My brain has been squeezed and expanded on many levels. The workshop started out not as I had expected, but in turn have found it to be what I need.
I have always had this fascination about how art provides kids with a chance to problem solve and critically think- however I never thought about all the other opportunities to enhance students thinking and learning.
It's all about providing time and opportunities for kids to think - actually think, reason and explain why and how they are thinking that. It is hard to really explain, because it is not a concrete thing, but rather an organic action that ebbs and flows based on the kids and their responses.
Our discussions have been deep, confusing, enlightening and amazing. Our readings have echoed our conversations - my favorite part so far is: "Instead of covering the curriculum and judging our success by how much content we get through, we must learn to identify the key ideas and concepts with which we want our students to engage, struggle, question, explore and ultimately build understanding. Our goal must be to make the big ideas of the curriculum accessible and engaging while honoring their complexity, beauty, and power in the process." Making Thinking Visual - pg 26
AMAZING! This is always what I struggle with - thinking time versus curriculum in the 50 min I have once a week. I would love to have my normal 50 min and then 25 minutes or so later in the week for a humanities class where we could devote time to history, connections, all sorts of awesomeness. Realistically, I will somehow need to balance and thinking and product.
I am excited to explore this - I will succeed in some lessons and fail in others. Together my students and I will make new connections, learn to think, learn to truly listen - we will think to learn.
It will be a brave new world one lesson at a time.
1 comment:
I am interested in your ideas about this. At first, for my Ed Research class project I was going to investigate the difference between Making Thinking Visual and Visible Thinking (from Harvard). I emailed both places and never got an answer from either source about the differences. I'd like to know your take on Making Thinking Visual.
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