Building Thinking Classrooms: Ch 15 - Pulling All 14 Practices Together

There is an order to implementing these practices.  

One simply cannot implement them all at once.

Start with the first Toolkit (focus on student behavior) and implement simultaneously.

 1) Giving thinking tasks

 2) Visibly random groups

 3) Use vertical non-permanent surfaces

The second Toolkit (teaching practices) can be implemented one at a time or simultaneously.

 4) Defronting

 5) Answer only keep thinking questions

 6) Verbally while standing give thinking task

 7) Use Check-your-understanding questions

 8) Mobilize knowledge

The third Toolkit is best implemented in the order presented in the framework.

 9) Flow

 10) Consolidate from the bottom

 11) Meaningful Notes

For the fourth Toolkit (evaluation), sequence does not matter

 12) Evaluate what you value

 13) Help  students see where they are are and where they are gong

 14) Grades based on data

Question 1

What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

I like the permission that I DO NOT have to implement all of these ideas at once.  That I can work my way back through the book as I train myself and my students in this new way of learning.

Question 2

What are some different ways to split a thinking classroom lesson across two lessons?

 On a block day, we will be able to do the entire sequence 

    1) Give thinking task

    2) Manage flow

    3) Consolidate from the bottom

    4) Meaningful Notes

    5) Check-you-understanding questions

On regular days, 45 minutes, 

Day 1 - Task, flow, and consolidate

Day 2 - Notes, Check for Understanding

Question 3

Where are you in your journey through the thinking classroom framework, and what are you going to introduce next?

Just beginning.  We will start with Toolbox 1 right off the bat!

Question 4

In this chapter I spoke about the classroom as a system and how systems defend themselves against change. Can you think of a time where you tried to introduce something that the system defended itself against?

Keeping the table of contents current in our ISNs.

Reflections and reporting on student progress charts

Question 5

If the best time to introduce something new to a system is in the first week of school, what do you want the start of your next school year to look like?

I will be utilizing non-curricular tasks to establish random groups and collaboration at VNPSs. 

Question 6

What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies suggested in this chapter? What are some of the ways to overcome these?

I will just need to refer back to the book as I implement each strategy.

Knowing WHEN the right time is to implement the next strategy.

Building Thinking Classrooms: Ch 14 - How We Grade

Whoa.

There is a lot to think about in this chapter.

And I'm probably going to need to reread it again.

And maybe a third time.

Grading is outcome-based then event-based (which is how I've been grading).

With my quizzes being the event.

Question 1

What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

I like the triangulation of data from Observations, Conversation, and Product. I also like that the same evaluation tool from Basic to Advance can be used with some modifications to the coding.

Question 2

In the FAQ I distinguished between grade inflation and grade deflation. Which do you think is the bigger problem?

I would probably have to say grade deflation.  Particularly if completion is a grade that is taken.  

Also, in a growth minded classroom, we want to show the overall growth...where they end up.

Question 3

Does outcome-based grading really produce grade inflation?

I think it's a more accurate representation of what they truly know.

Question 4

In this chapter I gave an example of a two-headed monster that exists in some jurisdictions. My experience is that, when it comes to grading, all jurisdictions have a two-headed monster of some kind. What are the two-headed monsters you have to live with?

This has been where I've struggled when researching SBG.  How to convert it to the Powerschool Gradebook????  A preschool checklist of skills mastered would be so much easier, which is where my progress charts come into play.  

IDEA...how to convert the progress charts to encompass these ideas???

Question 5

Can you think of some students for whom giving only the first page of a test could be beneficial? In what ways would it benefit them?

Oh definitely.  The students that are easily overwhelmed would benefit from knowing they only need to complete the basic part.  Then have the option for the Intermediate part.

Question 6

Can you think of some students for whom not writing the test could be beneficial?  In what ways would it benefit them?

Those with test anxieties would totally benefit from observational or conversation type assessments.

Question 7

Can you think of some ways in which you could introduce collaborative testing into your assessment routines?

This is a tough one for me.  I like to know what each student knows.  I would have to do more thinking on how to incorporate collaboration in a assessment setting.  Hmmm???

Question 8

What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies suggested in this chapter? What are some of the ways to overcome these?

Time to make all the notations for every student!

Building Thinking Classrooms: Ch. 13 - How to Use Formative Assessment

This chapter is about assessing CONTENT.

Not competencies as described in the previous chapter.

The whole goal of this chapter is to help students see math

As related collections of subtopics and sections.

A rubric of sorts is used to map out the related content (left hand column)

With the following three columns sequencing how this content looks

From basic, to Intermediate, to Advanced Understanding.

These can be used to self-evaluate performance on a quiz.

Question 1

What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

I have tried to do reflecting self-evaluative activities after quizzes, but I like how this gives a much clearer picture.  It's more cut and dry.  I also like the notations listed on page 240 to help students navigate this tool.

