Why I Have My Students Justify

I've always been a firm believer that there is a difference between reading and comprehension. So often I see students that have great fluency and read well, however they have a difficult time understanding what they read. This is why I believe it is so important to teach different comprehension skills directly along with higher order thinking skills. I came across this excerpt on higher order thinking skills and feel that this list does a great job at giving ideas while answering  the question: How do you know your students are engaged in higher order thinking? Here are some great strategies.

 Visualize a problem by diagramming it
 Separate relevant from irrelevant information in a word problem
 Seek reasons and causes
 Justify solutions
 See more than one side of a problem
 Weigh sources of information based on their credibility
 Reveal assumptions in reasoning
 Identify bias or logical inconsistencies 

Justifying solutions and explaining with evidence was a strategy I really tried to integrate into my teaching this past year. I started by integrating this strategy into reading and then found myself using it in all subjects. What can I say, it gave me a great idea what each individual student was understanding and still needing help with. As with anything I try, I tend to start small then build up. That's the cautious person in me, I like to get my feet wet before I jump in.  I began with my guided reading groups and I must say, we had so many amazing in depth conversations. They were truly fabulous. Meeting with a group of 5-6 already allows a teacher to grasp each students understanding super well, however this strategy really gave me even more of an idea.  This strategy was so great that by the end of the year I noticed it was carrying over to other classes (like spanish). All on their own, the kiddos were explaining their thinking. All because it became a habit. 

Anchor chart and example words I got over at Life In Fifth Grade by Ms. Leslie Ann.

After the justifying concept was introduced in the beginning of the year- I wanted to test the waters with a getting to know you activity (after all we do so many of these in the beginning of the year-why not step it up a bit). Each student took a look at themselves and brainstormed a list of character traits. They typed them out and then cut out a profile silhouette I took of them.  Eventually they glued their character traits onto  their silhouette.

Now came the justification! They were to take a selfie (what kid doesn't like that) on their iPad and then using ChatterKid app to explain their reasoning for each trait (great way to integrate writing and  fluency as well). At the very end, we connected the silhouette and ChatterKid justification through Aurasma. Here is an example of how they turned out.

Granted, I may be a bit biased, but I think they turned out awesome! It was such a fun, engaging activity to get to know your students. Plus it got them to work on justifying, writing, fluency and technology integration. I must say, that this will be an activity that occurs every year in my room.