Creating Energizing Discussion & Reflection Opportunities with Thinking Routines
Brief Abstract
In this interactive session, we will explore how you can utilize the research-based thinking routines from Harvard’s Project Zero website to structure deep, engaging learning experiences for your students. Come learn how thinking routines can revitalize your formative assessments, discussions, reflections, reading responses, and other course assignments and activities!
Presenters
Extended Abstract
Topic & Relevance: Activities and assignments in online courses can sometimes begin to feel redundant, as students respond to similar types of questions or engage in similar types of activities each week. How can we stretch students’ thinking, and help them to engage with the course content and with each other in deeper, more engaging ways?
One solution is incorporating Harvard’s Project Zero thinking routines into instruction. These research-based routines are aimed at making student thinking visible through utilizing a variety of structured protocols. In this session, we will explore the Thinking Routines website, discuss the different categories of routines, and engage in experiential activities based on the routines. We will also explore concrete ways that the routines can be incorporated into a variety of course activities and assignments (such as formative assessments, discussions, reflections, reading responses, and more). In addition, we will discuss how thinking routines can be used in creative ways in order to provide students with multimodal opportunities to share their thinking and learning. Participants will leave the session with dozens of thinking routines that they can immediately implement into their instruction, regardless of the discipline they teach.
Plan for Interactivity: Participants will engage in a variety of active learning activities throughout the session, including Menti polls, a collaborative Padlet activity, and a Tic-Tac-Toe choice board activity. Through these activities, participants will have the opportunity to experience thinking routines firsthand and see how they promote deeper thinking and learning. In addition, participants will create an action plan for how they will apply the thinking routines to their instructional practices.
Session Goals: The outcomes for this session are that participants will be able to:
(1) Describe what thinking routines are and how they are organized.
(2) Identify thinking routines that would work well for specific course activities.
(3) Plan methods for incorporating thinking routines into instruction.