Making Thinking Visible PLC Log

Date/Location
3/2/16
Trace Crossings
Elementary
School

Topic & Leader

Ch.1 Unpacking Thinking
Ch. 2 Putting Thinking at
the Center of the
Educational Enterprise
Led by: Whitney Locke

4/6/16
Ch.3 Introduction to
Google Hangout Thinking Routines
*digital meeting Ch. 4 Routines for
Introducing and
Exploring Ideas
4/12/16
OBB
(on-campus)

4/19/16
OBB
(on-campus)

Led by: Mary Gates

Ch.5 Routines for
Synthesizing and
Organizing Ideas
Ch. 6 Routines for
Digging Deeper into
Ideas
Led by: Lindsay Donahoo
Ch.7 Creating a Place
Where Thinking Is
Valued, Visible, and
Actively Promoted
Ch. 8 Notes from the
Field
Led by: Karen Teel

Karen Teel

Discussion Notes
During this meeting, we began by talking about what it looks like to view teaching through the lens of thinking. We determined that this
involves the teacher purposefully planning to ensure that students are THINKING and developing understanding throughout all of the
exercises that they participate in the classroom. Another key focus of todays discussion was in regards to the 8 thinking moves on pages
11 and 13. These thinking moves help foster understanding and encouraging curiosity. We also talked about questioning, as it is
discussed in-depth in Chapter 2. Questioning is a tool for teachers to GUIDE students and help them consider every element of concepts.
Questions should have purpose. What do you want students to know explicitly? Modeling questioning for students helps develop curiosity
and helps them make connections.
Today, we discussed the thinking routines and how they should be used as a tool, in the sense that they should help accomplish a certain
goal. We also looked at how thinking routines are structures. Similarly to a skeletal system, they are the building blocks and foundation
to scaffold in the classroom. In this chapter, thinking routines are also referred to as patterns of behavior, as they are building a culture of
thinking in the classroom as well. We determined that those 3 aspects go hand in hand in fulfilling the specific needs of students, as they
can be adapted for those. Looking at the Routines for Introducing and Exploring Ideas, we all shared how we feel that they can best be
integrated in our units specifically. I shared that I use the See, Think, Wonder routine to look at the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party
in one of my lessons for the purpose of students analyzing the details of the event through their own discovery.
After discussing each of the individual routines in Chapter 5, we specifically looked at the 4Cs, connections, challenge, concepts, and
changes. We talked about how this is a routine that we embedded throughout our Despereaux work and our own novel studies, with the
purpose of providing structure for text-based discussion. Another essential aspect of this is selecting appropriate content so that ideas
can be considered from more than one perspective. One routine from these chapters that stood out to me was the circle of viewpoints. We
discussed how it could be applied well at the beginning or the end of a unit to help students consider the concept from every angle. Mary
suggested that this routine pushes students to add depth to their thinking and could be a good activity for students who need more of a
challenge in the classroom. We also talked about the What makes you say that? question and how that is applicable to other routines
such as the See, Think, Wonder, asking students What do you see that makes you think that?, but in a more conversational way.
This last meeting was mainly focused on what it means to create a culture of thinking. We brainstormed places outside of the classroom
where we can do exactly that. We determined that anywhere the class is can be adapted in such a culture if the teacher guides the
students mainly through questioning. Dr. Hoaglund pointed out the quote at the bottom of pg. 220, she provided that we have to surround
students in this culture of thinking if we want them to be fully enthralled with this type of engaging educational experience. In the closure of
the book, we looked at the common pitfalls and struggles. We talked about the Special of the Day and how we hope to avoid using
thinking routines to just be using a routine. This refers back to our previous point about using each of the purposefully, depending on the
goal and needs of specific students. We also looked at the Death by Worksheet explanation and discussed how we see this as a huge
issue because of the convenience of worksheets for the teacher. A major question to consider is, How can teachers continue to use
thinking routines and have thinking discussions in the classroom even when they are not present? We determined that this could eliminate
the fall back on worksheets in the classroom when the teacher is not there to guide the students. Overall, we all see how this book is more
applicable to how students learn in comparison to Teach Like a Champion, which is more centralized on the environment and management
in schools. We think that it applies to us more this semester in the program in how we approach conceptual learning.