"Faking" Our Way Through Higher Order Thinking

Bloom's is all the rage. Kids need to be taught to think and problem solve, which is difficult at best, especially when they have never been allowed to do this. Today's kids fall into two main categories...those that don't have the experiences, which doesn't lead them to these skills, and those that have had everything done for them so they don't fail, which also doesn't lead them to these skills.

Now before you jump to conclusions about the word "fail", let me explain. Kids learn more by failing at something than in any other way. We have all heard the mantra "if at first you don't succeed, try try again".  Parents want the best for their kids, I get that.... as a parent, I do too. There comes a point, however, when you have to step aside and let them learn on their own. With my boys I took this to be between 2 and 3 years old. Yes, they feel bad when something doesn't go their way, but you have to teach them to take the experience, learn from it, and overcome it. So many of today's kids crumble and quit when they aren't perfect the first time. They don't develop problem solving and cant think past one way of doing things.

I push my students, require them to problem solve, and to think in ways most people have never thought before. Who would the Iroquois be friends with on Facebook? What would their conversations look like?
This leads to the recent activity I did with some of my 5th graders..... ENJOY!!

Northside Native American Fakebook