Welcome back, everyone! We’ve looked at the meaning of rigor and implementing rigor by using basic, building, and breakthrough questions. But what’s the point of asking high-level questions if students will only respond with low-level answers? Why not cast a broader net? Don’t worry, there's a solution. We can scaffold our questions so that students respond with high-level responses and questions of their own.
There are two phases for acquiring and incorporating new information: Learning and Demonstration. This week, let’s focus on how to develop students’ learning, mainly through metacognition. Next week, we will explore ways in which we can support the demonstration process.
There are two phases for acquiring and incorporating new information: Learning and Demonstration. This week, let’s focus on how to develop students’ learning, mainly through metacognition. Next week, we will explore ways in which we can support the demonstration process.
The Learning-to-Demonstration Cycle
The first step for us to consider is how to help students organize new information and integrate it into their personal knowledge—metacognition. The next step is to give students the support they need to convey their understanding to others—demonstration (our focus in the next post). We’ve all heard kids say things such as, “I get it, but I just can’t explain it.” They may have made it through step one, but are still struggling with step two, conveying that understanding. This gap is caused by an absence of metacognition, which is a crucial missing link in comprehension, and one we will address here.
What is metacognition? Simply put, it’s the ability to think about our own thinking—to be able to consider how we got to what we think we know. But this takes time! How, you may be wondering, do we do that in this “hurry up and learn” environment we are immersed in? We purposely plan time and routines for students to observe, connect, and extend. We encourage and allow students (and ourselves!) to slow down, process, and know what they think. Then teachers and students can engage in meaningful and rigorous discussion in the classroom. Fortunately for us, there are some simple ways to get students to visually and verbally record their thinking so they can respond meaningfully to our high-level questions.
What is metacognition? Simply put, it’s the ability to think about our own thinking—to be able to consider how we got to what we think we know. But this takes time! How, you may be wondering, do we do that in this “hurry up and learn” environment we are immersed in? We purposely plan time and routines for students to observe, connect, and extend. We encourage and allow students (and ourselves!) to slow down, process, and know what they think. Then teachers and students can engage in meaningful and rigorous discussion in the classroom. Fortunately for us, there are some simple ways to get students to visually and verbally record their thinking so they can respond meaningfully to our high-level questions.
WATCH
Making Thinking Visible author Mark Church demonstrates what this looks like in a classroom setting.
●Watch and listen closely from 0:30–0:57 seconds.
●Did you catch the phrase, “Now that I’ve given you time to think about this, connect with this, and extend your thinking, ...you are going to talk at your tables and write headlines [single-sentence summaries].”
●This video is a prime example of what the Learning-to-Demonstrating cycle looks like in action.
○LEARN: provide students time, opportunity, and classroom support to integrate new knowledge, in this case thinking, connecting, and extending thinking (and maybe using some strategies we’ll get to soon!)
○DEMONSTRATE: after students have had time to process new information, they are given meaningful ways to express their understanding—in this case through creating headlines, which is way more interesting than writing a summary sentence.
(For more thinking routines, check out the Making Thinking Visible website and book.)
●Watch and listen closely from 0:30–0:57 seconds.
●Did you catch the phrase, “Now that I’ve given you time to think about this, connect with this, and extend your thinking, ...you are going to talk at your tables and write headlines [single-sentence summaries].”
●This video is a prime example of what the Learning-to-Demonstrating cycle looks like in action.
○LEARN: provide students time, opportunity, and classroom support to integrate new knowledge, in this case thinking, connecting, and extending thinking (and maybe using some strategies we’ll get to soon!)
○DEMONSTRATE: after students have had time to process new information, they are given meaningful ways to express their understanding—in this case through creating headlines, which is way more interesting than writing a summary sentence.
(For more thinking routines, check out the Making Thinking Visible website and book.)
CONNECT
What does this the Learning-to-Demonstrating Cycle mean in your classroom? We need to break this down further and combine it with our knowledge of basic, building, and breakthrough questions. Just a reminder—these things take time.
●Observe: When students are learning something new, provide them with artifacts, patterns, examples, non-examples, objects, facts, and processes they can OBSERVE and think about. Remember the basic questions you’re implementing. What is…? What characteristics…? What’s notable…? What do these have in common? What are their differences?
●Connect: As students continue learning, use explicit questions. Students may connect to prior knowledge and experience. On the other hand, they may not have this prior knowledge, and you can help them make connections among patterns among the artifacts they’ve observed- connecting fiber, if you will. These are the building questions you’re implementing. What other examples can you think of? Can you think of non-examples? What have you learned previously that’s similar/different? What is the connection?
●Explore: Students should begin to ask questions of their own. They may take the learning from provided examples, or from more general examples. At this point, they may not know the answers to the questions but they are exploring possibilities. These are the breakthrough questions you’re implementing. Is this always true? sometimes true?
●Observe: When students are learning something new, provide them with artifacts, patterns, examples, non-examples, objects, facts, and processes they can OBSERVE and think about. Remember the basic questions you’re implementing. What is…? What characteristics…? What’s notable…? What do these have in common? What are their differences?
