Thinking Skills

 Week:                                          Duration : 45 mins

Topic :    A.P.C.

Aims  :     To help pupils  explore and find alternatives to an idea. 

Objective/Goal:  By the end of the session the pupils should:

1.     have learnt to generate as many imaginative ideas as possible,

2.  have learnt that although the first option that we have might seem to be a good one, other possibilities could help us achieve our goal more effectively.

Warmer   :    Ice-Breaker or Recapitulation  (5 minutes)

Activity 1:    What do you think that this could be? 

                    (6 minutes) + time for sharing

Pupils can be divided into small groups of three and make a list of all the possible things that these figures could represent.

 

Fig. A

 

Fig. B

 

Activity 2:    

Practice Item 1. (10 minutes)

A man started walking to go to another village.  He had taken this route before and new the way. When he was half way there, he found that a high wall had been built. Because of this he could not keep on walking the way he had planned.  What could he do? 

3. Teacher explains that we need to focus our thinking before we do something and thus introduces the A.P.C. as a tool. (5 minutes)

Rationale :    Starting this session with a story will help the pupils realise how important it is to think before we act.  They will be much more likely to generate responses throughout the lesson because they can associate the use of the tool with the story.

Tool Explanation:

1.  What does  A.P.C. stand for?

A.P.C. stands for Alternatives Possibilities Choices

 

2.  When do we use it?

The A.P.C. is used when we need to generate different alternatives that will help us to do things differently.  This tool helps us to generate different options/choices.

3.  How do you do a A.P.C.?

A.P.C. is done by generating a list of alternatives.  For instance in the above mentioned example (Activity 2) the man could do an A.P.C. as follows:

He could get a ladder and climb up

He could phone a friend and ask for help

He could get a crane that will lift him up

He could walk round the wall

He could dig  a hole

He could give up and go back home

He could use a flying carpet

 

Key Questions When Doing an A.P.C.

  1. How can I do things differently?

  2. What are my options?

 

Activity 3 :  (5-10 minutes)

Practice Item 2.  If you were asked to put up a school show how would you go about it?  Do an A.P.C.  

Pupils work in pairs or in small groups.  They can write and draw the  items.

Processing:

Pupils now share the outcome of their thoughts 

 

Teacher asks the pupils the following questions to stimulate metacognitive talk. 

Activity  5:

 Transfer.

Making sure that the children will be able to use the tool in a variety of situations is of paramount importance.  The teacher can either do another practice item or ask the students where they think that they could use this tool.

Key Questions For Transfer

  1. Why is the A.P.C.  important?

  2. When/ in which situation would you need to use it?

     

Activity  6:  

Recap and concluding comments (7 minutes)

Teacher summarizes what was covered during the session.  Alternatively the teacher could elicit what was covered from the pupils.

N.B. The teacher can introduce the use of Puzzles that would help the students to generate alternatives.  However, it is very important that the puzzles do not have only one answer.  

The emphasis is not on the puzzles but on generating different alternatives.

Materials needed:

Loose sheets of paper (Unless they have the Thinking Diary already in hand)

Flipchart paper and markers if there is no board in the room being used for the sessions.

Portable reverse timer

Puzzles

Symbol of the tool