02.04.14Stretch It: Call for Examples
Hi, Everyone-
Revising Stretch It this morning and feeling a bit stale… not about Stretch It, I note. I still love the moment when a teacher makes a harder question the reward for a correct answer. But writing and revising has me a little tired and I’d love to rejuvenate both myself and my writing by hearing some examples from teachers or school leaders of Stretch It moments you really liked.
So please share a few of your own or a colleague’s in the comments. My drafting window for the new chapter is pretty short (24 hours) but I’m interested in your Stretch It ideas any time.
Best,
Doug
Alison Jewitt offered this example on our TLAC Facebook page. Thought i’d share it here as well with thanks to Alison for sharing.
I like to give a student a question directed at the stretch end of their
ability eg to an EAL student ‘look at the historical cartoon, what can
you see? – use specific detail’ then to another, more able, student I’d
bounce the question asking them to explain what it means, then the bounce again to an even higher achieving student to offer a judgement on the opinion of the artist then bounce again to the class to ask if we agree with their evaluation. Then back
to first student to ask if they can offer a higher level answer now. Then everyone writes it.
PS Neat No Opt Out-ish ness to this sequence and, my favorite part, ending with “Then everyone writes it.”
I once saw a teacher ask this sequence of questions in a HS history classroom.
Teacher: What is Social Darwinism?
Student: Social Darwinism is the idea that humans, like
animals and plants, compete in a struggle for existence in which natural
selection results in “survival of the fittest.”
Teacher: Good. Taking that concept a step further, explain
to me whether you think Social Darwinists would encourage or discourage government
regulation of business and why.
Student: A Social Darwinist would probably oppose
government regulation of business on the grounds that interference from the
government might hurt the “fitter” businesses or help “less fit” businesses
survive. They would want to ensure that the government didn’t interfere so that
natural selection could take place (allowing only the “fittest” or most
successful businesses to survive).
Doug–curious for your thoughts on what what kind of Stretch It you think this would qualify as.
Good question. totally gets at the challenges and benefits of categorizing things… something i just wrote about four 2.0. But i would call this a “same skill new setting” tho in this case it might be slightly better described as “knowledge [rather than skill] applied to a new setting”: you take your knowledge of Social Darwinists and think: Ok how would this person react in a different context.
Do you see it the same way?
I definitely agree. I saw overlap with “same skill, new setting” but saw it more precisely as applying knowledge to a new setting. Maybe it’s “same skill (or knowledge), new setting”?
Reflecting on this question also makes me realize the value of using Stretch It to CFU. I always thought of Stretch It as a way to extend and push thinking, but in the case of this question, I could see how it’d also be a useful way to assess whether students really had a grasp on a concept and weren’t just parroting a memorized definition. It could be a useful tool for keeping CFU data reliable.
I once saw a teacher ask this sequence of questions in a HS history classroom.
Teacher: What is Social Darwinism?
Student: Social Darwinism is the idea that humans, like
animals and plants, compete in a struggle for existence in which natural
selection results in “survival of the fittest.”
Teacher: Good. Taking that concept a step further, explain
to me whether you think Social Darwinists would encourage or discourage government
regulation of business and why.
Student: A Social Darwinist would probably oppose
government regulation of business on the grounds that interference from the
government might hurt the “fitter” businesses or help “less fit” businesses
survive. They would want to ensure that the government didn’t interfere so that
natural selection could take place (allowing only the “fittest” or most
successful businesses to survive).
Doug–curious for your thoughts on what what kind of Stretch It you think this would qualify as.