The Power of Making Thinking Visible

Thinking routines have become extremely popular over the last decade and are often recognized as a hallmark of Project Zero practices.  With this popularity and wide-spread use has come the opportunity to look more closely at just what effect thinking routines have on teaching, on learning, and on schooling.  These issues could not have been properly examined when thinking routines were first being introduced almost 15 years ago. Now, however, extensive research and ongoing collaboration with schools have generated new learnings that create the opportunity to take the practices of making thinking visible to the next level.

Drawing from the research presented in the new book by Ron Ritchhart and Mark Church, The Power of Making Thinking Visible, this course will explore both the goals and practices associated with making thinking visible, examining six specific ways that thinking routines have “power” for learners and for teachers.  Participants will delve into two of these powers: promoting deep learning and enhancing formative assessment.  Since the best way to learn a routine is to experience it as a learner, throughout the course, participants will use new thinking routines for to deepen their own learning. Each step of the way, the instructors will “pull back the curtain” on the thought process that teachers go through to use the routines to maximum effect. Participants will have the opportunity to develop and receive feedback on plans for implementing these practices in their own context, whatever that context may be: online, in person, or a hybrid of the two. 

The course will explore the following key questions: What are the core practices associated with making thinking visible, and how do they relate to and interact with one another?  What are the benefits or powers—for students and teachers--in making thinking visible? How do the most effective teachers use thinking routines to maximum effect?