Session Six: What Habits of Mind are Working For You

Posted by Lindsay

Both classes were in the 'Think Tank' this past Wednesday for the final 'tank' of the year!

Last week we explored the word 'Inquire' in depth. This week,  session six took the students back to looking at the Habits of Mind they were using during Think Tank. Our 'Opening Circle' discussion had two main goals: having the students engage in structured A/B partner talk and discussions about 'Habits of Mind'. It was during this discussion that it became clear to me just how 'transferable' these 'Habits of Mind' are. In both classrooms the 'Habits of Mind' are clearly posted and Joy and I are making a strong effort to reference them in our lessons. In some of my lessons, the students have begun to set a 'Habit of Mind' goal.  So I was very pleased during our opening discussion when a student mentioned that he had set the goal of 'strive to be accurate and precise' for our numeracy lesson on four digit subtraction.

After our discussion I had the students write in their reflection journal about which bin they would be exploring and which Habit of Mind they thought they would be using. At think point, I was struck by (and this is not new!) how writing thoughts, ideas and questions on paper can reveal such a range of abilities within one class. This makes me go back to the idea of students having multiple ways to record their learning.

Next, as in previous lessons, the students were asked to record a question that they were wondering about their bin. I was really concerned with the number of students who wrote down 'surface level' questions such as 'how long will this take? will it be hard? will it be fun?' In reality, I shouldn't be surprised as this seems to be a common theme; unless explicitly taught, how can I expect students to create deep thinking questions without having any prior knowledge or learning in this area before? So, back to the classroom we went to 'unpack' what deep thinking questions are. Thursday and Friday were spent with Adrianne Gears' 'Reading Power' to get a better understanding of what a 'deep thinking' question is.

Onto the fun stuff! Once students had the chance to get into their bins it was amazing, again, to see the level of engagement all the students had with their inquiry bin. I was pondering the fact that 'engagement' does not always mean 'on task'. I was struggling with this as I watched one student create a structure with the wooden kappa blocks which was not even close to the task he was assigned. Was the student engaged? Yes. Was the student exploring? Yes. Was the student working on their task? No. Was the student learning? I'm not sure. I went to Joy to debrief this and we discussed the fact that when do students have the chance to play? In Kindergarten for sure, but beyond that, when do students have the opportunity to engage in play and exploration?

For our reflection, we utilized the 'Four Point Evidence' structure for students to respond to 'what Habits of Mind do you have working for you?' Again, I was struck by the need for explicit instruction and the gradual release of responsibility that is necessary for many of our students. We have some work to do, but the great thing is, we our excited to bring some of the learning/instruction components of 'Think Tank' into the classroom and we know it is relevant and we know it is meaningful!

Stay tuned for more Think Tank posts next year!!

What does it mean "to inquire"?

Session Five: Posted by Joy

This week's session was, once again, fun and engaging for the kids. As we approached our Think Tank day, I heard comments such as: "I can't wait for Think Tank!"; "What bin are you going to do?", "Do you want to work with me?" We have the kids where we want them to be: keen to engage and play in the Think Tank while being open to exploring the idea that we have Habits of Mind, or thinking dispositions, we can access and develop. I am thrilled we have the opportunity to guide our students towards being more open-minded and adventurous with their thinking, as Knodt (2008) suggested: "just like other patterns of human behaviour, thinking dispositions can be encouraged and guided, can be employed by individuals more consciously, and can also become nearly automatic. They can be taught".

As we cycle through our own phases of inquiry, our focus has expanded. Personally, I am now seeing
the Think Tank as just one more place I can facilitate learning about the thinking dispositions. For example, last week's opening circle revealed to use there were many misconceptions about what inquiry actually meant. What came out of our realization is that we need more time than the opening circle allows to engage in thinking lessons.  We have therefore added another session during the week, called the "Thinking Lesson" (cool, huh?) We are looking at our Thinking Lesson as an extension of our Think Tank... And there it is....Think Tank has moved out of the Tank! We knew it would, but we weren't sure what that would look like!

