Cognitive verbs represent mental tasks that we ask our students to undertake, such as compare, analyse and explain. You may know them by other names, such as task verbs, thinking skills or common curriculum elements (CCE's).
All cognitive verbs must be clearly defined for students, as it sets the direction for the task or activity. For students to use cognitive verbs successfully, the verbs must be explicitly taught and modelled.
thinkdrive recommends a minimum of 4-steps for the teaching of any cognitive verb:
Use an aligned thinking tool: Provide students with an appropriate thinking tool to capture their data and thoughts. thinkdrive aligns over 40 thinking tools to 16 regularly-used cognitive verbs.
Q. State the 4 longest rivers in the world.
A. See how the acronym thinking tool can assist!
TASK: Explain the causes and the impacts of the Industrial Revolution in Britain (1750 – 1914) (History, Yr.9: ACDSEH017)
Explain, means to make the reader or listener understand something by giving reasons for both 'how' and 'why' things are as they are. In this content, the reader must understand 'why' the Industrial Revolution occurred and understand its effects.
Available at https://app.itcthinkdrive.com.au/understand/explain/cause-effect-map
thinkdrive has curriculum-aligned and student-friendly definitions for 16 regularly-used cognitive verbs (including alternate verbs affiliated with each one) with aligned thinking tools and language and writable templates. thinkdrive also provides assessment response extracts with over 100 Primary and Secondary examples.
All the documents are available as MS Word and google docs, so you can easily download, manipulate and distribute to your students.
Cognitive verbs are an integral aspect of the Australian Curriculum. As such, it is critical to instil comprehension of these verbs when teaching students in Australia. Based on the levels of thinking and understanding for educational development, cognitive verbs build the foundation for academic learning. They also form the foundation for all assessment pieces with Australia.
itc thinkdrive was designed to make your life as a teacher easier with a wide array of online teaching resources. There are thousands of writable templates and interactive activities that significantly reduce the amount of time you spend preparing lessons, while at the same time empowering students to become independent thinkers.
itc thinkdrive, an online teaching resource and cognitive verb toolkit for teachers, has drawn on years of educational resources from itc publications and respected educational professionals. itc thinkdrive will help you and your students develop invaluable skills using simple steps to unpack cognitive verbs, for early years, primary and secondary curriculums.
thinkdrive’s cognitive verb toolkit for primary levels is fully aligned with the Australian Curriculum. It is a valuable resource for teachers to effectively teach cognitive verbs and teach children how to apply cognitive verbs in their assessment through the use of thinking tools.
thinkdrive’s cognitive verb toolkit for secondary school provides students with all the necessary tools to further develop their educational knowledge, best approach assessment pieces, and understand what thinking tool they should use based on the cognitive verb in the assessment item. thinkdrive assists teachers by unpacking all regularly used cognitive verbs within the Australian Curriculum.
itc thinkdrive is a product of itc publications, an established teaching resources company that made its name in 2002 with the launch of the highly popular innovative teacher’s companion. The companion is a teacher’s diary with teaching and learning materials that cover an array of interesting and innovative teaching ideas for teachers.
itc thinkdrive is an online resource for teachers with a difference, focusing on cognitive verbs as the basis for student development and teaching. itc thinkdrive delves into regularly used cognitive verbs, giving teachers and students access to cognitive and cooperative thinking tools to aid in the teaching of cognitive verbs. It also includes a student feedback area and various downloadable templates. Contact us today for more information.