Building Better Brains: Thinking Skills
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"I think in my head, before I make my move."
- A kindergarten chess player
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Goal:
To enrich the lives of all students through the development of critical and creative
thinking skills and metacognition.
Component Managers:
Bonita Pack, Brian Mercer
Component Committee Members: JoeAnn Spence,
Linda Matz, Roxie Gross, Rachel Vettiner, Peggy Herald, Aaron Himebaugh, Parents Input
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Current initiatives that the committee is developing
and implementing:
Talents Unlimited
During the next few years each teacher will be trained in the critical and
creative questioning technique, Talents Unlimited. The five “Talents” will
be taught one at a time, during short training sessions.
9 out of 10 students will be above average in at least one of the “talents”. Talents
Unlimited provides opportunities for every student to experience success. Research
shows that if a student has three years of regular use of a thinking skill
program, such as Talents Unlimited, their standardized test scores will increase
by an average of two grade levels.
Chess
Implement chess at the elementary level on a weekly basis for 15-30 minutes a
time. We will begin by training the teachers and empowering them to work
with their students. The teachers and students will learn by using a method
that only introduces a few pieces at a time. From the training we have
already provided within the district, this has been a very successful method.
Research states that chess improves problem solving, enhances reading performance,
concentration, self-discipline, it results in higher grades in English and Math
studies and has a definite impact on developing both memory and verbal reasoning
skills.
Web resources related to brain research and the Thinking Skills' component:
Talents
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/eptw10o.html
http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/6/cu11.html
Chess
http://www.uschess.org/
http://www.amchess.org/research/
Other chess resources
http://uschess.org/scholastic/sc-research.html
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