Think / Sequence
Guidance for teachers - Understanding the processes involved
When using the Thinking Frames Approach it is not always necessary to have the children complete all four sections to produce a paragraph. Sometimes it may be more appropriate to stop with a labelled sequence of diagrams in the See section. Often in class it may be better to finish the Thinking Frame process with a sequenced list of statements (especially if you can encourage the use of complex sentences as described in the sentence level literacy section).
However, most children (and indeed most adults) are better at communicating their visualizations via speech and/or diagrams than they are through writing. It is therefore very important that children get regular opportunities to develop and apply literacy skills within a Science context so that they become more confident readers and improved writers of scientific explanations.
Jane Hoggarth, formerly Deputy Headteacher of Oak Meadow Primary School (now Headteacher), used the lower KS2 thinking Frame Templates with her Year 4 class when posing the question; "Why do some teeth decay more than others?"
The first scans show the See and Think / Sequence sections completed by Tiffany.
Although Tiffany hasn't labelled her diagrams in great detail her work does show that she has visualized that different teeth are involved in chewing different foods and that some teeth are harder to clean than others.
In the second scan (her Think/Sequence section) Tiffany made the following sequence of statements;
- I think that molars get a lot of decay because if you eat toffee or a something sticky it gets stuck there
- Canines could get decay even from eating an apple
- It is sometimes harder to brush at the back so the teeth at the back could rot.
- Incisors have less decay because you use them for biting and molars do all of the chewing
Tiffany's second bullet point will need clarifying with her before she writes her paragraph. However what is apparent is that quite clearly the Thinking Frame process has helped Tiffany produce a highly detailed answer to the question. She has visualized what she would expect to happen and has linked cause to effect three times to justify her prediction that you will get less decay in canines and incisors than in molars.
Tiffany's work is a good example of the fact that teachers should consider the quality of the detail within both the 'See' and the 'Think / Sequence' sections before making a judgement of the pupil's level of scientific understanding.