While there are more than nine ways of thinking, these are the nine we focused on during our book study.  Download image

Making Thinking Visible

How can classrooms become places that develop individuals’ ability to plan, create, question, engage, and think independently as learners instead of places where task completion and compliance are the primary expectation? The book, Making Thinking Visible, documents the routines developed at Harvard Graduate School of Education which support this effort to increase thinking in all learning environments regardless of age or subject matter.  

Making Thinking Visible offers educators research-based solutions for creating cultures of thinking.  It takes readers inside diverse learning environments to show how thinking can be made visible at any grade level and across all subject areas through the use of effective questioning, listening, documentation, and facilitative structures called thinking routines. These routines, designed by researchers at Project Zero at Harvard, scaffold and support thinking. By applying these processes, thinking becomes visible as learners' ideas are expressed, discussed, and reflected upon.
Introduction to ways of thinking- video link
Thinking by envisioning, planning, and assessing-video link
Thinking by observation, questioning and connection- video link
Thinking by taking perspectives, reasoning, and forming conclusions-video link

General Resources

Introducing & Exploring Ideas

See-Think-Wonder
Zoom In
Think-Puzzle-Explore
Chalk Talk
3-2-1 Bridge
Compass Points
The Explanation Game
Hot Spots

Synthesizing and Organizing Ideas

Headlines
Color Symbol Image
Generate/Sort/Connect/Elaborate: Concept Maps
  • The Strategy Explained
Connect/Extend/Challenge
The 4 C's
Micro Lab Protocol
I used to think...Now I think
+1 Routine

Digging Deeper into Ideas

What Makes You Say That?
Visual Thinking Strategies
Circle of Viewpoints
Step Inside
Red Light, Yellow Light
Claim/Support/Question
Tug of War
Sentence/Phrase/Word
True for Who?
Peeling The Fruit
Question Starts
Found Poem