C50: Thinking Skills (Supporting/ Specialist)

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​Hello to my friends who work with learners in the entire school. You have such a special role in touching many, if not all, of the students in your school.  With that, comes a unique challenge to get learners to better understand the learning in your classes and give them the tools to become more independent thinkers.  

Welcome to this episode my friends that has been crafted just for our specialist and supporting teachers.  Ever since the transdisciplinary challenge, I’ve been seeking ways to include you more in the process. In the past, we have been talking about a lot of topics that can be applied to any grade level and situation.  As we get into the approaches to learning and teaching, we need to start to diversify to meet your needs.  

When I think of the ATLs, you naturally come to mind.  You can easily apply the ATLs to your discipline or role, because your aim is to grow the level of independence within your learners.  For specialists, you need to start thinking of how to wrap the skill development with your content focus.  For supporting teachers, you need to start thinking about the learning objectives you have for your learners and how to pair them with the ATLs. 

In this episode, we are going to examine the ATL thinking skills from your viewpoint.  We will refer to PYP From Principles into Practice:  Learning and Teaching from pages 26-38, since these are the more advanced learning situations you will encounter. 

As we previously discussed, you set the tone for everything that happens during your time with the various learners in your school.  

​What teachers do to set the stage for thinking skills to thrive

• Model the language of thinking and reinforce the processes of thinking.
• Ask open-ended questions.
• Provide sufficient thinking time.
• Implement and model a range of “visible thinking” techniques.
• Explicitly ask students to discuss and reflect on the value and limitations of the resources used through their inquiries.
• Provide time for reflection at all stages of learning—before, during and after inquiries.
• Promote a range of tools for reflection and ensure that reflection activities are responsive and varied.
• Reflect on existing competencies, co-create learning goals.

When I look at this list, I can get overwhelmed by all of the requirements placed on me while getting learners to understand their role in developing thinking skills.  Then, I take a step back and think about the PYP structure in our units of inquiry.  We are always encouraged to only pick 2-3 to focus on with our learners for the length of our unit.  Since we do this with our learners, why are we not doing it for ourselves?  This list is a success criteria for us to strive to make goals to better our practice. 

The thinking skills that students will demonstrate come under the sub-skill of critical and creative thinking. 

Critical thinking has the following sub-skill criteria:

• Analyzing 
• Evaluating
• Forming decisions

Creative thinking has the following sub-skill criteria:

• Generating novel ideas
• Considering new perspectives
• Information transfer
• Reflection and metacognition

Now, we’re going to take a deeper look at one of the sub-skills and how we might approach using it with our learners. I chose the same ATL sub-skill for all teachers, because it allows coordinators to see how they can be applied in different ways. 

Considering new perspectives

Ask “what if” questions and generate testable hypotheses

If we get learners to begin “What if”, it naturally sets the stage for more agency and inquiry in our classrooms.  Students will soon be pairing two unlikely things together and testing out their hypotheses. 

Specialist/Supporting Teacher

• PE:  What if we paired skipping while using a jump rope.  
• Art:  What if we used glow in the dark paint on a black canvas. 
• EAL/SPED:  What if I make a change, how will it affect the outcome?

Apply existing knowledge to design new products processes, media and technologies

This process can be replicated by allowing your learners to innovate better ways to use existing products, processes, media, and technologies.  

Specialist/Supporting Teacher

• ICT:  Create a new code for your avatar
• Science Lab:  Design a new way to test mixtures and solutions
• EAL/SPED:  Discover a new way to show your thinking (about any content)

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Consider multiple alternatives, including those that might be unlikely or impossible

Allow students to consider ideas from multiple perspectives and make connections through unlikely pairings.

Specialist/Supporting Teacher

• Art:  Create a series of art from different perspectives (low and high viewpoint)
• Music:  Connect hip hop music to its African roots
• EAL/SPED:  Examine an idea from multiple perspectives before making a decision

Practice flexible thinking—develop multiple opposing, contradictory and complementary arguments

Learners hunger to talk things out.  What a better way to get them thinking by posing contradictory and complementary arguments.  This means you pose a situation and learners but either defend or oppose it.  

Specialist/Supporting Teacher

• PE:  Create two game possibilities and have audience determine which is the best one
• Library:  Read two versions of the same story and have learners choose which version is most believable or truest to the original text
• EAL/SPED:  Use role-plays to showcase an issue and work through the solution. 

Practice “visible thinking” strategies and techniques

Muscle memory comes to mind when I think of Harvard’s Project Zero visible thinking routines, Muscle memory is the process of conditioning the brain through regular repetition and hands-on learning that ideas get hardwired to the brain.  We want our learners to re-use the routines regularly. 

Specialist/Supporting Teacher

• ICT:  Compare several website for their visual layout and complete a See Think Wonder
• Library:  Read aloud a text and have students reflect using Think Puzzle Explore
• EAL/SPED:  same as above

Generate metaphors and analogies
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If you’re like me, I get metaphors, similes, and analogies mixed up.  I think this example will help to clarify it in your mind. 

• Metaphor: My puppy is a hug
• Simile: My puppy is like a comforting hug
• Analogy: My puppy’s love for me is the same as a comforting hug from your best friend

We use this figurative language to get learners to make unlikely connections between objects and to be able to explain their thinking in a different way. 

Whew, my brain is done after unpacking all of these ideas. See you in episode 53 as we unpack the research skills.