Making Thinking Visible : How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners

How can classrooms become places of intellectual stimulation where learning is viewed not in test scores but in the development of individuals who can think, plan, create, question, and engage independently as learners?



Making Thinking Visible offers educators research-based solutions for creating just such cultures of thinking. This innovative book unravels the mysteries of thinking and its connection to understanding and engagement. It then takes readers inside diverse learning environments to show how thinking can be made visible at any grade level and across all subject areas through the use of effective questioning, listening, documentation, and facilitative structures called thinking routines. These routines, designed by researchers at Project Zero at Harvard, scaffold and support one's thinking. By applying these processes, thinking becomes visible as learners' ideas are expressed, discussed, and reflected upon.



Making Thinking Visible includes a DVD of instructive video clips featuring visible thinking strategies being applied in a variety of classrooms.



Praise for Making Thinking Visible



"There is a worldwide movement afoot to make the development of the intellect a priority for education in the twenty-first century. This book will become a landmark in that journey."
--Arthur L. Costa, Ed.D., professor emeritus, California State University, Sacramento; coauthor, Habits of Mind series



"Making Thinking Visible is essential reading for every educator who strives to provide students with the skills they need to become thoughtful and enthusiastic directors of their own learning."
--Tina Blythe, author, The Teaching for Understanding Guide and Looking Together at Student Work



"When thinking is made visible, learning is inevitable. Making Thinking Visible invites the reader to craft a new definition of education and presents a dramatic leap forward for education."
--Adam Scher, school principal, Bloomfield Hills Schools, Michigan
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List of Figures and Tables ix DVD Contents xi Foreword xiii Preface xvii Acknowledgments xxi About the Authors xxv PART ONE Some Thinking About Thinking 1 ONE Unpacking Thinking 3 Beyond Bloom 6 Beyond Memorization, Work, and Activity 8 A Map of Thinking Involved in Understanding 11 Other Kinds of Thinking 14 Uncovering Students' Thinking About Thinking 15 TWO Putting Thinking at the Center of the Educational Enterprise 23 How Does Visibility Serve Both Learning and Teaching? 27 How Can We Make the Invisible Visible? 30 PART TWO Using Thinking Routines to Make Thinking Visible 41 THREE Introduction to Thinking Routines 43 ThreeWays of Looking at Thinking Routines 45 How Are the Thinking Routines Organized? 49 FOUR Routines for Introducing and Exploring Ideas 53 See-Think-Wonder 55 Zoom In 64 Think-Puzzle-Explore 71 Chalk Talk 78 3-2-1 Bridge 86 Compass Points 93 The Explanation Game 101 FIVE Routines for Synthesizing and Organizing Ideas 109 Headlines 111 CSI: Color, Symbol, Image 119 Generate-Sort-Connect-Elaborate: Concept Maps 125 Connect-Extend-Challenge 132 The 4C's 140 The Micro Lab Protocol 147 I Used to Think... , Now I Think ... 154 SIX Routines for Digging Deeper into Ideas 163 What Makes You Say That? 165 Circle of Viewpoints 171 Step Inside 178 Red Light, Yellow Light 185 Claim-Support-Question 191 Tug-of-War 199 Sentence-Phrase-Word 207 PART THREE Bringing the Power of Visible Thinking to Life 215 SEVEN Creating a Place Where Thinking Is Valued, Visible, and Actively Promoted 217 Making Room for Reflection 222 Making Time for Our Own Learning 229 The Making of an Elaborated Conversation 234 The Forces That Shape Culture 240 EIGHT Notes from the Field 247 The Challenges of Making Thinking Visible in a Mathematics Class and Beyond: The Case of Mark Church 250 Content + Routines + Students = A Culture of Thinking: The Case of Sharonne Blum 256 What These Cases Reveal About the Use of Routines 261 Stages of Development in the Use of Thinking Routines 262 Common Pitfalls and Struggles 267 In Conclusion 272 References 275 Index 281 How to Use the DVD 293
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Ron Ritchhart, Ed.D. is a senior researcher at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is the author of Intellectual Character from Jossey-Bass. Mark Church is the Learning, Assessment, and Instructional Resource Supervisor for the Traverse City Area Public Schools in Michigan. Karin Morrison is director of The Development Centre at Independent Schools Victoria, Australia and instructor for the WIDE World online course, Making Thinking Visible, at Harvard.
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