●Connect: As students continue learning, use explicit questions. Students may connect to prior knowledge and experience. On the other hand, they may not have this prior knowledge, and you can help them make connections among patterns among the artifacts they’ve observed- connecting fiber, if you will. These are the building questions you’re implementing. What other examples can you think of? Can you think of non-examples? What have you learned previously that’s similar/different? What is the connection?
●Explore: Students should begin to ask questions of their own. They may take the learning from provided examples, or from more general examples. At this point, they may not know the answers to the questions but they are exploring possibilities. These are the breakthrough questions you’re implementing. Is this always true? sometimes true?
EXPLORE
That's right. Not memorizing. Exploring.
Metacognition allows us to recognize what we know, and, just as importantly, what we don’t know. Students who can do this are ready to tackle the world. Authors Mark Church and Ron Ritchard of Making Thinking Visible explain why metacognition is so important in the classroom:
When thinking is visible in classrooms, students are in a position to be more metacognitive, to think about their thinking. When thinking is visible, it becomes clear that school is not about memorizing content but exploring ideas. Teachers benefit when they can see students' thinking because misconceptions, prior knowledge, reasoning ability, and degrees of understanding are more likely to be uncovered. Teachers can then address these challenges and extend students' thinking by starting from where they are. http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/01_VisibleThinkingInAction/01b_WhyMake.html
Providing tangible structures in the classroom that develop students’ metacognition also supports the growth mindset. When students understand their own learning process more, they are able to apply that process to complete their reasoning and provide far more detailed and rational answers to rigorous questions.
Making Thinking Visible provides several thinking routines that are great to use with initial introduction of a new topic. Routines such as See, Think, Wonder can be used to activate all parts of new learning integration.
Here’s a great example of See, Think, Wonder in action to start a new unit.
Making Thinking Visible provides several thinking routines that are great to use with initial introduction of a new topic. Routines such as See, Think, Wonder can be used to activate all parts of new learning integration.
Here’s a great example of See, Think, Wonder in action to start a new unit.
What makes this routine work to develop metacognition?
Notice how this video demonstrates all 3 components of the learning cycle: observe, connect, and explore. Also note that the students are reading from notes, indicating that prior to this group discussion they had time to think and record their ideas.
Notice how this video demonstrates all 3 components of the learning cycle: observe, connect, and explore. Also note that the students are reading from notes, indicating that prior to this group discussion they had time to think and record their ideas.
- Observe: Students observed and commented on pictures.
- Connect: The teacher responds to Ideas in a way that continues to model metacognition with statements such as:
- “Why do you think that?”
- “I’m glad you added ‘because’…”
- Students are justifying thinking.
- Connecting to previous studies (~6:05 in video)
- Explore: Students who are still working to synthesize this new information are able to build on examples others have already worked through.
Here’s an example of what that could look like in a fifth-grade science classroom beginning to study animal adaptations (TEKS 5.10.A): Compare the structures and functions of different species that help them live and survive such as hooves on prairie animals or webbed feet in aquatic animals.) Students would observe this picture and complete the following See–Think–Wonder chart.
Using this chart will help students break down information and construct a well-reasoned and thoughtful explanation of their new learning. You can download a copy of it for yourself at the bottom of this post.
PLAN
Now it’s your turn! What’s the next new topic of study for your students?
●Look back and review options offered in the CONNECT section.
●Which classroom tool will you use to structure students’ input for new knowledge?
○Repetition: Use the same one or two carefully selected tools repeatedly in your class as you introduce new topics. The goal is to teach students how to think. Repetition is key to developing automaticity. When students get to the Demonstrating phase they’ll have an opportunity to vary the tools they use.
○Importance of Implementation: This is the slow time for students to process, reflect, put into their own words, and revise, all while in a safe zone without fear of penalty in the event of a wrong or unacceptable answer.
Helping students understand their thought processes and to think critically is the on ramp to being able to respond to and ask thoughtful questions that go far beyond a simple yes-or-no answer!
Next, we'll discuss the demonstration end of this process.
PLAN
Now it’s your turn! What’s the next new topic of study for your students?
●Look back and review options offered in the CONNECT section.
●Which classroom tool will you use to structure students’ input for new knowledge?
○Repetition: Use the same one or two carefully selected tools repeatedly in your class as you introduce new topics. The goal is to teach students how to think. Repetition is key to developing automaticity. When students get to the Demonstrating phase they’ll have an opportunity to vary the tools they use.
○Importance of Implementation: This is the slow time for students to process, reflect, put into their own words, and revise, all while in a safe zone without fear of penalty in the event of a wrong or unacceptable answer.
Helping students understand their thought processes and to think critically is the on ramp to being able to respond to and ask thoughtful questions that go far beyond a simple yes-or-no answer!
Next, we'll discuss the demonstration end of this process.
| seethinkwonderchart.pdf |
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