So what? What is important to know about
this?
The question “So what? What is important to know about this?” is designed to
facilitate recognition of a basic core Idea of the lesson. Core ideas can come in
various forms, including basic summaries of what the whole lesson was about,
topical core ideas, which are important concepts more uniquely related to the
topic of study, and generative core ideas or concepts that can be generalized
across time, situations, and settings (see figure below). You may find it helpful
to refer to generative core ideas as “Basic Life Truths.”
Simple
(easiest to generate)
Basic
Summary
Topical
Big ideas come in many forms, including
Consolidation of what the whole lesson was about
for example
Applications, implications, and/or interrelationships of ideas
specific to the topic of study.
for example
Generative
(most challenging to
recognize & generate)
It's important to understand that the Pope lost his influence
because education and the invention of the printing press
allowed people to begin reading and studying the Bible for
themselves.
Applications, implications, and/or interrelationships of
generative concepts (Basic Life Truths)
for example
Complex
It's important to understand that before the invention of the
printing press, books had to be hand-copied, thus few were
available for the common man.
Introduction and spread of new technologies (e.g., printing press,
television, computers, etc.) always result in shifts in power.
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Generating lesson
summaries is
cognitively less
demanding that
recognizing more
generative core
ideas. Thus, as you
begin to encourage
your students to
engage in the
2.You can always clarify and make the generative
identification of core
concepts more explicit.
ideas, you may want
to begin with practice
at simply generating
summaries, and then gradually shift toward facilitating students’ ability to
recognize more generative ideas.
Caution! As you begin to facilitate identification of
generative core ideas, you may find that students’
responses are very superficial, if not erroneous! It is
easy to conclude at this point that they "can't do this,"
resulting in your not continuing to facilitate this kind of
thinking. But rather than doing that, keep in mind two
points: 1.Superficial generative responses, no matter
how erroneous, are better than none.
Likewise, it may be necessary for you to provide a lot of guided practice as
students engage in these Think-Back routines, thus you may also want to apply
many of the Y'OU DO IT, WE DO IT, Y'ALL DO IT and YOU DO IT teaching routines.
Below are a number of brief descriptions of teaching routines you can used to facilitate
identification of Core Ideas.
"I DO IT" routines for So what? What’s important to know about
this?
Here, one of the best approaches is to use think-alouds to model thinking
processes that are involved in constructing core ideas of the lesson. It is very
important to plan ahead and identify what the core idea(s) is that you will be
noting on graphic.
"WE DO IT" routines for So what? What’s important to know about
this?
One of the best ways to facilitate the co-constructing of core ideas is to have
students work with you to identify a few options of what the core idea of the
lesson might be. These options are listed on the board. Once two or three have
been noted, you can facilitate a discussion with the class to identify which
might be the best one to actually list on the graphic. Again, it is very important
that you have in mind ahead of time at least what some of these options might be
so that, in case that students are unable to generate any, you have some
ready to use.
"Y'ALL DO IT" routines for So what? What’s important to know about this?
A variety of cooperative learning configurations can be used to
facilitate reflection about the core idea of the lesson. These include:
Think/Pair/Share. Students are asked to independently generate a core
idea for the lesson; after sufficient think-time, they pair with another
student and share their responses. Then, facilitate a discussion and
clarify with the intent of making student responses less erroneous and
more generative.
Pair-Square. Similar to the above activity, but immediately after pairs of
students have shared their initial responses, each pair joins another pair.
Responses are further refined before you get involved with the final
clarification.
Numbered-Heads-Together. Groups of four students each are formed.
Each group generates a core idea response. Each student in the group is
assigned a number (1, 2, 3, or 4). Groups are then rearranged so that all
of the students who were assigned the number “1” are now together in
one group, all those assigned the number “2” and in another group, and so
forth. The new groups then share, merge, and refine responses generated by
the original groups. Afterwards, you facilitate a discussion and provide any
needed clarification of the core idea.
Team-Share. Groups of four students each are formed. Each team
formulates a core idea response. Each team is then paired with another
team. Responses are shared, merged, and refined. Afterwards, you
facilitate a discussion and clarification as needed.
"YOU DO IT" routines for So what? What’s important to know about this?
"YOU DO IT" activities should be limited to short-term assignments such as
homework. For example, after exploring the content depicted on a graphic,
students can be asked to independently generate a core idea response to the
So what? question at the bottom of the graphic. The next day, their independent
responses can be followed with any of the cooperative learning routines discussed
above. For example, students use the core idea responses they generated as
homework assignment to contribute to the first phase of the discussion during a
Numbered-Heads-Together activity.
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