 In the Thinking Lesson in my class, we explored the concept of inquiry once again. We viewed a few YouTube movies, discussed the inquiry we do in class and talked about inquiries that we have done in "the real world". We then compared those inquires to the stages around this inquiry star (see left).

On sticky notes, we captured key words.

We brainstormed occasions in which we conducted inquiry. 

Notes....

After building up our background knowledge, we went to the Think Tank for our fifth session. The goal was to notice how we cycled through the stages of inquiry (while having fun in the bins of course....discovering new things, uncovering new interests, making new connections). I was hoping the kids could see and understand they were indeed engaged in inquiry (at the very least that they started with being curious and wondering about something and that they engaged in some kind of investigation).


Result: They did! Our reflection circle discussion indicated the kids were starting to grasp the idea. We have an emerging understanding of the process of inquiry!
Here are a few writing samples:

 

We are also using this writing framework for our reflections: What? So What? What's the Connection? and Now What? More on that later, but has already raised the level of expression for the kids!













Here are a few pictures of the kids in action:

Stop Motion Animation

Suspend a bridge. They did it!!

 

Reflection writing time! 

Measuring their dream home.

The 2D instructions 

The 3D structure being built from the 2D instructions.

(Sorry - a bit blurry). Coaching tips left by one partnership for the next group.






As we delve further into the process, I am becoming more and more confident that teaching thinking skills through inquiry is the way to go! The kids are highly motivated and their natural curiosity is guiding them. Interestingly, they are also highly motivated to learn about the Habits of Mind themselves. A recent conversation we had about Nelson Mandela focused around the idea that he had to "understand others" (in addition to other Habits of Mind we identified) in order to work with the South African president De Klerk for a fair and peaceful South Africa. What I have realized is everything we do can be framed within these thinking dispositions! Upon looking at the draft BC curriculum, I cannot help but notice how the Habits of Mind fit quite nicely into the "Core Competencies". I believe these thinking dispositions are qualities that are essential in the 21st century, especially if we want to enable our kids' innovative and creative thinking.  Wagner (2012) listed curiosity, collaboration, integrative thinking and a bias toward action and experimentation as essential qualities of a successful innovator. He also maintained this list: "...represent(s) a set of skills and habits of mind that can be nurtured, taught, and mentored!" (p. 16).

I look forward to investigating these thinking dispositions with the students in explicit lessons on each one. In addition to nurturing, teaching and mentoring students' Habits of Mind, I also look forward to observing students discover and uncover new interests within the Think Tank.

Stay tuned for Lindsay's reflection on our next session: "What Habit of Mind have you got working for you?" (Special thanks to Petra for her support and looking forward to further her further involvement in our project!)

Session Four: Exploring the Word 'Inquire'

Written by Lindsay:
After a lot of time and effort we were able to put all the pieces together for all 20 of our Think Tank Bins. We have been looking forward to having the students dive into the individual bins since we began this project and it was clear that our students were too.

Our 'skeleton' was also eager to get out of the bin and stretch his bones!!

On Thursday we had the students do a walk through of the bins and do a little exploration before beginning our session today (Friday). This really peaked their enthusiasm as they were introduced to bins with titles such as "Stop Motion Animation", "The Impossible Spiral" "Be an Architect" and "Why is Origami Square".

Here are the names of the bins the students will be working with.

This session began with our opening circle where students were engaged in structured partner talk discussion. Students were asked to tap into their background knowledge and share what they knew about the word 'inquire'. Students were also asked to think about the Habits of Mind that they thought they might be using in this session. The students were very excited to get started with their bins. For this session we decided that for each of our classes we would determine partnerships that students would be working in and the bins that they would be starting with. Our ultimate goal is for students to self select partnerships, small groups or to work on their own and also to self select their bins.

Once the students had grabbed their bins and begun exploring their contents we asked them to pause and write down a question that they were wondering about. They used their reflection journals to do this. After that, the kids were engaged for a solid hour of pure exploration and investigation of their bins.

