Making Thinking Visible
We believe in the importance of learning to think & thinking to learn and the culture of thinking this can create in the Panda Room for our young learners. Cultures of Thinking are defined as "...places in which a group's collective, as well as the individual, thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted as part of the regular, day-to-day experience of all group members." (Ron Ritchhart) We will strive to make thinking visible as lead learners in our classroom as well as for each child using a variety of strategies and techniques.
In effort to make thinking visible will be using a questioning strategy that will help facilitate and clarify thinking. This simple, non-judgemental question can help accomplish this:
"What Makes You Say That?"
In addition to using this questioning technique, we will help students understand their own thinking better with Thinking Moves.
In addition to Thinking Moves, there are also Thinking Routines. Routines is the critical word here since routines are so important for our young learners. These Thinking Routines will be embedded into our classroom and help students understand their own thinking. Our favorite two routines to begin with for junior kindergarten are See, Think, Wonder and Zoom In.