Question 2

Which of your students see the subtopics within a unit and which do not?

It seems like the higher level students that complete all their work see the whole picture.

Question 3

Do you have some students who fall into that category where they are happy being good enough?

Oh yes!  

Question 4

Can you think of ways in which you have previously received, or given, feedback that does not help a learner understand where they are and where they are going? If so, what information did the feedback communicate?

Some of my rubrics simply conveyed a grade for my students.  Reading a rubric takes time and at best, they can be confusing to understand.

Question 5

Can you think of ways in which your feedback has ever been encrypted in a way that obfuscates where students are and where they are going?

I've tried just highlighting the mistakes to have students figure out the correct way to solve the problem.  This essentially cannot be done without reteaching or going over misconceptions.

Question 6

Can you think of other ways in which you can help students understand where they are and where they are going?

I really like this navigation tool.  It will take a little to organize and probably should be done at the beginning of the unit so it guides me where we are going as well.  

Question 7

If an assessment instrument does not communicate where students are and where they are going, then who does that instrument serve?

Really, no one.

Question 8

What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies suggested in this chapter?  What are some of the ways to overcome these?

Creating these ahead of time to record the whole unit.  Sometimes, during the teaching, things come up that I did not anticipate.  I will need to be flexible and be able to change things as we are learning this new method.  

Building Thinking Classrooms - Ch. 12: What We Choose to Evaluate

I like the idea of co-creating the rubric continuum with the students.

I like that the rubrics are about observational behaviors 

and not about solutions or what is produced.

These rubrics are used AS learning is occuring, not AFTER.

I also had no idea how the headings (Novice, Apprentice, Practitioner, and Expert) 

that I was using in my rubrics were being interpreted.

According to the research,

"Deeper investigation revealed that how students interpreted these headings was influenced by whether they had a growth mindset or a fixed mindset (Dweck, 2016). Students with a growth mindset saw these labels as descriptors of WHERE they were, while students with fixed mindsets saw them as WHO they were."

When co-creating a rubric for a specific competency,

For example, "What does good perseverance look like?"

1) Draw a T-chart

2) Write Good on the right column

3) Students give thoughts on what perseverance looks like, as you write their answers down. 

4) Write Bad on the left column

5) Students give thoughts on this as well, while you write their answers down.

6) Teacher builds a rubric to be used in the next class so students can focus on this competency

Question 1

What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

See above

Question 2

If you have previously used a rubric that has more than three columns, take a good look at it, and see if you see language that is ambiguous and not helpful for moving students from one column to the next. If that rubric were scrambled, do you think you could unscramble it?

This has always been a stumbling block for me when creating rubrics.  The Novice and Practitioner columns were easy.  The Apprentice and Expert column were hard to come up with how to say how they differed from the others. 

Question 3

Think about some competencies that you feel your students need to improve on? What of these do you think you coconstruct a rubric for first?

Perseverance

Willingness to take risks (Sharing your thinking)

Ability to collaborate

Models

Precision

Listening

Question 4

In this chapter I mentioned that it is easiest to coconstruct a rubric right after an experience in which the class was deficient in the particular competency you want to focus on. With this in mind, think of some experiences that you can manufacture that will accentuate the deficiency you want to address first. For example, if you want to focus on perseverance, you can begin by giving them a task that is tempting to give up on, but is solvable with time and effort.

1) Perseverance - Tax Collector, pg. 117

2) Sharing thinking - Country Road, pg. 228

3) Collaborate - 1,001 Pennies, pg. 206

4) Modeling - Painted Cube, pg. 185

Question 5

In the FAQ I mentioned that it is possible to coconstruct rubrics for producibles. What kind of producibles do you use that you would like your students to get better at? What would the examplars look like?

Models - use three exemplars to get a background for the T-chart

Showing work - 

Question 6

What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies suggested in this chapter? What are some of the ways to overcome these?

Finding the best problem for the competencies I want to focus on

Building Thinking Classrooms: Ch. 11 - Taking Notes

Yes. Yes. Yesssss!!!!

This chapter hit home on many levels.

Taking notes is such a non-thinking activity.

But why was I still doing it?

Because I had learned math that way?

Because it felt like my job to provide a resource?

Did I dare think it was a time for students to process what they had learned?

Yikes!

But this chapter has made a lot of sense!

I love love love the concept of having students write notes for their future forgetful selves.

This means that the notes are BY the students and FOR the students!

Not something that the teacher wants.

The challenge is on though as the research shows that 8th graders had the hardest time with this.

Will try the graphic organizers,

Suggestions to include examples,

A list of potential problems to include as a worked example.

BUT THE VERY BEST PART OF THIS????

Is that students can get authentic feedback when a problem is circled back to three weeks later.

Students can reflect on if their notes were enough to help their forget selves.  

Question 1

What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

See summary above.

