Creating Routines

My plan this week is to try out a few of the routines discussed in the PL: ‘Making Thinking Visible’ Series with Ron Ritchhart from the weekend.

I have a few students that were struggling to find their voice, so I chose the Chalk Talk (Page 76-82 The Power of Making Thinking Visible Practices to Engage and Empower Learners)  The focus was on engagement, building understanding of the topics they were starting to investigate and creating a forum for independence and responsibility to the task for each of the group members. 

What is ...........? Explore a provocative question (beginning of a unit of inquiry)

I began with a short explanation of the routine Chalk Talk we would be using. 

We discussed the rules of the routine.

RULES

*            Silent task

*            Creating a written conversation.

              What you think?

 What you want to comment about?

              You are able to comment on what other people write.

 Draw an arrow elaborate on what they think.

 Ask a question, from what they have stated.

 I found this needed more explanation as they were not ready to start after the first explanation, so we did an example together as a group on the board first. We looked at building on each other’s comments and asking questions then going back and answering those questions and elaborating on them.

 

At first, I stood back and let it unfold then I decided to circle some interesting ideas and asked them to make verbal comments on this to expand their thinking as I moved between the groups.


I found as the process went on, they were seeing the connections and starting to create more questions. I feel this was a great first try but is definitely something that needs to be done over and over again so they can develop the skill.

I will use these posters in two ways:

·       They are a valuable assessment tools as they will assist me in gathering data the level of understanding my students are bringing to the task, their ability to create connections, their ability to ask ‘why’ and to also drive future investigations.

·       I will display these posters in the room for the group to refer to in future sessions. Creating a visual suitcase of routines to develop our inquiries.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Assessment: 

         * Is the vocab they are bringing to the topic related?

* Are their contributions related to the topic?

*Are they able to repsond to the comments of others?

                           *Are they able to enhance their understanding by making connections?                      

  This type of exercise got me thinking where to head next. I thought of Trevor MacKenzie's idea of the Power of Provocation.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

      

      From this I am thinking of using provocation quote images in our next session (examples below) to see how these quotes link with their voice and choice projects.

            I thought I might use a Making Meaning routine.

            Starting with words like urbanisation, conservation, service.






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