Thinking Routines

Today, as we got ready for our first lunch recess, we looked at a picture of our playground. After a close look, we discussed what we see when we "look" at the picture. We saw many things that you might expect...a slide, a sandbox, a gate. Next, we spent some time noticing what we "think" about the picture. Our thoughts ranged from "I think it's time for recess" to "I think there are shovels in the sandbox" to "I'm hungry. I want lunch!". (Me, too!). Finally, I asked the question "What does this picture make wonder?" This was a bit harder to answer. Someone wondered where the kids were...the playground was empty in the picture. Another wondered if the gate was to keep the kids inside...or to keep the big kids out.

This is just one of the many thinking routines we will do this year to help make our thinking visible to others.

What do you think about that?

tug of war

Would you rather swim in a pool or in the ocean?

We showed our thinking by adding our names to this "tug of war".

Then, we asked each other that important question...

"What makes you say that?"

In the end, we learned that it was okay to agree to disagree.

Actually, we agreed that we were glad that we had different ideas. 

 

 

Thinking Routines

 

 

Visible Thinking involves several practices and resources.   In our classroom, we use a number of "thinking routines" -- simple protocols for exploring ideas -- around whatever topics are important, say "What is a Scientist?"   We used a routine called *Generate*Sort*Connect* to organize our thinking.   This is a routine for organizing our understanding of a topic through concept mapping.

What is a Scientist?

 

*Generate a list of ideas and initial thoughts that come to mind when you think about this particular topic.

 

*Sort your ideas according to how central or tangential they are. Place central ideas near the center and more tangential ideas toward the outside of the page. 

 

*Connect your ideas by drawing connecting lines between ideas that have something in common. Explain and write in a short sentence how the ideas are connected.
 

 

 

 

Why Make Thinking Visible?

The central idea of Visible Thinking is very simple:

 making thinking visible.

We learn best what we can see and hear

("visible thinking" means generally available to the senses, not just what you can see with your eyes).

We watch, we listen, we imitate,

 we adapt what we find to our own styles and interests, we build from there.

Now imagine learning to dance

when the dancers around you are all invisible.

 Imagine learning a sport

when the players who already know the game can't be seen.

Strange as it seems,

something close to it happens all the time

in one very important area of learning: learning to think, which includes learning to learn.

Thinking is pretty much invisible.

To be sure, sometimes people explain the thoughts behind a particular conclusion,

 but often they do not.

 

Mostly, thinking happens under the hood,

within the marvelous engine of our mind-brain.

Visible Thinking includes a number of ways of making students' thinking visible

to themselves, to their peers, and to the teacher,

so they get more engaged by it

and come to manage it better for learning and other purposes.

 

When thinking is visible in classrooms,

students are in a position to be more metacognitive,

to think about their thinking.

        When thinking is visible,

it becomes clear that school is not about memorizing content

 but exploring ideas.

 

 

Teachers benefit when they can see students' thinking

because misconceptions, prior knowledge, reasoning ability,

and degrees of understanding are more likely to be uncovered.

 

 

Teachers can then address these challenges

 and extend students' thinking

by starting from where they are.

 

 

 

Visible Thinking excerpt from:

http://www.old-pz.gse.harvard.edu/vt/VisibleThinking_html_files/01_

VisibleThinkingInAction/01a_VTInAction.html

"BEE" My Valentine

 

Our afternoon today was filled with ice cream sundaes, big valentine hearts, some finger puppets, a bit of candy kiss estimating, passing out cards and, of course, lava-jumping.  Would you expect any less?

 

 

We even fit in a little "thinking routine"...GENERATE*SORT*CONNECT.

Since today is all about our friends, we spent some time thinking about our friends and how they are important to us.  Then we turned to discuss this with a partner...because we all need to run our ideas by a good listener.  We gathered these ideas, and then sorted them.  We organized our ideas in a way that made sense to us, and finally, we connected our ideas to other ideas.  The thinking was deep, the conversation engaging and the learning? well, quite visible!

reindeer games

run, run, as fast as you can

Gindgerbread children are filling our days...

and our science, literacy and math lessons.