Tasha and I are taking a course through Harvard’s school of education. It is called Making thinking visible. Visible thinking helps children and their teachers develop an environment for thinking. Thinking routines are built into the daily routine to help children develop a deeper understanding of content and help them express their ideas.
We used one of the routines as we prepared for a Japanese culture lesson. Yuri could have told the children all about Shichi-Go-San, instead we placed two special bags for the celebration on the floor and posed questions. Here is a small sample of what we recorded. This thinking routine is called “See, think,wonder.”
What do you see?
- Japanese dolls, birds and water.
What do you think?
- There are things that look like other things?
- Grass that makes me think of clouds?
- Trick or treat
What do you wonder?
- Are they a learning thing.
- Is it just a bag.
- Are all bags in Japan Japanese.
- Is it a spring/summer thing?
- Where do they come from.
- I wonder if that’s an ‘F’.
- Are they for carrying stuff.
This video is long at about 8 minutes but it is edited down from about 30 minutes of discussion!