Challenge through Creative and Critical Thinking
Some students need a challenge. Ask students to think rather than copy through activities such as evaluating, critiquing, and creating. Transform the teaching and learning process!
Differentiated classrooms adjust the process of instruction to meet diverse needs.
Transforming Assignments
As you consider differentiation and technology, think about ways to transform your traditional assignments.
Read Technology Transformations: Digital Tools and Practical Projects that Activate Learning.
Beyond Copying
Plagiarism is becoming an increasing issue. Technology makes copying easy. Students can easily find papers on the Internet. Reduce plagiarism with high level assignments that challenge students. To shift from low level to high level activities, transform learning activities from "copying" to "thinking" activities. Look for websites such as ThinkQuest Projects that promote original writing.
Some young people have more difficulty with original writing than others. By designing activities that encourage comparisons, evaluations, and original writing, young people are less likely to copy.
Read Plagiarism and the Internet.
For instance, it's easy to copy a book summary or book review, it's more difficult to critique a book review and provide high quality examples of where you agree and disagree. Use websites like BookHive to locate book summaries. Rather than asking for a character analysis. Go to Sparknotes and critique the character analysis. Explore other study guides:
- Awery Notes
- Book wolf
- Cliff Notes
- Cummings Study Guides
- Grade Saver
- Novelguide.com
- Pink Monkey
- Slashdoc
- Sparknotes
Explore Book Review Sites from Teacher Tap.
Differentiate! Design an activity that involves students in
critiquing books reviews or websites created by other students.
Review
Review the "big ideas" on this page:
Differentiated classrooms adjust the process of instruction to meet diverse needs.
Plagiarism is becoming an increasing issue. Technology makes copying easy. Students can easily find papers on the Internet. Reduce plagiarism with high level assignments that challenge students. To shift from low level to high level activities, transform learning activities from "copying" to "thinking" activities.
