Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners

A proven program for enhancing students' thinking and comprehension abilities Visible Thinking is a research-based approach to teaching thinking, begun at Harvard's Project Zero, that develops students' thinking dispositions, while at the same time deepening their understanding of the topics they study.  Rather than a set of fixed lessons, Visible Thinking is a varied collection of practices, including thinking routines?small sets of questions or a short sequence of steps?as well as the documentation of student thinking. Using this process thinking becomes visible as the students' different viewpoints are expressed, documented, discussed and reflected upon. Helps direct student thinking and structure classroom discussion Can be applied with students at all grade levels and in all content areas Includes easy-to-implement classroom strategies The book also comes with a DVD of video clips featuring Visible Thinking in practice in different classrooms.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures and Tables ix DVD Contents xi Foreword xiii Preface xvii Acknowledgments xxi About the Authors xxv PART ONE Some Thinking about Thinking 1 ONE Unpacking Thinking 3 Beyond Bloom 6 Beyond Memorization, Work, and Activity 8 A Map of Thinking Involved in Understanding 11 Other Kinds of Thinking 14 Uncovering Students’ Thinking About Thinking 15 TWO Putting Thinking at the Center of the Educational Enterprise 23 How Does Visibility Serve Both Learning and Teaching? 27 How Can We Make the Invisible Visible? 30 PART TWO Using Thinking Routines to Make Thinking Visible 41 THREE Introduction to Thinking Routines 43 ThreeWays of Looking at Thinking Routines 45 How Are the Thinking Routines Organized? 49 FOUR Routines for Introducing and Exploring Ideas 53 See-Think-Wonder 55 Zoom In 64 Think-Puzzle-Explore 71 Chalk Talk 78 3–2–1 Bridge 86 Compass Points 93 The Explanation Game 101 FIVE Routines for Synthesizing and Organizing Ideas 109 Headlines 111 CSI: Color, Symbol, Image 119 Generate-Sort-Connect-Elaborate: Concept Maps 125 Connect-Extend-Challenge 132 The 4C’s 140 The Micro Lab Protocol 147 I Used to Think. . . , Now I Think . . . 154 SIX Routines for Digging Deeper into Ideas 163 What Makes You Say That? 165 Circle of Viewpoints 171 Step Inside 178 Red Light, Yellow Light 185 Claim-Support-Question 191 Tug-of-War 199 Sentence-Phrase-Word 207 PART THREE Bringing the Power of Visible Thinking to Life 215 SEVEN Creating a Place Where Thinking Is Valued, Visible, and Actively Promoted 217 Making Room for Reflection 222 Making Time for Our Own Learning 229 The Making of an Elaborated Conversation 234 The Forces That Shape Culture 240 EIGHT Notes from the Field 247 The Challenges of Making Thinking Visible in a Mathematics Class and Beyond: The Case of Mark Church 250 Content + Routines + Students = A Culture of Thinking: The Case of Sharonne Blum 256 What These Cases Reveal About the Use of Routines 261 Stages of Development in the Use of Thinking Routines 262 Common Pitfalls and Struggles 267 In Conclusion 272 References 275 Index 281 How to Use the DVD 293