Combining Solomon’s Six Types of Information Framework for Student-Generated Questions and Meeting Words: Part One

When mentoring our pre-service and in-service teachers we need to describe and model both research-based and clinically tested best practices, and demonstrate how these best practices can be applied in the real (i.e. physical) and virtual (online) classroom for both teaching and teacher training. Accordingly in this section of the blog we will describe how the internet can serve as a supplemental resource for instruction and the mentoring of pre-service and in-service Jewish educators. This is the first part of a two-part post in which we will share how the teacher/mentor can engage his or class students/mentees to brainstorm questions by using Solomon’s Six Types of Information framework and recording those ideas on the Meeting Words platform.

Assumption: The teacher or mentor teacher has an interactive white board (i.e. SMART Board, Promethean, etc.), a Tablet PC (also called a Slate or Blade), a computer presenter or computer with internet access attached to an LCD projector in the classroom. It would be ideal if students or mentees had access to their own laptop computers as well.

Note: Although this lesson plan idea is designed for the Judaic Studies classroom, it can be also be used for training pre-service and in-service Jewish educators for professional or staff development. For example, the Meeting Words collaborative writing tool can be used to co-create a lesson plan, a unit, a professional development or staff development plan, or a curriculum project. It is our hope that Jewish educators around the globe will form an online community of practice, a CoP, a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and/or a profession, to enhance the delivery of instruction and training of Jewish educators.

First let’s review Solomon’s Six Types of Information Framework.

At the top of this post you will see a graphic organizer of Solomon’s Six Types of Information.

You will note that the six types of information or data are factual, conceptual, experiential, emotional, preferential and informed opinions. Moreover, examples of each type of data or information are given within the graphic organizer. For elaboration on the this questioning framework see this previous post.

On the next post we will share the second part of this two-part lesson plan idea on how to empower students/mentees to generate their own questions by using Solomon’s Six Types of Information framework and recording those questions on the collaborative writing tool, Meeting Words.