Action Guide
- Establish a common vocabulary with the thinking dispositions that you feel your
students will relate to easily. Dialog will easily emerge from that common vocabulary,
and kids will begin to use it in their self-assessments. The Think Tank uses the
term "thinking gears" in place of "thinking dispositions." Keri Putonen, a
third grade teacher at Kent Gardens, and I find that referring to dispositions
as "gears" is more accessible to students.
- Establish a series of Throughlines
focussed on thinking dispositions. Circulate the throughlines school-wide and employ them
in grade-level classrooms as writing prompts.
- Create a wall mounted Challenge Board for students to record "Dispositions Visited!"
as they move through projects. The Challenge Board highlights specific dispositions
students engage in. The Challenge Board also cues kids to reflect on the types of the
thinking they do.
- Create a simple and clear work or "thinking" ethic for the lab or for classroom
center times. Setting clear guidelines helps young students focus on the activity and
the types of thinking they should be doing. Room Guides, visiting faculty, and I do a
lot of modeling to show kids how creative and productive thinking looks in action.
- Look for students' negative thinking dispositions and address them. For instance,
a student might move away from something that they find difficult or perhaps a student
might not generate (or might not want to generate) reasons for particular solutions
to a problem. This would be a time to step in and pick up the action and think together
about how to apply a positive, pro-active thinking disposition or two!
- Make productive and powerful thinking, as exhibited by students, visible and public.
The Think Tank has created "Chalkboard Challenges" that establish school-wide goals for
projects. Chalkboard Challenges also display student successes and offer a motivating
structure for students.
- Establish student ownership of thinking challenges up front. Once students make a
choice, they own the challenge. Students must see a problem through once they start it.
Sometimes we will negotiate, if the skill involved requires long term practice.
- Create a collaborative “thinking dispositions” network throughout your school, which
will help students transfer experiences with dispositions into a variety of learning
settings. Goals and experiences about what constitutes great thinking and “habits of mind”
are reinforced and become clearer. Also, an active school network develops instructional
consistency for students as they advance through grade levels.
- Use lab or classroom center time for one-on-one time with kids. Follow the
student's lead, and then develop thinking challenges and dialog. As well as
celebrating gifts, identify the student's weaknesses and guide him or her through
the rough spots. Sometimes, children simply need to tell their story about how
tough things are and then be appreciated for their efforts.
- For a lab, with many projects in action at one time:
- Keep the lab staffed with as many volunteers as possible to help work flow smoothly.
- Orient lab staff to teaching strategies and model methods.
- Have lab staff record comments from kids about the dispositions.
- Make sure projects and centers (project-based learning) are layered with clear learning
objectives and are truly worth the time that students will spend on them. Assess
projects for the amount of busy work involved, the potential for thinking skills
development, and relevant connections to your curriculum. Ask yourself, “How can
things be engineered to use time most productively?”
Review which dispositions students will likely engage in as they work through
a project. As kids are working, watch how they process. For example, one student
might be doing too much busy work, and perhaps another has gone “flat” with their
thinking. Set things up so students see thinking dispositions as a set of attitudes
that everyone can develop to make thinking more productive and effective.
- Provide opportunities for students to "find themselves" in the lab. Try to attend
to and cultivate a variety of intelligences (e.g. musical, spatial, kinesthetic, etc.)
in students' work. Assess a project's demands on various types of intelligence. For
example, I might consider which intelligences may be in play when students design
and build a bridge with Kapla blocks?
- Develop a simple student self-assessment sheet for dispositions. The lab has created a sheet that identifies
the dispositions as "thinking gears." The sheet clearly outlines and explains the dispositions
for students. It also provides a good communication link to parents. Use the sheet alongside
any project or lesson. We circulate the sheet school-wide to faculty and specialists.
Read about Thinking Gears ...
© Jean Sausele Knodt, Kent Gardens Elementary School, Fairfax County Public Schools, Area III Administrative District, 1998.
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