Cultures of Thinking (CoT) is a powerful program developed by Harvard Graduate School of Education, which equips students with thinking skills for the 21st Century. Teachers must carve out time and space for students to think, but must also equip them with tools to facilitate deep thinking. Providing language and scaffolds is critical in order to make thinking visible. A few months ago I wrote about 12 thinking routines from Making Thinking Visible by Ritchhart, Church and Morrison. This post follows on with a further 9 routines that can be adapted to different ages and curriculum areas.
Exploring and Introducing Ideas
- Zoom In: Look at a small part of an image revealed, what do you notice? Reveal more of the image, what new things do you see? Repeat until the whole image is revealed, what questions do you still have? Description, inference and interpretation of an image.
- Think Puzzle Explore: What do you think about the topic? What questions or puzzles do you have? How can you explore this topic? Accessing prior knowledge and planning for learning. Use at the beginning of a unit to inspire curiosity and ignite independent inquiry.
- Explanation Game: I notice that… (identify something of interest). Why is it that way? or Why did it happen that way? (following observations). Identifying details and explaining as part of a whole. Forming an understanding of the purpose.
Synthesising and Organising Ideas
- The 4 Cs: What connections can you draw between the text and your life? What ideas do you want to challenge? What are the key concepts? What changes in attitude or action are in the text that can you take? Text base routine to identify key concepts and consider implications.
- Micro Lab: Reflect individually then work in triad. First person shares, group listens without interruption then pauses to take in what was said. Second and third people share repeating the process. Group discussion at the end reflecting on comments and making connections. Facilitates listening, discussion and reflection.
- Colour, Symbol, Image: As you read or listen, make note of what you find interesting. Choose 3 ideas that stand out and chose a colour to represent, symbol to capture and image to represent. Illicit ideas non-verbally and encourages connections through metaphor.
Delving Deeper
- Circle Viewpoints: I am thinking of… from the point of view of… I think… (describe the topic from the character’s viewpoint) A question I have from this viewpoint is… Perspective taking, identifying that other people may feel differently. Effective with provocative or controversial topics.
- Red Light, Yellow Light: Identify a source to investigate then look for red lights (puzzles of truth) and yellow lights (milder signs of truth). Collate class observations and identify common thoughts in red and yellow zones. Ask what signs are a problem of truth. Identifying bias and raising questions. Effective for texts with questionable claims such as newspaper, political speeches and mystery stories.
- Sentence, Phrase, Word: Select a sentence that is meaningful, a phrase that engaged and a word that captured attention. Discuss the reasons for selections. Explores a text, facilitates discussion and distills meaning.
For teaching ideas, classroom examples and student posters visit Thinking Pathways developed by Alice Vigors.
