Posting on the blog a short piece I wrote for a forum topic in the online workshop I am enrolled in.
A decade or more before the pandemic, around 2010 0r 2011, our former School Head presented to the faculty Harvard's Project Zero, a research group that studies and documents the understanding and the teaching of thinking and learning. Of the varied resources Project Zero has in its website and social media site, it is Ron Ritchart's book, Making Thinking Visible, that made a lasting impact on me.
Since our online discussions involve the value of reflection, learning about it, applying its process in the EE and practicing reflection across subject areas, I share with the group some snippets and highlights of a case study that encouraged me further to use visual tools and graphic organizers in facilitating research and journeying with my supervisees in the EE.
In Chapter 7, three case studies of teachers and their learning communities were identified to demonstrate the dynamics and processes involved in nurturing a culture of thinking in the school. I was highly invested on the first case study because it established the value of using visual symbols, images, drawings and sketches as tools for reflection. It was very new to me since my experience of reflection has always been through prose writing and journaling. What intrigued me more was the methods and the systematic way in which this particular practice has become a habit in the teacher's personal and professional practice.
Her painted reflections allowed her and her students to revisit central issues on a unit of study; make connections in real life events leading to learning core ideas of the unit; modeling the strategy of visual reflection and using them as tools to set sail or focus points in doing tasks. Equally important was the teacher's emphasis on deliberate thinking habits in the classroom by identifying key ideas to think about and motivating students to make connections from the key ideas they reflect on.
When I begin work on the EE with our juniors for their initial research and review of related literature, I make them do a visual map of their topics of interest. Some create a mind map; others a Venn diagram; a few of them draw and color. From there, I help them articulate a vision and a path they can take. It is all possibilities until we discuss possible sources of information and references they can locate and access in the library. Two or three weeks after some return with good results such as an annotated bibliography; a one page essay of references and its contents; an outline that contains their working bibliography. There are students who experience frustration, too. And they get help from the Learning Support teacher to zero in on areas of mistakes. An opportunity to unlock the difficulties encountered in mapping, selecting sources and engaging in them.
Their output from this month long session is not final. Nonetheless, it helps them write a research plan which they present to a team of advisers so they can make changes and decisions to select a final topic for the EE.
Making Thinking Visible by Ron Ritchart, etal. Jossey-Bass, 2011
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