The Thinking Classroom

Classroom Snapshots

• In elementary school kids look busy
• This looks different in a secondary setting

Adjust Student Outcomes to Include What Students Should...

• Know (facts)
• Understand (concepts)
• Do (skills)

make their brains WORK!

Synergistic Thinking: Through a Conceptual Approach...

• Students will gain deeper understanding
• Students will gain personal meaning to content

Try approaching learning from a different lens to deepen thinking

Include both higher AND lower order thinking daily

Intellectual Character (according to Richtart)

• patterns of behavior
• patterns of thinking
• patterns of interaction
• (These are shaped over time)

Creative Thinking

Critical Thinkers

• seek truth and understanding
• are strategic
• are skeptical

Conceptual Thinkers

• examine factual info & relate to prior knowledge
• see patterns and connections
• draw out significant understandings
• evaluate truth based on evidence
• use conceptual understanding to create

Personal satisfaction comes from thinking really hard