Making Thinking Visible

I just opened a new Amazon box containing Ron Ritchhart’s latest book (co-authored by Karin Morrison and Mark Church) ‘Making Thinking Visible’. Ritchhart's culture of thinking, discussed in his book Intellectual Character, has had transformative effects on teachers (like me!) in understanding classroom culture as a place where the class and each student thinking is "valued, visible, and actively promoted" daily and routinely. Teaching in a progressive school in Los Angeles, this was a part of the entire school culture, which makes for an especially rich experience. When students come into a classroom in the fall and already expect to share their own thinking, build on each others' ideas, and contribute freely to explore new ideas, the teachers' responsibility then is only to continue to nurture and build. This is much easier than the norm. I remember sharing something I wanted to bring up in class with my older son, who had been in several more traditional classrooms. He began telling me I should have the class sit in a circle and pass something around that each person would hold and ask them to share about the topic. I asked why, and he said "well that way people have to start talking about it". The starting to talk about it was luckily not a problem in my classes, but it made me think about how teachers could begin building that up. It must be more and more difficult as students get older and they are more used to just sitting in class, not engaged.

Unpacking Thinking…

The first chapter of ‘Making Thinking Visible’ unpacks thinking. This initial list of ’thinking moves that are integral to understanding’:

1. Observing closely and describing what’s there
2. Building explanations and interpretations
3. Reasoning with evidence
4 Making connections
5. Considering different perspectives
6. Capturing the heart and forming conclusions
7. Wondering and questioning
8. Uncovering complexity and going below the surface of things

This builds the culture in the classroom of respect for each other and each others' ideas. This is meaningful learning.

Reference
Ritchhart, R., Church, M., Morrison, K., Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners, Jossey-Bass, 2011.