Exploring, sorting and categorizing rocks and minerals.

Playing with stop-motion animation.

Discovering snap circuits.

Mr. Bones stretching his legs (femur, tibia and fibula, as the students discovered)

Drawing out the floor plan to their 'Dream House'

In the afternoon, my class returned to the Think Tank to take part in our Reflection Circle. Once again, the students were asked to engage in structured A/B partner talk around their experience in the Think Tank today. After some discussion, the students followed four writing prompts to respond to in their journals:
               -What did you do in Think Tank today
               -What did you learn in Think Tank today.
               -What does the work 'Inquire' mean to you
               -How did your thinking get stronger today.


Teacher's Reflection:
All in all, I would have to say that today's session was quite successful. It was clear that they pre-planning that we put in place was well worth it. We were unsure how the students would handle working with their own bins but once again, all the students were engaged, working hard and wiring well with others. There were a couple of structural changes to be made and fine tuning of bins but those are all easy fixes.
After looking at the students reflection journals and seeing the questions they were asking it became clear, like with most tasks in a classroom, their is a wide range of abilities. Some students were able to ask meaningful questions and others were asking basic questions such as 'how long, how much and how many'. It might be helpful to incorporate a 'questioning' component to regular classroom activities to help encourage students to develop deeper, more meaningful questions.
Also, during the reflection portion of the session many students struggled with writing down a higher-level reflection. The first two prompts were 'do-able' for almost all students. The other two writing prompts proved more challenging despite the pre-discssion, the reference to the 'Habits of Mind' and other scaffolds. We may need to re-think how we ask students to write down their reflections. Perhaps they need more of a template to follow.
Here is a sampling of some of the students' reflections:

Stay tuned for Joys' reflection next week!!

Session Three: The Adventure of a New Project!

Session Three: Nov.14/15, 2013 - Posted by Joy

This week, we started working in the Think Tank with our separate classes (Div One and Two).  It was fun working as a big group, but it was time to work our way into what the process will look like for the rest of the year.

We decided that everyone would "do" the same bin so we could guide the students through the process of opening the bin, checking out the contents, figuring out what is expected and then asking questions to guide the inquiry. Students were once again reminded of the overarching question guiding the year-long inquiry: "How will my "habits of mind" develop and change during the Think Tank lab this year?" 

They were reminded that they would be reflecting throughout today's session and at the end (formally in their reflection journal) about what Habits of Mind they noticed they were using during the lab time. 

The task card we placed in the bin said:
For this inquiry you will make a geodesic out of paper clips and straws.
Step One: What is your question(s)? What do you wonder?
Step Two: Follow the non-verbal instructions to make the geodesic dome out of paperclips and straws.


The supplies included:
1) pictures of geodesic domes
2) the non-verbal instruction sheet
3) straws cut in half
4) paperclips
5) Habits of Mind reference chart

 

After sharing the goals of the session and looking at the task in the inquiry bin, we went through the process of generating questions. Here you see a sample of some of the questions asked by the students before starting the project of making a geodesic dome using visual instructions (non verbal). I was struck by the energy in the room as they talked with their partners about what they were curious about and what they were wondering about the project. I noticed a few of them had already gone into the planning what to do. This makes me curious: do questions come out of planning for action? Do the questions come from trying to figure out what I, the teacher wants, or from genuine curiosity about the project? My sense was that the kids were pretty excited about the project and just wanted to get going. Planning and goal setting aside, they just wanted to "do it"!

 Here we are working with our partners to generate questions before diving into the project.

The work time was busy! The partnerships were incredibly engaged in the project and with each other. I interviewed the kids as they were working (using the Ipad to record video). I asked them about the strategies and Habits of Mind they were using. Here are some quotes from the kids:
“We used 'Imagine the Possibilities and Outcomes'. We had to think out of the box to figure it out”.
“We noticed there was a little pattern here. It helped us to know how many triangles would be in the geodesic dome. Now we have a sense of how big it’s gonna be...."

