Harvard University: Making Thinking Visible

Our Final Feedback from the Course :)

Click to Enlarge

Certification of Completion

KG: Fun with Storage Crates

As the title suggests, the students loved playing with the storage crates - from experience let me tell you, pushing them around the gym floor with students tucked safety inside is a real cardio and whole body workout.

Grade 1 and Grade 2 Striking & Fielding Ideas

Inquiry in Physical Education: G5 Volleyball - Creating a Checklist (a slide show)

I created this slide show to help share with my peers some of the things I was doing with my Grade 5's. The slide show is centered around two lessons (extracts from both lessons can be found in the movie links).

In one of the movies I do refer to the checklists as rubrics, they are not rubrics they are just a simple checklist of the skills broken down by the G5's.

G1: Inquiring into Teamwork through the Physical Education Learning Lens of Striking & Fielding (Kickball)

What Are Striking/Fielding Games?

Players on the batting team strike an object and attempt to run between two points before the fielding team can recuperate the object. Tactical Problems related to Striking and Fielding Games include striking the object, fielding the object, running the points.
Examples: Baseball, Softball, Cricket, Kickball

G2 Relationships in Team Sports through the Physical Education Learning Lens of Striking & Fielding II

The G2 Striking & Fielding Unit II will focus on the concept of Relationships.

Taken from my conceptual map for Primary Physical Education

Striking and Fielding Unit II is about transferring the skills, knowledge and understanding the learning in Unit I and applying it to a different Striking & Fielding Game. This Unit we are inquiring into Baseball, via Cricket.

Grade 2 In Action

In the photographs you will notice we are still using the cricket wickets as bases and a cricket bat. The thinking behind this is by using the wickets it still gives the students a bigger target to aim at when fielding (and when running) and the cricket bat makes it easier for the students to hit a bowled/pitched ball (with a cricket bat you can hit the ball even when it is bowled along the ground). 

In the photos you will see I am the pitcher, these are early photos within the unit (I pitch because I want every student to have success with the bat). In later lessons I will turn the pitching duties over to the students. Being the pitch also puts me right at the center of the game and in a position to teach within the game, both the rules and game sense.

MTV: Reflection - I Used To Do/ Now I Do

G3 Bouldering

What is Bouldering?

Written by: Lucreid (http://www.abc-of-rockclimbing.com/info/bouldering.asp)

 Bouldering is a type of Climbing where you actually don’t need to leave more than twelve feet off the ground. But don’t let the height fool you. Bouldering is not for the faint of heart. It requires total body control and upper body strength. This allows climbers to do certain moves which are dangerous to do if you are more than 50 feet off the ground.

As its name implies, Bouldering is basically the type of Climbing where one has to work his or her way through a boulder route which is usually called problem. As simple as it may sound, some problems require specific moves for one to get through them. These moves require intense training and practice to successfully pull them off. Keep in mind though that Bouldering doesn’t actually need most pieces of Rock Climbing Equipment such as Ropes, Carabiners, and Harnesses. It only requires Climbing Shoes for better scaling, Chalk for better grip, obviously a Chalk Bag for the Chalk to be used, and Crash Pads to cushion a fall. Sometimes, instead of using Crash Pads, climbers assign a spotter, or someone who will stand below the climber to prevent the latter from landing badly.

Bouldering has already been practiced as early as 1880, used by the British in training climbers for longer mountain climbs. It was only during the 1950s when the Father of Modern Bouldering, John Gill, who is also a climber and gymnast, brought Bouldering into the mainstream and made it into a sport in its own right.

As a sport, Bouldering is steadily working its way up to the ranks of extreme sport. It already spawned some star athletes such as Lisa Rands, Ryan Pasquill, Emily Harrington. It is also increasingly getting popular as a sport that promotes physical fitness, body endurance, creativity, and quick thinking.

In short, Bouldering is a sport suitable for people who thrive in adventure and for adrenaline seekers who aren’t afraid to take risks. Sure, it may be difficult at the beginning, but after a few tries on the rock and finally getting the hang of it, rest assured that the feeling of accomplishment and relief will overshadow whatever frustrations you've had when you were starting.

Why Go Bouldering?

It is common for those who are unfamiliar with Bouldering to wonder where the thrill is in scaling a twelve-foot wall. The characteristics below may help you change the way you look at it.

• Bouldering is not all brawn. It does not only require body strength but also the creativity in solving boulder problems. A climber may actually have to dangle a bit to reach that far-off-corner slope, but then again, there may be other ways to traverse your way through it. Overcoming a problem takes a certain amount of creativity aside from the physical exertion involved.


• It’s the perfect drive for physical fitness. Like most things, you cannot simply waltz your way to success. Sometimes, it takes time, and consequently a handful number of times to beat it. Bouldering is a great way to motivate yourself to work out, while pushing yourself to the limit until you eventually succeed.


• It’s ideal for thrill-seekers since Bouldering is never without the risk of getting injured. But more often than not, it is the aspect of danger that turns on some daredevils to try it. One should keep in mind, though, that also because of the risk factor, one should at least be aware of Rock Climbing Safety Guidelines to fully enjoy the sport.

Grade 3 Bouldering 

In developing the bouldering unit at PIE I've been playing with the wall with the purpose of making the routes challenging enough for the G3's. A keen eye may notice the number of holds have dropped dramatically from the first couple of pictures to the later ones. In addition I have put in a number of hoop holds along the new routes to raise the level of the challenge the wall has to offer. The students also learn how to cross one another and how to lead a partner blindfold across the wall without too much physical contact.

