{"id":1749,"date":"2018-11-27T18:22:14","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T23:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/edt431-531\/?p=1749"},"modified":"2018-11-27T18:22:14","modified_gmt":"2018-11-27T23:22:14","slug":"making-thinking-visible-uncovering-the-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/2018\/11\/making-thinking-visible-uncovering-the-imagination\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Thinking Visible: Uncovering the Imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Introduction: What is Making Thinking Visible??<\/strong><\/p>\n

Making Thinking Visible by Ron Ritchhart is a must-read for all educators. I must confess that before I went into the classroom, I had a lot of misconceptions about teaching. The worst one that I had was that, to be a teacher, all you had to do was stand in front of the room and talk. After I did this a few times while teaching, I discovered that nothing makes the kid\u2019s eyes glaze over faster than a lecture. I also learned that lectures are a lot of work for no real benefit. The kids do not like them, they do not teach kids critical thinking skills, and they require a lot of work! Now I know that engagement is very important and to teach is to instruct the students how to think, not what to think. This is very important in teaching. For my first couple of times teaching, I would just lecture to the students and they would slowly drift away\u2026I needed a way to get them back, FAST!!!<\/p>\n

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After reading Ron Ritchhart\u2019s book, I now know the importance of making thinking visible! But what does it mean? To me, it means that you are creating activities that not only teach your students how to be critical thinkers and see things from other points of view, but the activities created should show you the thought process of the individual and their imagination. It gives you a glimpse into their own world. What are they thinking? What are they building their knowledge on? How do they know the correct answer? By doing the various activities that I will discuss in this post, children will be able to bring their imagination to life and practice metacognition, or thinking about thinking. They will be able to understand their thought patterns, think critically, and even change some long-held misconceptions. The activities in this post are designed to do just that. With these activities, you should be able to build upon what children are learning, allow them to make connections, and allow them to understand their thinking. When you make thinking visible, you are entering into the child\u2019s imagination, rather than your own, and learning about their needs. It is important that we, as a society, train individuals with not only the knowledge to succeed, but also the mind to succeed. This is very important. At the beginning of this post, I included an image of one of my favorite TV shows as a kid. It helped me learn how to read. It was called \u201cRead Between the Lions\u201d. Remember it? It not only taught me the skills to read, but also allowed me to enter my imagination and become a critical thinker. As a student, in any grade level, you must \u201center\u201d your mind and imagination to dig deep into your thinking. As a teacher, you must encourage the child to enter their imagination, much like how the lions \u201center\u201d every book they read to their audience!<\/p>\n

In this post, I will discuss three major Making Thinking Visible Strategies. I will then describe ways in each of the three strategies to incorporate this into a Science classroom. I will focus on Biology and Chemistry. I will then end with a conclusion with how I think these strategies are critical to a child\u2019s understanding of the concept.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s GO!!!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Three MTV Strategies and Their Uses in My Classroom<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tug of War<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Tug of war is a strategy that teaches children many different concepts. These include reasoning, considering differing viewpoints, critical thinking, forming conclusions, asking questions, and travelling below the surface of the topic. What is done is a topic is picked. This is a controversial topic that has two opposing viewpoints. A line is placed across the desk to represent the tug-of-war rope. One side will be one viewpoint and the other side will be another viewpoint. The students will then use sticky notes to generate the \u201ctugs\u201d. The \u201ctugs\u201d are the reasons for each opposing viewpoint. They will write these \u201ctugs\u201d on the sticky notes. \u00a0They will then place each \u201ctug\u201d in order of strongest to weakest argument. The strongest go at the ends and the weakest ones go towards the middle of the rope. They will use different color notes to ask \u201cWhat-if\u201d questions that might change their arguments. They will then share their thinking as a group. As a teacher, you should ask:<\/p>\n