“We are making these long patterns. We are going to make several of these and join them together. In the end, we will have a dome.”

"We noticed that if we worked independently it would be easier than working together because sometimes we really disagreed and it doesn't work out. So we imagine the possibilities and outcomes together and we thought maybe (my partner) will make the top and I will make the bottom. We were just thinking that"

Most of the groups had to alter the the original "direction" they were taking. At the end, by consensus, we agreed that if you strayed from the non verbal instructions, you were bound to fail. They discovered this through actually failing and having to start again.

Here we have one of the two domes that were successfully completed. Students agreed it was a challenging task, and most groups experienced frustration at some point. Interestingly, when we finally called it quits (spending significantly more time than I had originally planned) the kids wanted to keep going. Two of the partnerships had "had enough" and were happy to quit, but the others found it hard to stop without finishing. In future labs, it will be possible to return to an inquiry, so students will be able to continue if they feel the need to persevere to finish.

It was interesting looking at the strategies they used to keep their attention on the task: several took me up on my offer to do burpees or jumping jacks in the room when they needed a brain break.  One student flopped on his chair periodically, got up and worked a bit, then flopped down again. Several students walked around to see what other groups were doing (after I suggested they do a :"gallery walk"). I was struck by the amount of students who were able to sustain their attention without taking breaks. I think the task may have been in the "just right" area of challenge and skill to keep them going.

At the end, the kids wrote reflections on: the strategies they used, what Habits of Mind were in use and suggestions they had for others trying the project. I noticed that several students listed 5 or more Habits of Mind with no explanation as to how they were using them. I am noting a range of skill at supporting assertions with evidence. We are working on this in other areas of the curriculum as well. Next week we will use these reflections to set criteria for future reflection writing.

 
Teaching the kids to write good reflections is essential to this inquiry because we are trying to measure progress and growth in thinking dispositions. The ability to communicate one's understanding of their own cognitive processes is essential to measuring any change or growth.

In this example, I love how she noticed that she used the Habit of Mind, Transfer Learning: "I went into my hippocampus and remembered in grade 3..". It was a previous learning experience that allowed her to communicate to her partner what might not work. Their dome was actually one of the two that was stable and did not collapse.

 

In this example, the student demonstrates an emerging understanding of her own  thinking dispositions during the activity. She successfully provided evidence that supported her assertions of what Habits of Mind she was using.

I am looking forward to watching our students' metacognitive skills develop this year! From the few Think Tank sessions we have already engaged in, I am convinced this is an excellent platform for students to inquire into themselves and become self-reflective learners.

 

 

Our next Think Tank session(s) are on November 29th. Stay tuned for a post from Lindsay! :)

Session Two: November 8, 2013

We gathered the two classes together one more time to work through the first task. We wanted to connect their growing understanding of Habits of Mind to an actual task. The goal of the session was: "What Habits of Mind are in use during the project?

Students worked in groups of four. They had a budget of 20.00 to purchase their supplies. They could only visit the store twice.

It was busy, chaotic and fun! The kids were highly engaged throughout the activity - especially some of our most vulnerable, disengaged students. Strategies varied, but everyone completed the task in the allotted time. Conflict within groups was minimal.

At the end, we did a quick whole group reflection. Students reported out that they were using a variety of Habits of Mind. They agreed that their awareness of the use of Habits of Mind because clear when engaged in a task. The Habits of Mind they reported using were: Understand Others, Be Adventurous and Open-Minded, Strive to Be Accurate and Precise, Persevere, Contribute Positively to the Group and Inspire Teamwork.

Moving forward:

Each class will be working separately for Session Three. We will introduce the Opening Circle, as outlined in the Knodt (2008) resource. The lesson is titled: "The Adventure of a New Project". Instead of moving into the individual bins, we are doing one more group project to solidify the routines and expectation in Think Tank. Our goal is to have students focus on asking an inquiry question. This needs to be done through modeling and guided practice, hence out reasoning for doing one more group activity (albeit in separate classes).

Stay tuned!