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Activity - construct meaning and deepen understanding. This stage is deliberately written from the learner's point of view. Learning is not a spectator sport and it is what the learner says and does which is important NOT what the teacher says and does. This is the main part of the lesson and there is little point in giving students "ready made meaning" (Paul Ginnis - The Teachers Toolkit) Students should be encouraged to ask their own questions, to research the answers and to make use of graphic organisers to compare and contrast in Formation. The teacher has designed or been the architect behind an Activity (or Activities), which allows the students to explore the new information they have been given.
In a thinking lesson (and all lessons should be) the teacher has designed the activities to promote higher order thinking (Bloom's Taxonomy). Students might for example be asked to break down, examine, dissect, scrutinise, combine, originate, access or classify information. The teacher may well make use of ready-made strategies such as "taboo", "living graph", "odd one out", "map from memory" or "mysteries" (David Leat - Thinking Through Geography).
In the Construct section the teacher has also recognised the fact that we all learn in different ways (Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligence Theory). They will make sure that at least over a number of lessons, students get the chance to learn within their dominant learning or processing style. In some lessons there may well be a "carousel" of activities, which all students will move through. Alternatively students may be offered a choice of activities and choose in which "style" they wish to learn. Take the following description of the Construct section of a lesson on Human Biology.
"In one corner of the room there is a 'junk' modelling zone (for physical learners) where students have been encouraged to create their own vision of the structure of a human cell.... in another part of the room, the 'video' zone (For visual learners) students watch a highly visual film clip showing the moment of Fertilisation... elsewhere another group of students match and sequence (logical/mathematical learners) keywords (linguistic learners) to describe how DNA is passed from one generation to another. The teacher has realised the need to come at the same concept in different ways. An element of choice has been allowed, in itself a motivator, and the teacher has taken the first steps in ensuring that his/her "learning" style has not become his/her only "teaching" style.
Source: http://www.teep.info/
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