Thinking Routines

Thinking, planning, creating, questioning and engaging independent learners is the premise behind the Thinking Routines that I am implementing in our classroom.  These routines were devised by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church and Karin Morrison at Harvard's Project Zero. The thinking is made visible to demonstrate the student's understanding and level of engagement of the learning.

This week in maths we have been learning about Time.  To begin the week, I asked the students to write on Post-it notes, what they think they know about time, and secondly, what puzzles them about time?

 

 

The learning is made visible for all to see.

 I started today's maths lesson with a Zoom-In thinking routine.  The students wrote down on individual white boards what they thought each image was.  The final picture revealed the clock at Sydney Town Hall.  The first image, however,  was a small part of the clock 'zoomed in'.  Each slide revealed some more information and the students documented their thinking.

 

  

 

I have also used the Thinking Routines in other subject areas.  In HSIE, we have been looking at schools in the past.  I used this image to spark a Think, Puzzle, Explore routine.

 

 

 

 

Following this, I used a Chalk-Talk Thinking Routine.  Photos of children at school in Australia about 100 years ago were stuck on large pieces of paper.  The children were then asked to write a comment, or pose a question on these images.  They were encouraged to 'continue the conversation' by responding to other people's comments as well.