Intel Thinking Tools

Intel Thinking Tools are available to anyone and the best part is, they are free! You can use this website to create a variety of projects. The site would be of significant value to teachers. Teachers could easily use this work space to create activities that are fun, but promote skills such as analyzing, communication, and problem solving. There are even some templates available on the website. There are three main types of projects that you can create with Intel Thinking Tools. They include; visual ranking project, seeing reason projects, and showing reason projects. The Visual Ranking Tool allows students to center the focus on making, ordering and comparing lists. Showing Evidence Tool allows students to examine and evaluate evidence.  Seeing Reason Tool allows students to create a visual, such as a graphic organizer, to show the different cause and effect relationships.

Rationale:
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), builds on Shulman’s idea of PCK, and attempts to detain some of the important traits of knowledge required by teachers for technology incorporation in their teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted and situated nature of teacher knowledge. At the heart of the TPACK framework, is the complex interplay of three primary forms of knowledge: Content (CK), Pedagogy (PK), and Technology (TK).





Project: The Role of Friends

Students will read the story “Charlottes Web” and construct a word list. The word list will refer to important, essential characters that assisted in keeping the pig alive throughout the story. I would also have the students create a list of words, describing what traits make a good friend. Students should realize that doing and not just saying is important. I would encourage the students to be descriptive and rank the characteristics in order, beginning with the most important at the top.  The goal of this project would be to teach students to look beyond a person’s physical appearance. Students need to understand the importance of look at a person’s physical, social and emotional qualities. By the end of this project, the students will know the important characteristics that are required to be a great friend.  

CSO: RLA.S.1.1
Tool :Visual Ranking Tool
Essential Question: Do actions speak louder than words?