Language, Cognition and Scaffolding

2. Cognitive engagement

2.3. Language and Thinking

Thinking skills

Possible language

Remembering/ Recall

recognizing, listing, describing, identifying, retrieving, naming, finding, defining

Questions using who, what, where, when, which how, how much?

Tasks using describe, choose, define, find, label, colour, match, underline key vocabulary in different colours (e.g. parts of a system and functions)

Language:
That's a …(because it has …and … )
This is a … and this is what it does.
This has…
This is a kind of …. which/that …
A … is a kind of… which/that …
This goes with this.

Understanding/ Interpreting

comparing, explaining, exemplifying,

classifying, understanding cause and effect, generalizing, summarizing,

Questions using is this the same as…? What's the difference between…? Which part doesn't fit or match the others? Why?

Tasks using classify, explain, show what would happen if … give an example, show in a graph or table, use a Venn diagram or chart to show…

Language:
This is ..( a kind of…) but that one isn't (because…)
This has ( a type of…)but that one doesn't/hasn't (because…).
These are all types of …because
This belongs/ goes here because…
If we do this then…
This leads to..
This causes …

Applying to new situations

planning, implementing, carrying out, drawing conclusions, reporting back

Questions using what would happen if..? What would result in …? How much change is there if you …?

Tasks using Explain what would happen if…, Show the results of…,

Using investigations and experimental inquiry e.g. surveys, web quests etc. choosing how to record and represent information

Language:

A variety of language functions for planning, hypothesizing, asking questions, reporting, drawing conclusions e.g.

What shall we try/ do first?
if we try this then ...that could be…
First we thought about… then we…This must be .. because…
It can't be …because…