Making thinking visible
How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for all Learners
I have been participating in a special extended learning opportunity to learn about and nurture cultures of thinking in Oakwood Elementary and Brandon Fletcher Intermediate School. Cultures of Thinking (CoT) is a project started in 2005 by principal investigators Ron Ritchhart and David Perkins of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project Zero. It uses an approach called Visible Thinking, which is a means of helping people to make visible that elusive activity we call thinking. It is a means to help administrators, teachers, and students grow and deepen their thinking dispositions. Visible Thinking is a means of making thinking visible so that it can be discussed, reflected upon, and pushed further. It relies on the use of thinking routines, or protocols, and the use of maps to organize the resultant thinking.
Cultures of Thinking builds on the visible thinking work by focusing on the cultural elements within a classroom that lead to student engagement and substantive change. Those elements that lead to student engagement are: expectations for thinking and learning; opportunities for engaging in thinking; routines and structures that scaffold thinking and learning; language and conversations that name, notice, and highlight thinking; modeling of thinking; relationships and interactions that show respect for students’ thinking; physical environment in which the process of thinking are made visible; and time for thinking.
Cultures of Thinking builds on the visible thinking work by focusing on the cultural elements within a classroom that lead to student engagement and substantive change. Those elements that lead to student engagement are: expectations for thinking and learning; opportunities for engaging in thinking; routines and structures that scaffold thinking and learning; language and conversations that name, notice, and highlight thinking; modeling of thinking; relationships and interactions that show respect for students’ thinking; physical environment in which the process of thinking are made visible; and time for thinking.
nearpod and thinking routines
I have started using an app called Nearpod to create experiences for the musicians in the classroom to listen closely and think critically about their compositions, experiences with dimensions and metadimensions of music. Mrs. Spann and I created a thinking routine that promotes reflecting on one's own composition to determine what to revise in their piece or performance. I created an interactive Nearpod presentation that I lead from my iPad and then sync all of the learners iDevices together. We are able to input our thinking through the keypad of the devise and then I can push each persons thoughts to everyones iPad. Dialogue, reflection, and engaging in the creative process has promoted sophisticated revisions in compositions and performance practices. Keeping the creative process as the central focus of the culture of the classroom fosters learner agency and autonomy.
Please enjoy some photos of the learners in Mrs. Moore's class thinking and revising their compositions.
Please enjoy some photos of the learners in Mrs. Moore's class thinking and revising their compositions.