Alex Warren (National Geographic Learning) Visible Thinking Routines in the English Language Classroom

 ALEX WARREN (National Geographic Learning)

Visible Thinking Routines in the English Language Classroom

Alex Warren (NGL)

On Friday 3rd Feb, EIM were treated to a workshop by Alex Warren of National Geographic Learning, on the topic of Visible Thinking Routines.

Alex introduced the session by asking us to brainstorm a definition for ‘Critical Thinking’ and compare it with a number of definitions. Unsurprisingly, we tended to favour definitions suggested by ELT specialists such as the NGL author John Hughes (2014). 

Essentially, critical thinking activities are those parts of a lesson or exercise that require a learner to enquire more thoroughly about language or ideas in order to achieve a better understanding, to ask, 'What is really going on here?

To clarify the concept, Alex showed us some of the most widely known conceptualisations of Critical Thinking, such as Bloom’s taxonomy:

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom’s taxonomy is often categorized as Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), the implication being that teachers spend too much time focusing on actions at the lower end of the pyramid.

Another popular visual metaphor covering similar territory is De Bono’s thinking hats:

A prolonged study at the University of Harvard: ‘Project Zero’ has suggested various ‘Visible Thinking Routines’, which encourage students to ask rather than answer questions.

http://www.pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines  

Alex proposed a number of classroom activities based on these Visible Thinking Routines, eleven of which are summarised briefly below.

1. See, Think, Wonder

Show an interesting or thought-provoking picture. NatGeo is an obvious source. Alex also suggested the Guardian newspaper’s ‘Photo of the Day’ as a prompt. https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/ten-best-photographs-of-the-day

Credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/heavy-transport-supply-motorcycle-4639450/ 

 

Ask ss to write, in order

I see…

I think…

I wonder….

2. Interview the picture

What questions would you ask the person in the photo?

3. Three dimensions of viewing

Personal viewing: How does it make you feel? Positive/negative? Why?

Structural viewing: Similar to an FCE speaking task: What’s happening in the picture? What is it focusing on? What’s in the foreground/background? etc.

Critical viewing: The ideological dimension. What is the message or purpose of the picture? Are there any different possible interpretations?

4. NDA routine

NDA stands for Name, Describe, Act.

Display an interesting and detail-packed photo, e.g. this image of Varanasi

https://pixabay.com/photos/varanasi-ganges-india-flow-holier-1208061/ 

Ask students to study it for 30 seconds and try to memorise as much as possible. Remove the photo and ask them to:

Name (as many objects as possible)

Describe (as many adjectives as poss.)

Act (as many verbs as they can think of.)

5. Beginning, Middle, End

Based on a photo prompt, e.g.

https://www.cbsnews.com/

Students brainstorm ideas:

- Beginning: what happens next?

- Middle: What happened before?

- End: What might the story be?

Obviously, you will need to know the story behind the picture to answer your students’ questions. In this case, this is a photo of parents (fathers) scaling the walls of a school to pass notes (basically, cheating) to their children who are locked away inside doing a very long, high-stakes school-leavers exam.

6. GOGO

GOGO stands for Give One, Get One. This is a useful brainstorming activity for generating ideas, for example, for essay writing. Write or display a question on the board, e.g 

What are the three best ways of living a greener life?

When students have written their ideas, then organise a classroom mingle. They ask for one idea and give one back in exchange. Remind them to elaborate on their ideas.

The final five activities dealt with skills (particularly reading) texts, and were based around a text (about caffeine) taken from an NGL book ‘Life’ Intermediate.

Stephenson, Hughes & Dummett (2018)

7. The three ways

Ask students to consider a topic in three ways:

- Why might this topic be important to me as an individual?

- Why might it matter to the people around me?

- Why might it matter to the world?

8. Question starts

Present a topic, e.g. Globalisation (using a picture prompt), then provide question frames and ask students to write 5 questions about the topic:

- Why……?

- What are the reasons…….?

- What if……..? etc.

9. Think, Puzzle, Explore

Ideal for Reading or Listening skills classes. A variation on the KWL routine (where students write down what they Know and Wonder about a topic, then after reading, write what they have Learnt In this case, students consider:

- What do you think you know about the topic?

- What questions or puzzles do you have?

- What does the topic make you want to explore?

10. 3-2-1

In real life, we reflect on what we read, and maybe tell others about it. One way of replicating this process is to ask students to think about

- 3 things I find interesting

- 2 things I’d like to know more about

- 1 thing I’d like to fact check

11. 4Cs

Not to be confused with the 4 ‘C’s of 21st Century Skills (Critical thinking; Creativity; Collaboration; Communication), this is a way of looking at texts from a different perspective

Consider

- Connections: What connections did you draw between the text and your own life?

- Challenge: Is there an idea/assumption you want to challenge?

- Concepts: Which concepts do you think are the most important? (How would you summarise 3 or 4 key ideas?)

- Changes: What changes are suggested by the text? (Could also = Conclusions)