A Thinking Skills course for Y7 and Y8 students
This is a two-year course in thinking skills that I devised in my last years as a teacher in a comprehensive school.
Its aims were:
- to teach students how their own brains work, and how to make the most of their brains,
- to equip students with a basic set of tools for Thinking and Learning, such as VAK learning styles, Cluster Maps, Peer reviewing and teaching,
- to build up a Learning Community, where students value and support each other, as teachers and learners, and also
- to support students’ learning in all their subjects
I drew on other published resources, and tried to adapt the material to timetabled lessons, and to a definite course. So, there are homeworks, a progress record, a learning diary, revision, and end-of-year exams – just the sort of things you would expect for a “normal” subject, like history or science. There are teacher’s notes for each lesson – probably more than was needed, but then I was devising things for the first time, and trying to explain the rationale for a team of teachers.
Educational subjects and fashions come and go, but there will always be thinking and learning, using neurons that have been around for several hundred million years. Feel free to use this material in any way you wish. I hope you find some of it interesting and useful, and I wish you well.
Any constructive feedback is welcome.
Andrew McNeil
May 2024
Table of Contents
Year 7
The Year 7 course is divided into 3 units:
- Unit 1 – “My brain and my learning”
- Unit 2 – “VAK and learning skills”
- Unit 3 – “Myself as a teacher and a learner”
Within each unit the PDF files are numbered consecutively. So, “07-1-4” refers to Y7, unit 1, lesson number 4, and consists of a teacher’s guide, presentation slides, and student worksheets. Resources for individual student use are indicated. The teacher’s guides should make clear what resources need to be prepared for each lesson, such as worksheets, cards, OHTs, resources on the school’s computer network, and so on.
Year 7 - Unit 0: Overview
Year 7 - Unit 1: My brain and my learning
Year 7 - Unit 2: VAK and learning skills
Year 7 - Unit 3: Myself as a teacher and a learner
Year 8
The Y8 course is divided into 2 main units:
- Unit 1 – “Myself as a teacher and a learner”
- Unit 2 – “My thinking and learning skills”
The resources are named as for Y7. The Y8 course ends with an exam. The last document summarises some of the feedback from the first student cohort. Educational subjects and fashions come and go, but there will always be thinking and learning, using neural networks that have been around for several hundred million years.