This activity can be done orally with the whole class or by asking students to individually, or in pairs, complete an organizer and then share. When students answer What Makes You Say That ? they are practicing the art of summarizing and providing pertinent details they see in the art. We’ll call them Vanna White of the group :). Then, have one person read the poem dramatically to the rest of the class. Considerations : Using VTM is more than just a strategy; it provides a structure for making meaning and gives participants – young or old – a chance to participate and discuss ideas with each other. As students make sense out of their ideas, they can begin to organize information visually. This might be something like a spreadsheet or a graph or it might be an outline or a slideshow. As teachers, we can help students organize information by providing easy-to-use graphic organizers. For example, you might provide a flow chart to understand systems. You might have students create Venn Diagrams for comparing and contrasting information. Many of these small graphic organizers work well as a way to add structure and accountability to breakout room discussions in virtual class meetings. Routines that promote students’ inclination to seek out and explore differences and tensions among multiple facets of complex issues.

Provide students with a gallery of artworks. Each student selects an artwork, looks closely at all the details and writes a “recipe” for how he/she thinks the artist made this artwork. Provide instructions:

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When using the routines, students observe a piece of art (any teacher selected painting, sculpture, photo, or artifact). Then, respond to it by exploring, describing and connecting to what they see. However, we can use it to record any scene or special moment in a highly descriptive manner. Simply, in a few short sentences- typically five. The description is then followed by a related haiku poem (a three line poem with a 5-7-5 syllable structure). Here’s how to use this with your students: A routine is simply defined as a sequence of actions or pattern of behaviour that is regularly followed or rehearsed. Thinking routines are tools specifically designed to help, support and guide mental processes or thinking. They consist of short, easy to learn and teach steps that get used in a regular fashion. Students can use visible thinking strategies as a way to make sense of new learning and to generate questions that they will explore as they research or design their own experiments. Here, a teacher will provide a video, a graph, or a photo that work as a provocation for deeper learning. This might tie into students’ prior knowledge but it might also spark their curiosity. In a virtual science class, students might watch a video of a natural phenomenon or go off-screen and observe their natural world. The teacher can provide one of Harvard Zero’s visible thinking strategy, such as see-think-wonder. Students answer the questions: These are used to demonstrate how sound is used to create mood through the elements of dynamics and tone quality.

Much more than just an instructional guide, Cultures of Thinking in Action offers readers a reflective journey into their own teaching, leading, and parenting while providing the foundation and concrete strategies needed to create and develop a culture of thinking for all learners. This book: Students can discuss the impact of words embedded in such paintings (or as the artist put it, “the evocative and artistic power of words”). Thinking routines can be used across a variety of contexts and environments from schools, universities, private institutions and corporations and, of course, museums. They are not subject-specific either – thinking routines have a wide appeal and application across a variety of disciplines including arts, history, maths and science contexts. Visible Thinking Routines range from more observation-based routines such as ‘ See-Think-Wonder’, ‘ 5×2’ and ‘ Colour, Shape, Line’ which encourage people to look carefully, to more narrative-focused and creative ones such as ‘ Beginning, Middle, End’ and ‘ Step Inside’. Artful Thinking routines are fourteen short, flexible, and easy strategies developed by Project Zero, a renowned educational research group at Harvard University along with Traverse City, Michigan Schools. They were designed to use art as the power for developing critical thinking skills and connecting students to the content. They do both beautifully and artfully!

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The activity combines a sequencing exercise along with practice in identifying details. It involves a close observation of a 3-D artwork, such as a contemporary sculpture. It works best when the artwork chosen has a variety of pieces, objects or textures. Cultures of Thinking in Action, takes the next step in helping readers not only understand how a culture of thinking looks and feels, but also how to create it for themselves and their learners. Arguing that no set of practices or techniques alone is sufficient to create a culture of thinking in and of itself, Ritchhart explores the underlying beliefs that motivate the creation of cultures of thinking, presenting key mindsets every educator and leader needs to embrace if they are serious about creating powerful thinkers and learners. What do you think is going on or might be happening in this picture? What do you see in the painting that makes you say that ?

Actionable student activities, grouped for different phases of learning: introduction, processing, and digging deeper into content.

However, if you are an educator that wants to better understand how to build better THINKERS, this book is a must!

Select a piece of art that has at least two characters or two points of view. Introduce examples of a two voice poem and discuss how this type of poem could be used tell a story. In some cases, teachers might go more open-ended. Students might look at a photograph in social studies and answer, “What is going on in this picture?” However, you might provide a graphic organizer with the five senses and have students focus on what they would see, feel, smell, hear, and taste in that moment. A more advanced option from Making Thinking Visible is the Step Inside routine, where students watch the video or look at a picture and then answer: Summarizing is a skill that students will need to be able to do in every grade. Summarizing, in Bloom’s taxonomy, is found fairly low in the taxonomy- it is located in the cross between understanding and factual knowledge. A second thinking routine that might be useful is Peeling the Fruit . Many teachers are using this time away from the classroom to have their students engage in some kind of independent inquiry. Students investigate a topic of interest using online and in-home resources. One way of documenting that inquiry would be to use the Peeling the Fruit routine. (See "Peeling the Fruit" image below this article) The key point is that any strategy should be memorable enough for you to easily recall where you are in the discussion.

It is quite easy to recommend any product with Ron Ritchhart's involvement, and David Perkins endorsements. It you like to think about thinking, and like to think of way how to reach out to students and make learning a deeper activity - I think you will enjoy this book.