Today Karen Voglesang @NBCTchr teaches children to use thinking routines in her classroom. After participating in Harvardโs Project Zero, she is applying and using the methods in classrooms and with teachers. Learn some thinking routines and how to apply these valuable techniques in your classroom. Karen was the 2015 Tennessee State Teacher of the Year and I interviewed her at the NNSTOY Conference in DC this summer.
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Enhanced Transcript |
How to Teach Thinking Routines in the Classroom
What are thinking routines?
00:09 Vicki: Today we are with Karen Vogelsang or Ms V from Tennessee. Hey, that rhymes, thatโs awesome. She was State Teacher of The Year for 2015. And Iโm at the in NNSTOY Conference, thatโs N-N-S-T-O-Y.org. So thanks to NNSTOY for having me to present but also letting me talk to so many amazing teachers. Now, Karen, thinking routines are very important to you in your classroom. What are thinking routines?
00:39 Karen V: Thinking routines are really an opportunity to allow students to ask questions and really give teachers an opportunity to deepen their understanding of different content knowledge. And one of the beautiful things about thinking routines, it doesnโt matter if youโre a kindergarten teacher or a 12th grade teacher, thinking routines can be used for all grade levels.
Karen included photos of students using thinking routines for this post. Such engagement!
The โCompass Pointsโ thinking routine is a great way to open up a school year1
01:01 Vicki: So give me an example of how itโs used in your classroom.
01:04 Karen V: One of the things that I do at the very beginning of the year is I use this thinking routine called โcompass pointsโ. And itโs north, south, east, and west. We got a little integration of social studies there. And I did this routine for the very first time when I came back from Harvardโs Project Zero Classroomin 2012, and itโs an opportunity for the kids to really share what are they nervous about so thatโs the N. What are they nervous about? What do they need from me as the teacher? And then the S is, what support do they need for me? What specific things do they envision as they go throughout the year that theyโre going to need my support in?
The Visible Thinking website is a fantastic resource. Iโve linked to the thinking routines Karen mentions here, but there are many more thinking routines to teach students. Also the book Making Thinking Visible can help you with these concepts. Harvardโs Project Zeroteaches courses in Visible Thinking โ it looks like they have an online course starting in September but you need teams of 3-5 people to join.
And Iโll never forget the year Morgan told me, โMs V, Iโm not good at math and I canโt ever have you raise your voice at me โcause I get too nervous about it.โ Not that I was ever a teacher that raised her voice but Morgan was just that nervous about it.
And then W, worries. What worries do you have about being in that particular year? It was second grade but Iโve done this for third graders and fourth graders. And then E, what excites you? And what happens, children are honest and they basically put down what are their Ns, what are their Ss, what are their Es, what are their Ws, and what that does is it really gives me a glimpse into what theyโre thinking about as they embark on this school year. So thatโs just one example of getting the year started off with a thinking routine.
02:36 Vicki: I love that. So are these different ways of thinking that you teach students?
The Book: Making Thinking Visible
02:43 Karen V: Yeah, now I donโt know if I can plug a book here but theโฆ
02:47 Vicki: Go ahead, plug a book, plug away.
02:48 Karen V: The book is โMaking Thinking Visibleโ and the principal author was Ron Ritchhart, it was also written by Mark Church. Thereโs different types of thinking.
Perspective Taking Thinking Routines
So for example, one of the types of thinking is perspective taking.
So as we go through and we read a book, I may ask my students to step inside those characters and ask them, โWhat are they seeing? What are they thinking? What are they feeling as that character?โ And what happens is they have to go back in the text and they have to look for evidence in the text that would reinforce what theyโre learning, what theyโre reading about in that text. So it depends on what kind of thinking that youโre wanting the children to do and that will dictate, in some respects, what thinking routine youโll use as a teacher.
The biggest mistakes Karen made with teaching thinking routines
03:36 Vicki: What do you think the biggest mistake you made with thinking routines was?
03:39 Karen V: What I learnedโฆ I was privileged to go back for a second time as a study group leader to Project Zero a couple years after my initial experience there. I didnโt teach my kids the specific routines.
Note from Vicki: Could there be a more important point than this? We all need to listen to Karen here. We want to teach students to think! So, letโs give them the routines to think and letโs help them know the routines to think. Then, students can go into that mode of thinking when tackling problems. This is a fantastic point!
Karen: So, when I came back that following year, I was teaching third grade, and so I really taught my children what these thinking routines were. So instead of having to constantly repeat the steps and the other beautiful part about these routines, is none of them have more than three steps. So theyโre very easy to integrate in any content area, in any grade level. That was the first year when I came back that second time I was like, โOkay. Iโm going to teach them what these routines are.โ
The tug-of-war thinking routine
Karen: So if I said to the kids, โHey, guys weโre getting ready to do tug-of-war.โThey knew what tug-of-war was and Iโll never forget the first time I did that. I was like, โOkay, guys weโre going to be looking at this debate. These two different authors have two different view points about this particular topic. When weโre done reading it weโre gonna do tug-of-war.โ โYay! Yay!โ They get all excited about it. So not teaching them the routines when I first came back and now thatโs something Iโm very deliberate every year. I start to teach the students what these routines are so when thereโs an applicable point of using them, they jump right in and do it.
