Zooming Out

Using guiding questions to see the big picture

Do you ever feel like you need something to tie together the details with the bigger picture?

Zooming out . . .

Thinking of higher-level questions in terms of “the big picture.”

18,000 ft.

Tropical Paradise?

Face Analogy

Level 1 – Freckles on a face, or one eye

Face Analogy

Level 2 – parts of a face

Face Analogy

Level 3 – The big picture

Zooming Out

Level 1 – Specific facts or parts, often single answer questions. But if that’s all we have, we don’t know the bigger picture, the over-arching concept, how it relates to other concepts, etc.

Costa’s Level 1

define describe name identifylist observe scan recite

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Level 2 – Forming relationships between facts or parts. We can put the smaller parts into a bigger picture.

Costa’s Level 2

analyze compare contrast groupinfer sequence synthesize

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Level 3 – Seeing how individual parts or facts relate to a bigger picture, overall concept, or other concepts. We see how parts fit into an overall idea, or can make predictions or hypotheses from the facts.

Costa’s Level 3

apply evaluate predict speculatehypothesize imagine judge

Zooming Out

We don’t remember or recognize a face by thinking of the number of freckles on the cheeks or by thinking of an eye or a nose. We think of a whole face.

Information can often be remembered better if you get how the individual facts, or parts, fit into a larger idea or concept.

Zooming OutLevel 1 = a fact (or set of facts)

Level 2 = how a set of facts relates to each other

Level 3 = how these relationships relate to the world outside of the facts

Zooming OutLevel 1 = a fact (or set of facts)

- The British and French fought a war- The Stamp Act placed a tax on printed materials- Colonists threw tea off of ships in Boston Harbor

Zooming OutLevel 2 = how a set of facts relates to each other

1. The British government was in deep debt from the French and Indian War. Many in the British parliament believed that the American colonies should help pay for the costs of their protection.

2. This British policy later led to the Stamp Act, one of many taxes passed on the colonies. The colonist began to organize protests, letter writing campaigns, the Sons of Liberty, and a network of communication throughout the 13 colonies.

3. After a series of what the colonies perceived as unfair taxes and poor treatment by the British, the organized protests against the British government culminated in a final act of rebellion, the Boston Tea Party. This event would push the British past any ideas of tolerance for the colonies and end any chance of reconciliation.

Zooming OutLevel 3 = how these relationships relate to the world outside of the facts

A war, unfair taxes, and the dumping of tea – these things ultimately lead to

- the signing of the Declaration of Independence- the Revolutionary War- a new United States Government which was designed and organized specifically to try and avoid an oppressive government which did not answer to the people.- how should we, today, deal with a government that

continues to pass new taxes in order to continue rampant spending?

Zooming OutNotes consist of facts, but, every once in awhile step back to see how small facts relate to the big idea.

Notes (individual facts):The Oregon Trail brings settlers westGold is discovered in CaliforniaTranscontinental Railroad is constructed

Big Idea:Westward Expansion

Zooming OutLevel 1 = a fact (or set of facts)

Example: vocabulary

importsmugglingboycottmilitiaminutemenrights

1. Define boycott.2. What is a citizen soldier who is ready to fight at a

moment’s notice?

Zooming OutLevel 2 = how a set of facts relates to each other

Example: vocabulary

importsmugglingboycottmilitiaminutemenrights

1. How does import contrast with smuggling?2. Sequence the events leading up to the colonists

boycott of British goods.

Zooming OutLevel 3 = how these relationships relate to the worldoutside of the facts

Example: vocabulary

importsmugglingboycottmilitiaminutemenrights

1. Predict what will happen to British merchants if most of the colonists boycott British imports.

2. How did Thomas Jefferson apply the ideas of John Locke (natural rights) to the colonists situation in writing the Declaration of Independence?

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Our teaching will be much more meaningful if we are in the habit of stepping back from facts to see their relationship to each other, and to the world beyond the particular section or lecture.

Creating guiding questions by year, by trimester, and by unit can help us connect information into a bigger picture.

Zooming Out

“When you take notes, you do need to take down the facts, but in doing so, try to see what the facts are leading to. Try to see what principle or what idea they are supporting. Try to see how the pieces of the puzzle fit into the building of the big picture.”

- Walter PaukHow To Study for College

Zooming Out

The purpose of teaching higher level questions is not only to help students learn to think deeper and to think critically . . .

It is also to help them recall what they have learned. It is to provide them a technique for recalling facts by understanding the relationships of parts to the whole (facts to the main ideas).

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Some people are detail people . . . They need help relating details to the big picture.

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Some people are “big idea” people . . . They need help remembering details within the big idea.

Zooming OutExamples:

How did the formation of political parties help or hinder the development of constitutional democracy?

What is Jacksonian Democracy, and how did it change American political life both positively and negatively?

What were the political and ideological differences which led to and sustained the Cold War?

How did ideas of freedom change through different periods of U.S. history?