Big6

=Big6 Resources for Planning and Practice= The contents on this page are organized to help you conceive and develop ideas for lessons that are well-suited for the Big6 format. //As you look through this information, you might find that some of your existing lessons could be adapted to fit the Big6 framework//.

Overview
You can review or familiarize yourself with the Big6 Process [|here].

You may find this [|Big6 writing process organizer] similarly useful. You might use this as a handout for those assignments that result in a written product.

Lesson Ideas
While the National Council of Teachers of English focuses on language and literacy, many of their ReadWriteThink lesson plan ideas can be adapted for use in many curricular areas: [|NCTE Lesson Plan Ideas]. Perhaps the English and Social Studies departments might draw from these ideas...

Mark Hancock shares a lesson that focuses on using the Big6 process to understand federal income taxes more fully [|here]. This idea might work well in some of the business and computer vocational courses.

In his book Art Teacher's Guide to the Internet, Craig Roland shares this cool [|Big6-oriented visual arts lesson plan]. This plan might also be adapted for literary styles, musical styles, architectural styles, or other media that allow for variety.

Lesson Plan Templates
This file provides a basic template and rubric for planning:

A more involved template for planning:

This most recent version of the template is detailed and provides a format to help teachers fine tune their lessons:

=1: Task Definition= One concept you can use to direct your Big6 planning is to consider curriculum-framing questions that you would like for your students to consider and to answer. For the philosophies behind curriculum-framing (or essential) questions, [|surf on over to the Intel site]. And, for some easily-accessible curriculum-framing questions you can adapt, go to the J: drive, click Shares, click Teacher Shares, and then check in the Big6 folder.

=2: Information Seeking Strategies and 3: Location and Access= You are an expert in the information that you teach, and you will probably be able to direct students to appropriate sources and help them find information. You might check the [|Research and Reference links] on the school web page, and the Media Center staff would like to help out as well. Let us know what you need.

=4: Use of Information= To help students engage information (read, hear, view, touch) and extract information (to pull out the most useful and valid ideas), you might consider using some of Marzano's strategies found here on the RocketResources wiki. =5: Synthesis of Information=

In this article, Ru Story-Huffman shares some strategies students and teachers can use to synthesize the information they've found in earlier Big6 steps: [|Story-Huffman's article is here.]

You can also find great information for the synthesis stage by checking out the Project-based Learning page on RocketResources. Usually, teachers find that the projects or products that they use with their students are a synthesis of multiple kinds of information--the paper, object, or performance is supposed to demonstrate proficiency or understanding. You might consider choosing a favorite activity or project and use it as a starting point for your work with Big6.

=6: Evaluation= = =

Barbara Jansen offers some [|step-specific guidelines for evaluating your Big6 lesson plan]--the content is practical and may help you understand the Big6 framework more fully. Her ideas may also allow you to improve on your lesson plans before the students ever get to enjoy them.

Also be sure to check out the Assessment information on the RocketResources Assessment page. And, if you want cool, free, editable assessment measures for your lesson or classes, be sure to check out the Intel Assessments Library linked at the bottom of the page.