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Speaking & Listening to Facilitate Reasoning
Speaking & Listening to Facilitate Reasoning
Reasoning is the act of thinking about something in a logical, sensible way in order to form a conclusion or judgment. Across disciplines and content areas, reasoning allows students to make sense of content and ideas by attending to the rationales, understandings, structures, patterns, and connections between concepts. Even more specifically, in English Language Arts, reasoning lays the groundwork for argument. As students learn to express their own reasoning, they are also able to analyze the ideas and arguments of others. In mathematics, reasoning is explicitly tied to the Mathematical Practices. Similarly, the Science and Engineering practices of the Next Generation Science Standards require reasoning.
One goal of enhancing the practices of speaking and listening in the classroom should be to facilitate students’ ability to verbally express their reasoning. Insight into students’ thinking and reasoning allows teachers to make instructional shifts in a formative and responsive manner.
Visual Models to Support Reasoning
Visual Models to Support Reasoning
Visual models and graphic organizers are instructional tools that support reasoning. The human mind naturally organizes and stores information by sorting and connecting new information with previous knowledge. Visual models and graphic organizers help students see connections and relationships between facts, information, terms, and concepts while appealing to visual and spatial modalities. When teachers skillfully integrate visual models and graphic organizers into instruction, students are able to build the comprehension that is necessary to support critical thinking and reasoning.
While there are many specific and appropriate visual models and graphic organizers that can be used across content areas, this handbook contains descriptions and examples for the following five specific types: T-charts, Venn Diagrams, Webs, KWLs, and Sequence Chains. Utilizing these graphic organizers across the schoolhouse provides the consistency and repetition required to help students internalize processes for organizing new learning.
Protocols: Active Listening Turn and Talk Think-Pair-Share Pair/Square Accountable Talk
Graphic Organizers: T-Chart Venn Diagram Web KWL Sequence Chain
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