Making Thinking Visible: Reflections

I used to do/think and Now I do/think

 

G4 Peer Coaching & Peer Learning through the learning lens of Badminton

Badminton in Indonesia is a national past time. With members of the class possessing a wealth of knowledge on the skills of the game. This is another fantastic opportunity for the more advanced members of the class to coach others the basics to get the unit started. 

We will particularly be focusing on "what traits and dispositions do we need to develop to enable us to coach and learn from one another?"

Some of the skills the students will be coaching include the backhand short serve, the high serve, the underhand clear and the overhead clear.

In addition I've also been experimenting with the game Volleyball/Badminton, where you play badminton but with the rules of Volleyball. Having done Volleyball with the G3's last year, this is a great opportunity for the students to use their knowledge of another sport, whilst play a different sport.

Goal Setting

Taking the unit in a slightly different direction because of the needs of the students, I made the decision that the students need to identify a short term goal in their badminton game, e.g. movement, serve, communication etc. and start working towards achieving it. They could do this in a number of ways:

1. use an expert in the room (that could mean me, but it could also be a peer or a fiend who has already accomplished that goal).
2. now that the goal is highlighted, focus on it within the game - make it a priority.
3. take the game beyond the PE class and play it in recess or at home - really practice nailing that skill or concept.

The students get time in every class to work on their goal(s) and they are encouraged, once they have achieved one goal they can add another.

Personal Goal Setting & Reflections

G5 Relationships in Team Sports through the learning lens of Football (Soccer)

I started the unit with a BIG question.... "What is Football?"

With my first class I used a big piece of butcher paper to get the students to record their understanding and knowledge of what they believe/think football is. From their answers as a class we created 5 essential questions that will be the driving force behind the direction of the unit. 

Whilst working with the class in developing the 5 essential questions, I felt some students were not getting the chance to contribute to the conversation as much as I would of liked, so...

With the second class I decided that rather than the class coming up with the 5 essential questions, I would get them working in small groups that would develop their own essential questions first and then we would agree or disagree as a whole class as to which ones would be included. Letting the students work in smaller groups helped give the more quiet or shy students a chance to contribute to the possible direction of the unit.

Some of the second classes small group essential questions:

Examining the essential questions I created with the help of the first class and using the second classes own small group essential questions we have come up with the following 5 essential questions for this unit.

What is important to note in the following 5 essential questions is that the first three questions are very much about the game itself, the skill and control required to play and understand a very basic game of football. The last two questions are the ones I personally love! The big picture questions that could be considered lifeworthy learning, the ones that are transferable across subjects and that could be used throughout their lives, whether they continue to play football or not.

1. What skills do you need to play football? The students identified: dribbling, passing, heading & shooting
2. What skills do you need to be a goalkeeper?
3. What are the rules and regulations of football?
4. What traits and dispositions do we need to develop to enable us to work and learn together, with a focus as peer learners and peer coaches?
5. What are the relationships in playing team sports? The concepts of roles, responsibilities, of space, to a team and to the opposition?

Making Thinking Visible: Building Understanding through Critical and Creative Thinking

How can we activate students’ thinking to build understanding in the subject areas? And how can we help students to think more critically and creatively at the same time? During this course, you will learn to personalize and apply a research-based framework called Visible Thinking that is being used effectively in a number of schools. Adaptable to any subject area, Visible Thinking allows getting started almost at once with ‘thinking routines’ that help students ponder ideas from the subject areas. These routines, together with other ‘cultural forces’ such as language and expectations, and often with the use of art and artifacts as conversational foci, create a vibrant culture of thinking and understanding in the classroom. Documenting students’ work and reflecting on it both with colleagues and the students, make students more aware of their thinking and feeds professional conversations that foster collegiality and collaboration among teachers.

THROUGH LINES

The core questions we will investigate during this course are:

• How can we build students' understanding, increase engagement in the subject areas through thinking, and improve students' thinking?

• How can we foster positive thinking and learning attitudes as well as abilities?

• How can we use the arts and artifacts as foci of thoughtful learning for understanding across the subject areas?

• How can we document student thinking so that both teachers and students are better able to understand and develop it?

• How can we foster a culture of thinking and regard for thoughtful learning in the classroom?

• How can we build teacher collegiality and collaboration around a culture of thinking and thoughtful learning?  

Trying out the CEC Visible Thinking Routine with G4 Health and Fitness

 

I started the unit by writing down three questions for the students to think about and then answer on a post-it note.

1. Our bodies change and feel different when exercising - why?
2. How do we count heartbeats?
3. What do we know about heartbeats?

After reviewing the students answers across three G4 classes I picked six post-it note answers from the Question 1. that I thought would extend the students thinking and deepen their understandings of the connections between exercise, their bodies and health.

The next step was to slightly adjust their answers and turn them into questions. As you can see I picked six different answers to make sure I extend their thinking in order to deepen their understanding in a way that gives them a rounded knowledge of the subject matter.

To summaries what I have done so far:

Feedback from the Course: Making Thinking Visible: Building Understanding through Critical and Creative Thinking - February 2015

The Next Step...

Addressing the gaps and misconceptions in the students answers and wonderings. In the connection stage I chose six student questions that need to be explored in more detail. The plan in the extension stage is to devote 10-15 minutes of the next six lessons to address the six questions in order to fill those gaps and address those misconceptions regarding the human body and exercise.

Addressing Question No.1: "When you are running not enough oxygen gets into you and your heart beats faster, why?"