The first routine many teachers use: See/Think/Wonder
05:00 Vicki: So youโve already given us three examples. Do you have another example or two that are like, โThese are your tried and true, we use these a lot?โ
05:08 Karen V: The very first routine that most teachers come back and use when they come back from this experience, is See/Think/Wonder. And See/Think/Wonder can be done in so many different kinds of ways because it can be done with pictures that teachers cultivate from different resources and they put up on a smart board, they project it on a promethean board, whatever it is. It may be actual artifacts.
I actually did math with art one year when we were looking at geometry and had them use these particular different pieces of art that really incorporated a lot of geometry. And that is really giving them an opportunity to name what they observe so thatโs practicing observation skills. Then from there, theyโre answering the questions, โWhat do you think is going on in that picture?โ And then from there, โWhat do you wonder?โ
05:58 Karen V: And thatโs the beautiful part right there because when you get the kids to say what theyโre wondering about, for me, that was like my road map of, โWhere am I going to go next to help them explore what it is that they wanna know?โ Because when I do that, then theyโre engaged, theyโre excited about the learning. And thereโs no behavior problems that are going on in the classroom โcause theyโre so excited about this kind of learning.
And as a teacher, those questions also help me capture any misconceptions. And you know as well as I do that when kids get hold of a misconception, if we wait until thereโs an assessment and then we catch it, itโs already so deeply rooted that it takes that much more time to undo it. So these are great opportunities to find out what student misconceptions are and catch those on the front end.
How Karenโs classroom has changed since using thinking routines
06:51 Vicki: Give me an example of how you think your classroom has changed now that youโre using thinking routines?
06:57 Karen V: It is a student centered classroom where they are excited about learning and I am just the guide on the side. Iโm the person thatโs going around asking them questions, โWhat do you notice? What do you wonder? What is your partner talking about?โ Theyโre collaborating with each other. Every time I use a thinking routine I have never ever had a child off task. And thatโs been the exciting part because this is really tapping into what theyโre bringing to the table in their learning, so itโs just been very exciting to see the enthusiasm they have for learning. So as Iโve come up and over the learning curve in utilizing these thinking routines, I keep trying to find more and more ways to integrate them whether itโs in ELA, science, social studies, math.
Resources to Learn More
07:48 Vicki: So your favorite resources for thinking routines, you have โMaking Thinking Visibleโ, youโve got the Project Zero resources. Any other places that you go to learn these?
07:56 Karen V: Well, if you live in Memphis, Tennessee or Shelby county [laughter] myself and another teacher were asked, actually asked by Harvardโs Project Zero to start basically a Project Zero satellite group in Memphis. And so, every year we conduct Project Zero workshops where we bring in teachers from all the surrounding areas.
You can just google Project Zero or you can google โMaking Thinking Visibleโ and you will find a multitude of resources out there. Thereโs videos out there so that you can see what this actually looks like in a classroom, whether itโs early childhood, middle childhood, if itโs secondary. And we use these during in service to get our teachers kicked off so that they can see how these routines are used, model that for them, and then take it back to fit their students and their particular content areas.
A Challenge to teach them to think
08:47 Vicki: So remarkable teachers, we all have an important strategy to understand and that is thinking routines. And I especially like how Karen or Ms V says that we need to teach these routines to our students because this is something they can carry with them for a lifetime, the way to think, the way to analyze. And really, isnโt that something that so many teachers say, โI want my students to know how to think?โ
Well, maybe weโre not teaching them how to think. Maybe weโre just feeding them too much and not giving them the thinking routines they need. So, so many great resources and a way to unlock more remarkable teaching.
Bio as submitted
Karen Vogelsang has taught elementary school in Memphis, Tennessee for fourteen years. She currently serves Shelby County Schools in a hybrid role working on teacher engagement projects for the Chief of Staff, as well as teaching 4th grade. She holds a Bachelorโs Degree in Business Administration and a Masterโs in Elementary Education. She is the 2015 Tennessee Teacher of the Year. Karen is National Board Certified in Early Childhood, and a certified mentor. Karen currently serves on Governor Haslamโs Teachers Cabinet. She also serves as a Fellow Facilitator for Tennessee Hope Street Group. Karen is a member of the Gates Foundation and NCTQ Teacher Advisory Councils. In March 2012, Karen received a fellowship to attend Harvardโs Project Zero Classroom, and is the co-founder of Project Zero Memphis. As a result she has been invited to speak about the integration of thinking routines with effective questioning strategies.
Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a โsponsored podcast episode.โ The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissionโs 16 CFR, Part 255: โGuides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.โ This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show. |
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2 comments
As a future teacher I really appreciate this post! I have been thinking a lot about this lately and I think it is so interesting that I have fallen into this mindset that my students already know how to go about solving or mathematically reasoning when some classes do not give them a chance to learn how to do this. I have definitely fallen into the category of feeding them the information and not giving them the tools and routines to thinking. I have been looking for ways that elicit student thinking and mathematical reasoning and it is great to hear some different strategies. I am currently a student teacher and have done a number talk with my students and it was so incredible to hear all of the conjectures and solutions that they come up with and then the discussion following was so much more engaging and helpful to them to clear up any misconceptions.
Great thoughts about this. Check out the project zero site! It has some great ideas for this as well. Thanks for sharing!