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!)