Week : Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Learning to Support One Another as We Make Thinking Visible

Chapter 7 discusses essential skills that must be developed over time to make thinking visible. It is not just having the tools but developing the skill set to use the tools effectively. To use these thinking routines skillfully and to be effective at making thinking visible in our classrooms, teachers must put efforts into these skills:

• Listening to students so as to seek to fully understand their responses
• Identifying the key understanding sought in a unit of instruction
• Connecting student learning to the thinking they are asked to do
• Maintaing a formative assessment lense
• Being instructionally responsive and flexible
• Analyzing students' learning responses

"A key mindset for making thinking visible then is the recognition of the importance of depth over breadth, of making sure students are engaged in true learning as opposed to just doing work for the teacher, of embracing complexity and ambiguity rather than aiming to simplify, and of encouraging originality over reproduction."

Chapter 7 Reflection Tasks: 

1.  Self-reflect on the thinking in your classroom. Which of the areas above is a strength of yours and which is a weakness upon which you could improve?

2. Whether you are continuing your journey of making thinking visible or it's the beginning of a new endeavor for you, what is something you walked away with after reading this book?

Be sure to comment on another colleague's reflection!