they will carry it throughout their lives. As with the Strategy 1: Vocabulary-Building Movement strategy, the vocabulary students know will enhance their learning experience and breadth of knowledge. The Ten Most Important Words strategy helps students identify key vocabulary terms and increase their understanding of them by making connections between those terms and the crucial knowledge that constitutes learning targets.

CLASSROOM EXAMPLE

After learning about environmental sustainability and the impact of people on the world around them, a teacher instructs students to read an article about the recycling process. Students identify ten key vocabulary terms in the article, and record their choices on individual sticky notes. The class compiles the vocabulary terms in one chart and discusses the patterns students observe.

Strategy Steps

Use the following five steps to help you implement the Ten Most Important Words strategy.

1. Provide each student with ten sticky notes.

2. Have students read or interact with a new source of information, like articles, websites, science data, and so on. The crucial factor is that the source contains plenty of relevant vocabulary-building words for students to choose from.

3. Instruct students to read or view the content you select and determine what they believe are the ten most important words mentioned. Students write each word they identify on a sticky note.

4. Using empty wall space or section of the floor, have a student announce a vocabulary word he or she selected and instruct him or her, along with any other students who identified the same term, to adhere their notes to the selected area. As each term is added to the mass, the sticky notes begin to form a giant bar graph depicting the number of times a student identified a key vocabulary word.