This past year, I took math professional development courses to round out my training. However, a huge desire has been to study Making Thinking Visible
- by Ron Ritchart, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison. When I glance through the book, I find that I use many of these strategies, but I’m always looking to improve how I can realize what the students are thinking and comprehending. How can I share my own thoughts to spark engaged thought? We use lots of post-its to share with others in my classroom; they’re kind of a favorite. In stores, I stop to see what new ideas can be found in this department – crazy or just the sign of a teacher? It’s an easy strategy to let students collaborate, showing not only their ideas, but their questions too. So my plan is to document my reflections, chapter by chapter on this blog, so I can return to see what stands, what passes, and what changes.
Chapter One “Unpacking Thinking”
In chapter one, we as teachers are challenged to understand thinking as the goal rather than the process to achieve a different goal. “Research into understanding…indicates that understanding is not a precursor to application, analysis, evaluating, and creating but a result of it.” Understanding comes through thinking about our observations,conversations, and actions.
Connections
One way I’ve used this in the classroom is through book clubs and KWHL charts. Students independently write or draw about what they’ve read by choosing from a list of reading prompts or through specific questions, then come together as a group to share what they thought, noticed, and felt about each chapter. I could see their thoughts in their Book Club Folders, but what I hope to gain from this book is how to improve upon this. I’ve used SeeSaw in the classroom. Perhaps I could incorporate SeeSaw into the weekly discussion or into one of their prompts such as allowing one question to be answered via voice recording.
Authentic, Critical Thought
Chapter one also questions what type of engagement is happening within the classrooms. Is it authentic to what real life. As an example, is the writing what real writers would be doing? Then it expands this idea to question how thinking is being applied to these activities. I feel I am doing fairly well here; it’s an area where I receive good review, however there’s always room for improvement. It states that students should be describing, interpreting, reasoning, connecting, comparing, considering multiple perspectives, and forming conclusions. I tend to ask a lot of questions to create critical thinking, but it’s usually spur of the moment. Can I be more intentional with my questions, including them more often within my lesson plans (I do this, but could use more). Absolutely. Each year I type of goals for myself. Goal #1 2017 -2018 Include the Essential Questions within your lesson plans if not already there.
Conclusion
The chapter ends with discussing using concept maps within the classroom as a starting point in teaching students to be aware of of their thinking, gaining strategies to deepen understanding. The idea of making thoughts visible is not only for the students, but also to make our thoughts more visible to the students. I’m very excited to learn through this book study.
Practical Ideas
Questions with Depth and Complexity
Concept Maps
Below is the list we used for Reading Response Stems in second grade this past year. We shortened it to 50 prompts, then students could choose a prompt daily to discuss with a small group at the end of the week.