Written by After missing the 3rd F2F Session at MaRS, I felt like I had hit a roadblock with my action plan. I know I missed out on some great discussions and collaboration with the Cohort21 members and did not know where to start. After some great guidance and support from Derek and other Cohort facilitators, I feel confidant enough to share and my prototype and welcome feedback for improvement.
I have spent a lot of time in the defining phase of the design process to redefine the problem I am facing in my classroom. My goal for my students is for them to utilize the 21st Century Skills accessible to them to develop critical thinking skills when reading, answering questions, and participating in class/ small-group discussion. I want to get students passed the literal level of thinking and push them to think critically about all material that is presented to them. 
Now that I have redefined my problem, I have based my action plan around by 3rd term novel study on the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio. For those of you have not read Wonder- it is a must read with very important messages about kindness, courage, and acceptance embedded in its text. This book is about a young boy, Auggie Pullman, who has not been to a mainstream school due to a facial deformity. As he enters Middle School, his parents decide to send him to a private school in the heart of Manhattan. The book is divided into eight parts, interspersing first-person narrative with the opinions and stories of family members and classmates. Due to the varying perspectives of the novel, I believe this is the best novel to use with my action plan.
Below are the steps I will take when implementing my plan…
- I will start off each class with a visible thinking routine. Here students will practice making their “thinking visible” through discussion and creative exercises. This will force students to think about what they are thinking and verbally express these thoughts.
- I stumbled upon a Prezi describing the visible thinking routine matrix. I will use this Prezi as a way to introduce the idea of visible thinking and familiarize them with its components.
- All students read Wonder on the school iPads. As part of their reading routine, students will use iBook to annotate, highlight, and make comments while reading. During weekly book talks, students will meet in small groups and discuss what they have highlighted and comments they may have on certain parts of the book. Using the thinking routines, students will have question prompts to help enrich their discussion and continue practicing their critical thinking skills.
- Students use KidBlog to answer discussion questions posted by teachers. This is where students will use their visible thinking routines and implement them in written form. Consistent feedback and communication between teacher and student will be crucial for this component to help students reflect on their thinking.
- Have students collaborate with one another using their blogs and technology. My class thoroughly enjoys leaving comments on each other’s blogs and this has been a great way for them to practice their assessment and feedback skills.
- Twitter and Twitter Fontana will be used as discussion starters using hashtags that connect with the novel. Students will read tweets that have been posted by other readers and discuss common themes, trends, and messages that they see.
- Design Thinking: Once students have finished Wonder, they will read the ‘Julian Chapter- a Bullies Perspective’. They will need to reflect on both novels and the different perspectives to create a final reflection piece. They may use any form of technology or medium to reflect their interpretation of the novel and the difference/ similarities between a bully and a victim. They will use this piece to make a presentation about the themes of the novel to younger grades.
- I will be introducing the design process, as well as, multiple ‘creative thinking routines’. One creative thinking routine I will be using is called: Step Inside: Perceive Know about, Care about- A routine for getting inside viewpoints.
By implementing these ideas, my hope is that students start to feel comfortable with the thinking process. They will be able to make their thinking visible and think critically by analyzing and questioning multiple viewpoints.
My hope for the future… connect my class with other schools that are reading the novel. Set up Google Hangouts and online discussion forums for students to communicate and share their ideas with a larger population.
Amanda, this is such a clear and detail plan for moving forward! I also loved the book “Wonder” and I’m so excited to read about how your students engage in this process!
You have clearly thought through this problem so thoroughly, @lesmcbeth would be so proud of your design thinking prowess, so your plan forward will really address this challenge in your class. Well done!
I’m curious if you have a vision in mind for what your students’ “critical thinking’ in relation to this novel will look like…do you have model or an idea in mind of what “extraordinary” will look like in your class? What is an ideal / best case scenario look like for a learner?
Keep up the amazing work. Looking forward to seeing you at our final F2F!
Thanks for the feedback Celeste! Have you read the other novels by R.J. Palacio? She now has written a short story from Julian’s viewpoint (bully) and Christopher’s viewpoint (before August went to school). I highly recommend them!
In regards to your question about what ‘extraordinary’ will look like in my class- I am still trying to piece this together. Before reading the novel, I asked my students to orally and visually explain what ‘normal’ and ‘extraordinary’ means to them. This sparked a great discussion and I have continued the discussion throughout the readings. I am having some difficulties coming up with the “ideal/best scenario” for my learners.
If anyone has ideas or suggestions, I would be happy to try them out and implement them into my plan :).
Hope you are enjoying March Break.
Hi Amanda,
As @celestekirsh wrote, this is a great process of thinking that you’ve applied here. I’ve read wonder and there are so many great possibilities for applying Twitter to it – have some students tweet from certain perspectives, or have students become “theme experts” and tweet quotations or moments that apply directly to that theme using specific hashtags so they become searchable! I wonder about the blogging you’ve already done, and how to leverage that in this project – I’d love to hear more about how you will do that!
This sounds like an EdTech rich unit, and you may find your students self-selecting which ‘medium’ they use as they gravitate to the one that best suits their purpose. I would go back to TPACK and think about what your goal of improving critical thinking in your students. I would start to generate the prompts and questions that will lead your students to this goal.
I’m sure you’ve alread come across these resources, but I’ll share them anyway:
Critical Thinking Questions from RJ Palacio: http://rjpalacio.com/for-teachers.html
Discussion and Educator’s Package on Wonder: http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Wonder_EG_WEB.pdf
Read Aloud Prompts by Chapter: http://www.helpreaderslovereading.com/2012/03/wonder-by-r-j-palacio.html
Also, we’ve done some work with the Critical Thinking Consortium and they have some great resources. Available here: http://tc2.ca/t4t.php
Also, if you want to, I could try and connect you with our Grade 7/8 teachers at BVG who have had their students read “Wonder” as well. We could set up some questions, skype class, etc… That would be fun!
Sorry we couldn’t make the F2F catch up happen, but it seems that @derekdoucet gave you some great advice (as usual :)) and you’re well underway.
Can’t wait to read more about how this went!
garth.
Amanda – this sounds like a fantastic project! It is sure to pique students’ interest and engage them in critical thinking. I have not yet read “Wonder,” but I’ve heard great things about it. It’s interesting to read about how you’re using it in your class. I am always looking for new novels to explore, and this one sounds like it is most definitely worth checking out (I’m already envisioning how it could be used in a concept-based unit on “perspective”)!
I really love the idea of having your students “mark up” the text as they read it. I think this is a really excellent (and sneaky!) way to get them using their critical thinking skills. I wonder if it might be useful to provide them with some prompts/questions as their reading, so that they have an idea of what features to highlight as they’re annotating the text.
I bet @21C4me would be interested in reading this post – at our last F2F Meg and I were discussing various formats for literature circles / studies.
I’m excited to hear more about this action plan as it unfolds! Thanks for sharing : )
Hey Amanda,
Great action plan! It’s really well laid out and there are definitely a lot of tech aspects in play here. @ckirsch, @gnichols and @aharding have all provided great food for thought as you wade out into the waters of having students connect and engage in critical thinking and there are some excellent resources for you to check out to go even further!
I love that you’re incorporating some of the visible thinking routines, and I am curious to know how it goes. Perhaps it’s a Twitter share with some of the cool or exceptional stuff? I think that Assessment as Learning will be key as you roll this out and really have the students reflect. There is no shortage of people who are doing it but I would touch base with @ckirsch as a start.
Good luck!