Question 2

Which of your students do you think will have an easy time doing meaningful notes? Which will need more support? Which will not do them?

Students that will have it easy are the students that want to get it all done.  They want to do what they are supposed to do.  They care about their learning.  

The students that will need support are those that are too worried that they are doing it correctly.  I will need to be careful with my responses and not put judgement in my words, but instead use the phrase "do you think these notes will be useful for you in a few week's time?"  

The students that won't do the notes are the students that don't project that they care.  These are the students that can't read their own writing.  It's also the students with a fixed mindset.  

Question 3

Which graphic organizer, if any, do you think would be best for your students?

I'm going to start with the Type 1, where students record their notes in a limited space.  I will offer suggestions of what to include (examples, big ideas, annotations), but this will help establish that their thoughts count.  If I start with a graphic organizer that has headings, I can see a bunch of students asking for reassurance if what they are filling in is what they should be writing down.  

Question 4

How do you feel about the fact that if you try to manage meaningful notes, students will start to do them for the wrong reason?

It's going to be absolutely important that when introducing these types of notes, I focus on the fact that they are by the student for the student.  That what needs to be written down is what THEY need for their own forgetful self down the road.  

Question 5

Think of a time where you, yourself, took I-write-you-write and/or fill-in-the-blank notes.  How engaged were you?

Not very.  Not much thinking was happening.  Although I have always been one of those that used my notes.  

Question 6

What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies suggest in this chapter? What are some of the ways to overcome these?

Challenge 1 - Setting the stage and getting cooperation from my 8th graders.  

Overcoming Challenge 1 - The circling back to a similar problem three weeks down the road will be absolutely critical to reinforce that power of these notes. 

Challenge 2 - Finding the time to take these notes.  Like I mentioned before, Test Trainer is a necessary assessment item for our district, but now I'm not sure where to place it...I was thinking at the end of class but notes will need to be taken.  Maybe notes won't be an every day thing???

Building Thinking Classrooms: Ch 10 - Consolidating a Lesson

Consolidation = pulling a wide variety of student work together while keeping thinking as a central focus.

Leveling to the top,

Which is something I have done in the past!

Is too big of a cognitive jump for students to take.  

Students can't learn by being told how to do it.

So if leveling to the top doesn't work,

What about it's opposite?

Leveling to the bottom?

Gallery walks,

With a specific sequence of what to review of student work,

You can work through the different challenging levels, 

And essentially spend less time focusing on the processes at each level.

What this does is to allow more students to stay with the discussion longer, 

as the teacher is going over aspects of the tasks that more students were able to do.

When discussion work,

ask other members of the class to try to explain what the group was thinking whose work we were discussion.

This approach changes consolidation from telling to thinking,

From passively receiving knowledge to actively thinking about the work at hand.

Hints:

Teacher has a red marker.

Draws boxes around work not wanting to be erased.

Number boards with the order of the sequence.

OK to add notation in red marker to student work, but don't ever erase their work!

Question 1:

What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

I love the gallery walk. 

I love the teacher sequencing the consolidation process.

I love having other students do the explaining.

Question 2:

In this chapter you learned about consolidation as moving through the flow levels of a task or sequence of tasks.  And while doing so, to start slow and go faster as you go. This means that the most nuanced and sophisticated solutions will get the least attention, How do you feel about this?

I'm actually okay with this, because I have fallen in the trap of levelling up and can tell you from experience that IT DOESN'T WORK! By building the base, we can then attend to the fluency piece.

Question 3:

In the FAQ, it was mentioned that taking pictures is a very good idea. But you were cautioned against having the students sit while showing these pictures. So, what are pictures good for, and can you think of ways to use these pictures ina. thinking classroom without allowing them to take away opportunities to think?

I can use my TV as a vertical surface to project any pictures I take.  Pictures from other classes can also be shared this way to continue to move thinking.

Question 4: 

Planning and preparing for consolidation while trying to maintain flow can be daunting. What are some things you can do ahead of time so that it will become less daunting?

Work the problems out to understand the math behind the lesson. 

Anticipate the misconceptions.

Question 5: 

In Chapter 6 you were presented with results that showed that we need to get the students thinking about a task within the first five minutes of class. This removes from our practice the ability to teach at the beginning of the lesson. This chapter, on consolidation, offers us a place where that teaching can now occur. How do you feel about consolidation -- at the end of the lesson -- as teaching?

I love this piece.  This is how I've operated for a while now.  I love to get the students involved in the task and see where it goes...bringing it all together at the end.

My only issue is figuring out where to put our Test Trainer which is a crucial part of our new curriculum.  Placing it at the beginning will deviate from this research.

Placing it at the end will mean I will be watching the clock to assure the 7-10 minutes can be attained.

Question 6: 

What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies suggested in this chapter? What are some of the ways to overcome these?

Mainly just the where-to-put-Test-Trainer aspect.