To Think or Be Told What to Think
January 22, 2022
What does thinking look like in your classroom? Whose doing the thinking? Are you thinking? What are you thinking? Are you thinking about what to say, do, and when?
Are students thinking? What are they thinking? Do you know what your students are thinking? How do you know that?
I’m going to pause and give you a minute to think…
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I’m not going to lie. It actually makes me super excited inside to wonder what you’re thinking right now. This is the magic and power we all have. The power of thought is a wonderful thing and tool that should be present in every classroom. The sad thing and truth of the matter is it’s not!
Thought is the moment when everything is silent and you’re brain generates an idea. It’s those things floating in your head when you read a book or listen to a song. It’s the time when a student starts to connect prior knowledge to new knowledge. It’s magic! However, in many classrooms this magic is dying. We have created strategies in which thoughts are dimmed. We give students answers and do the thinking for them. Stay with me… How many times do you give a multiple choice test? How many times do you give students choice questions versus open-ended questions?
In my classroom, it’s my number one goal to get my students thinking. It’s also my goal to hear those thoughts. My students are given opportunities to answer open-ended questions with a partner or share them out loud. My students have chances to write, draw, or talk about their ideas to share what’s going in their brain. My students also have realized to listen to friends when they share ideas because sometime they gain new ideas and sometimes they learn their friend is actually thinking the exact same thing as them. It’s always fun to realize you weren’t the only one with an idea. It’s also great to discover that on your own versus being told the choices.
We have to invite students to have thoughts. Yes, multiple choice is given in many forms to asses if our students have grasped a concept or not. There is nothing wrong with giving students boundaries to think in. However, if we never give them the freedom to generate and create their own ideas, we are hindering their learning and doing a great disservice. Imagine you were told what to do and how to do it all day long… does that sound boring or fun? Put yourself in their shoes! They want to talk. They have thoughts. They want to share those thoughts. Why limit those moments when we can build on them?!
In fact, one of these magical moments happened in my classroom on Friday, January 21. We were in the middle of our phonics lesson for the day. The word "noon" was blended. "What's noon?" said a student. "It's 12 o'clock in the middle of the day," I said. Another student says, "Noon like afternoon." Because I allow my students to talk and share thoughts, the student was able to say this out loud. What a magical moment!!! I paused and explored this student's idea. It was amazing. Students in my class now understand the term afternoon simply because a student connected the words noon and afternoon during our phonics. I wish everyone could have seen this.
Hopefully, at this point, you’re hooked on what I’m saying. I’ve got more. Check back next week! :)
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