The 2008 FNO Sydney Seminar
Tuesday, 29 April

Join Jamie McKenzie
at the Radisson Hotel & Suites Sydney

72 Liverpool Street
Sydney NSW 2029

NEW CENTURY RESEARCH
How can we best equip the young with the thinking, problem-solving and inquiry skills they will need in this century?

Jamie McKenzie leads the group through the planning needed to transform school research so that students are grappling with demanding questions instead of scooping and smushing heaps of information.


Participants will bring their own wireless laptops as many of the activities will be hands-on.

Venue

Detailed outline below.
You can register and pay on line for this conference at
http://mckenzieseminar.com
Bring your wireless equipped laptop as many activities will involve use of online resources and participants will be asked to work in pairs or trios sharing laptops.

Schedule of Events

8:30 AM  - 9:00 AM
Coffee, Tea and Registration

9:00 AM  -  10:30 PM 

Questioning 101
Demanding Questions and Intense Lesson Design
Learn practical strategies to blend demanding (but not necessarily essential) questions into daily lessons so that students are engaged in the kinds of powerful strategies employed by proficient readers and thinkers:

• Inferring
• Questioning
• Picturing
• Recalling prior knowledge
• Synthesizing
• Flexing

Training in essential questions sometimes imposes a heavy burden on librarians and teachers. Demanding questions are a much more reasonable expectation to apply to daily lesson planning, as the teacher orchestrates a series of lessons that ultimately help students to "piece together" answers to unit questions over a number of days and weeks.

10:30 - 10:50
Morning Tea

10:50 - Noon

Questioning 101
Demanding Questions and Intense Lesson Design
Continued

Noon  -  12:45 PM
Lunch will be catered and served on site.

12:45 PM - 2:00 PM -

Authentic and Engaged Learning
Learn how to employ the best elements of these two learning models so your students are challenged to wrestle with difficult questions while intrigued by the issues being explored.

Across the land, teachers are under increased pressure to meet challenging objectives set by state curriculum standards. To meet these thinking, problem-solving and communicating standards, it pays to involve students in seeing how these skills are practiced in the world of work outside of school. As much as possible, it makes sense to involve them in such work, either through internships, visits, interviews or simulations.

Even though some of these activities may be staged or simulated, they still pass the test of authenticity because they meet the following criteria:

  • They are rooted in issues, challenges or decisions that people face in the world.
  • They are genuine.
  • The act of wrestling with these challenges is purposive - saturated with meaning and significance.
  • A student can see a payoff in the future for work well done and skills acquired

2:00  - 3:00 PM 

Powerful Questions, Original Thinking and Synthesis

This session will focus on ways to equip students with the skills to make up their own minds, building answers rather than finding or copying and pasting answers. Jamie will lead the group through a number of challenges that require original thinking and a high degree of synthesis. Given the lack of attention devoted to synthesis over the years as part of teacher preparation and professional development, this session is designed to offer a rich collection of resources for participants to pursue as they augment their repertoire. As part of this learning, considerable attention will be devoted to visualizing the inventive thinking process.
Costs

Full Conference - $ 150.00 USD (Last 2 weeks registration)


Payment is now by credit card.

Registration cost includes GST and a tax invoice will be emailed to all after payment equating payment to AUD.