Those are just a few of the intriguing topics gifted students ponder in my language arts class at Kyrene de las Brisas Elementary School. In fact, much of my class time could be described as "thinking about thinking."

My students come to class daily for 90 minutes of instruction in language arts. We are fortunate to have nine classroom computers with Internet access, a classroom scanner, color printer, digital camera, CD writer, and an electronic whiteboard. Yet all of this wonderful technology would be wasted if we didn't use it for it's intended fuction: helping students become better thinkers. Thinking implies purpose, and curriculum-based computer applications establish a clear purpose for communicating ideas and sharing knowledge.

In my classroom students learn about Bloom's Taxonomy of Higher Order Thinking Skills and apply their new knowledge to create Literature Study Units. Groups of two or three students read a primary level novel and develop the unit, for use by capable first through third graders. Each study unit contains a vocabulary list, questions and prompts targeting literary elements, questions and prompts requiring Bloom's levels of critical thinking (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation), writing activities, at least one "fun sheet" (crossword puzzle, interactive multiple choice test, or word search), and an Internet connection with supporting questions or suggested activities. Each unit also includes suggested answers for the questions and prompts, written by the creators of the unit. Completed units are published as a printed copy and by writing the unit onto a CR-ROM for use by teachers and students.

Text for this document is adapted from an article in the February 2003 issue of Learning and Leading with Technology authored by Mrs. Sunda.
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The genesis for Mrs. Sunda's article was an online feature written by Suzie Boss that was part of the Intel Innovation Odyssey project.
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