Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [529]
Teacher-directed discussion on the assumptions and inferences that connect elements of the Cloud enables students to be exposed to similar and different interpretations in a way that helps them evaluate and learn from their own and other perspectives. Therefore, this process also exposes gaps in understanding due to incorrect assumptions and inferences as when one student suggested Oliver could wash cars as a way of making money. If students are exposed to the appropriate missing information, then they can challenge their own inferences, as did this very young student, who revised his solution accordingly to “Oliver could look after horses.” When students realize they have the tools and skills to fix their own mistakes and to solve their own problems, they feel more justifiably self confident and motivated to do it again.
The Logic Branch
Students do innately try to make sense of the world around them. Therefore, they struggle when they try to learn facts and ideas that are disconnected and seemingly unrelated. The TOC Logic Branch helps students to create these logical connections using cause and effect to organize, sequence, and explain information in a way that makes sense and can be more easily remembered and analyzed. When analyzing text through Logic Branches, students are able to connect and scaffold information in a way that helps them derive and discover for themselves main ideas, generalizations, and other conclusions intended as lesson objectives. In this way, students are able to remember information more easily through the connections rather than having to memorize them as isolated facts. Figure 26-7 illustrates how students are using the logic branch to connect information in a science lesson in Israel.15
In Tacoma, Maryland, 8th grade history teacher Manfred Smith (2007) found the Logic Branch highly effective to differentiate instruction to students of vastly disparate levels of prior knowledge and skills. In a presentation at the 10th TOCfE International Conference,16 he reported that during yearly formal certification processes at his school, teams of evalua-tors could not distinguish between the work of his students considered to have learning disabilities and that of his students considered to be gifted. In the words of Jennifer Harris (2003), 8th grade Inclusion Teacher for World Studies, “. . . the TOC process has helped the students put an immense amount of facts and information into a logical and systematic order. From this, they are able to extract and apply information to writing prompts, group discussions, and expand their answers beyond basic recall. This is phenomenal because many of the students being served in this class were once self-contained special needs students who are reading at or near a third or fourth grade reading level.” 17 The work of these students validates their capabilities to use a logical structure and methodology that enables them to make sense of—and explain—information at their own developmental level.
FIGURE 26-7 Logic Branch in science example. (Source: Gila Glatter, used with permission.)
An example of home educator Marilyn Garcia (2006) adds validity to this conclusion. She engaged her own 6- and 9-year-old children in the same history lesson because they both were able to contribute in a meaningful and focused way to lesson objectives by using the Logic Branch. After reading a poem to them about Paul Revere’s ride, Garcia asked her younger child to write down the sequence of the main events by very simply prompting her with “what happened then?” Afterward, she asked the older child to provide supportive details and