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

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 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 a 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 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.

Step One: The teacher places students/mentees into learning pairs and gives each pair a Judaic topic (i.e. from the Tanach, the hagim, Israel, Hebrew, Jewish history, the middot, Jewish culture, etc.) for which they are to generate questions.

At the top of this post are some sample questions related to Solomon’s Six Types of Information.

Step Two: Students/mentees in learning pairs generate their questions and record them using the Meeting Words collaborative writing web tool;

Step Three: At a point determined by the teacher or mentor the student generated questions generated are placed on the interactive white board and these questions drive the lesson, the unit, the semester or the year’s curriculum focus.

On the next post we will pause for a moment and discuss the work on creative and critical thinking of Dr. Donald J, Treffinger President and Director of the Center for Creative Learning in Sarasota, Florida.