Thinking Skills and Reasoning Processes

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This one is an oldie but a goodie! Consultants at Iowa Area Education Agency 267 created a site to help busy teachers design performance assessments that really measure what's valued and that incorporate higher order thinking skills. These higher order skills include those that extend and refine knowledge (e.g. comparing, classifying, abstracting, analyzing perspectives) and using knowledge meaningfully (e.g. problem-solving, historical investigations). Each skill is linked to a page with strategies and graphic organizers for teaching the thinking skill/reasoning process and rubrics/checklists at different levels (e.g. for K-2 students, older students, teacher).
Here’s a piece of the rubric for the thinking skill of “Induction”:

​Check out the full site here: 
https://www.aea267.k12.ia.us/curriculum/instruction/complex-thinking-skills-reasoning

​Have a great free teacher-friendly online resource you want to share? Take a minute now and email your suggestion to watg@watg.org using subject line TOOLS TO USE TODAY. Please include the name of the resource and the link along with your name and school/district/organization (so that we can credit the suggestion!)