This is Jennifer Gonzalez welcoming you to episode 121 of the Cult of Pedagogy Podcast.

In this episode we are going to talk about higher order thinking tasks, more specifically

about two really common mistakes that teachers make when they think they're assigning a higher

order thinking task.

The mobiles hang from the ceiling like jewelry.

Filling Ms. Jackson's language arts classroom with bright twirling colors.

They make a pretty canopy over the room and if you look closer at the individual dangly

bits on each mobile you'll see that they contain words.

Eliteration says one and below it hang four more pieces of paper that give examples

of eliteration.

Their sonification says another.

Similarly metaphor on a matapia.

Their figurative language mobiles.

Ms. Jackson students spent two full class periods working on them and many even took their

home to finish them before they were put up for display.

When she wrote those two days into her lesson plans, Ms. Jackson thought she was adding

higher order thinking to her students learning.

After all they were creating something, weren't they?

Well yes and no.

Yes they created mobiles with wire hangers, construction paper, markers and glue.

But they didn't actually create anything with figurative language like a piece of original

writing for example.

...