The Power of Making Thinking Visible

Influence of MTV

• My perspective on my role as a teacher has changed through the power of MTV. The Power of Making Thinking Visible by Ron Ritchhart and Mark Church share the importance of teachers shifting their roles of delivering instruction, to being orchestrators of instruction where we can encourage students to explore through hands-on and inquiry based learning. This gives students more opportunities to be the drivers of their learning and make sense of it on their own or in collaboration with their peers. While students do this, teachers observe the way their students “think” – since thinking is not something we can see, we must observe the strategies and ways that our students display this. In a way, teachers become students of their own students because they start to question things about how they are processing information, what they are thinking, what ideas are engaging. Ironically, our students can teach us a lot about teaching them.
• MTV has changed the way I plan to present and execute the content in my classroom. We can show students that their thinking is valuable, through questioning. It’s important to pause and allow the students to guide the instruction and/or conversations through the use of questioning. The Power of Making Thinking Visible shared facilitative questioning being important because this type of questioning probes student responses, shows an interest in students thinking, and gives us the opportunity to drive the lesson into deeper questioning and understanding of the material (p. 31). The goal behind making thinking visible is to understand the students’ thinking and in order to do that we, as teachers, need to probe with good questions. One specific question that I hope to use in my teaching more is, “what makes you say that?” (p. 32). This question is open ended, it shows interest in the students thoughts/ideas, and it has the opportunity to be driven into further conversation, exploration, and/or wonder.
• It’s important to listen to our students as teachers to help make their thinking visible. We can listen when our students talk to us, ask questions, and converse with their peers. We can observe their way of thinking by listening to what they are saying and how they are saying it. Students are more likely to share more when they think they are being heard or that the person listening cares about what they are saying. Teachers can use educative listening to help understand their students more that can help identify struggles, challenges, and confusion they may have (p. 33). Listening to this can help teachers modify or change the way they are presenting a lesson or address misconceptions to help their students have a better understanding. We can also use generative listening that can help us provide new opportunities for our students to explore and set new learning goals.

Peeling the Fruit

• The MTV strategy of Peeling the Fruit encourages “noticing, wondering, explaining, connecting, perspectives, and distilling” (p. 39) throughout the learning process.
• Lesson: Leaf Hunt + Observation
  • Students went on a leaf hunt outside to find 1-2 leaves that had fallen on the ground to collect, in total we collected over 25 leaves
  • We brought the leaves to our classroom to further our observations, discussion, and wonderings
  • We started out with a discussion about what we know about leaves already. Students shared that they know: leaves change color in the fall, they can be crunchy, they grow on trees, and they fall during Autumn
  • After sharing what they know already, I asked students to observe their leaves at their tables using magnifying glasses
  • We came together again for them to share their wonderings and new questions that they have about leaves after observing
  • The questions that they asked were: Why are there leaves on trees? Why are leaves different colors? Why do leaves have different shapes?
  • The next day, we looked for answers of these questions through Leaf and Tree books from our school library and educational videos.
  • Through our research, students were able to find the answers to their questions
• Successes
  • My students were engaged with the activity from hunting for their own leaf, to observing it, to thinking of questions, and looking for answers
  • This lesson was able to meet the needs of various, diverse learners
• Challenges
  • Due to the grass being cut the day before, there were not as many leaves to choose from as I expected there to be. I was hoping for a wider variety of leaves from different trees, but we were still able to collect leaves of different shapes, sizes, and colors
  • Managing the level of guidance and support during this inquiry based lesson was a new challenge for me because I am used to trying to help too much, but I did my best at framing the questions as open ended and not giving them too much information – allowing them to explore more on their own
• Next time…
  • I would like to plan for more MTV based lessons in my classroom and I would like for the lessons to span across a week or more rather than 2-3 days

TCE Threshold Concepts

• TCE Threshold Concept #1: Curriculum is co-constructed
  • Curriculum is co-constructed between teachers and students with making thinking visible in the classroom. The approach behind MTV is developing students as thinkers and learners (p. 13). In order to do that, teachers have to be fully on board with MTV and implement it in the classroom because it requires less lecturing and more exploring for students. Teachers and students have to work together in order for MTV to be successful in the classroom. When teachers release control of the amount of material they are covering and allow students to explore the topics that they need to, both teachers and students get curious about the learning process. Teachers listen and observe the ways students are “thinking” and processing information and students are able to see how their peers think in different ways too. Teachers orchestrate the lessons and students drive their learning.

• TCE Threshold Concept #2: Teachers and students engage in critical consciousness
  • A student’s individual identity can inform how they learn or what questions they come up with. MTV gives students the opportunities to explore how they learn through questioning and inquiry based activities. Thinking dispositions reflect who we are as thinkers and learners. “Ability, inclinations, awareness, and motivation must be present for us to have a particular disposition” (p. 27). With MTV being a welcoming place for open-ended questions and exploration, students are able to engage in critical consciousness. They can bring different perspectives when collaborating with peers and it gives teachers a window into the ways they think. Various backgrounds and perspectives can lead to rich conversations in the classroom that can help deepen student learning and understanding.

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