Cultures of Thinking

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  • Home
  • Teacher Toolbox
    • Thinking Routines
    • Comprehension Strategies
    • Metacognition Strategies
    • Discourse Strategies
    • Formative Assessments Strategies
  • Professional Resources
    • Common Core
    • Cultures of Thinking
    • Life-Long Learners
    • Reading & Vocabulary
    • Standards Based Grading
    • Writing
  • Our Journey
    • Hart Middle School
    • Reuther Middle School
    • Rochester High School
    • Van Hoosen Middle School
    • West Middle School
  • Creative Ideas
  • Conferences
    • Moving Learning Forward 2015 Conference
    • Moving Learning Forward 2014 Conference
    • Think From the Middle 2014 Conference

Year 2: Parent Night with Ron Ritchhart

10/28/2013

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Reuther hosted Harvard Project Zero Researcher Ron Ritchhart during a Making Thinking Visible Parent Night.  Ritchhart introduced Reuther's parents to the Cultures of Thinking concepts while the following Reuther staff members conducted ten break-out sessions focused on thinking routines: Laura Duff, Natalie James, Nick Klak, Deanna Knox, Rachel Mainero, Allison Parliament, Jari Pathenos, Ann Prashar, Erica Rossell, Jill Suhajda, Bill Staugaard, Jen Steffes, and Jessica Szczepanski.  The feedback from parents and staff was very positive.
"Your staff did an excellent job preparing and presenting. Thank you for sharing Ron with us all.  Go Crusaders!"

Dan Mooney, Principal
VanHoosen Middle School
"Excited at the way Reuther has constructed a full partnership this evening with parents, community, leaders, and students!"

Rachel Guinn, Principal
Hart Middle School
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Year 2: The Story of Work vs. The Story of Learning

10/8/2013

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"Children Grow into the intellectual life of Those Around them."
Vygotsky, 1978
Deanna Knox and Jennifer Steffes presented to the staff two different stories: one of work and one of learning.  Staff reflected upon their experience with school.  Ritchhart states that for many, school experiences have been that of work and alienation, and that educators need to change that story. Cultures of Thinking is guiding us into creating a culture of learning.


ENCULTURATION
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Year 2: Creating Our Vision

10/8/2013

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creating_a_vision_list_10.1.13.pdf
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At our first PD of the 2013-2014 school year, our staff completed a Chalk Talk about what we wanted our students to be like as adults.  The list contained many of the dispositions that Ron Ritchhart says are the "residuals of education".   This list would help us create our Vision for the school improvement process. 
Using the dispositions generated from staff, our SIP Steering Team narrowed them down to the most popular. Today we took the narrowed list to the rest of the staff. Staff voted for their top 3 dispositions and these were tallied. 
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The top 5 dispositions were worked into a draft of the Vision Statement for our school.  The staff was presented with this draft and asked to use a consensogram - green sticker indicating that they were all for this Vision, yellow indicating that they had some concerns with this Vision, and red indicating that they were against this Vision.  Anyone voting with a yellow or red sticker were asked to write their concerns on a sticky note. These concerns will be addressed at the next SIP Steering Team meeting and a revision to the Vision will be created.  This revision will be shared with staff at a future meeting.
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Year 2: Book Study Discussion - Session 1

10/4/2013

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Four staff members (Jen Steffes, Melina Chynoweth, Bill Staugaard,  Nick Ontiveros) of our Cultures of Thinking (CoT) Team facilitated a staff discussion on the first two chapters in Making Thinking Visible.  In small groups the thinking routine Sentence-Phrase-Word was used to debrief on the chapters and the best ones from the groups were shared with the entire staff.
Staff was also provided a toolbox card for this routine to use for future implementation in their own classrooms.  The session finished with a 4 C's thinking routine that provided the opportunity for staff to wrap-up their thoughts about the chapters.  The CoT Team collected these responses to assess the staff's thinking process in order to plan future PD sessions centered around Visible Thinking.

Staff was assigned to read Chapters 3 & 4 for the next PD session scheduled for November 5, 2013.  In addition, they were asked to implement one of the routines from those chapters and bring the student samples to the upcoming PD as well.  
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pd_cot_10.4.13.pdf
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4_cs_thinking_routine_-_eval_of_chap._1__2_mtv__10.4.13.pdf
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Year 2: Visible Thinking Resources Emerge

10/4/2013

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Deanna Knox and Rachel Mainero unveiled Reuther's Cultures of Thinking Website with thinking routines, videos of routines in action, teaching materials such as posters and handouts, and links to additional resources on Visible Thinking.  Staff was encouraged to visit the site often and also provide additional items as they see fit for inclusion on the website.
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www.culturesofthinking.weebly.com
Staff was also re-introduced to the Teacher Lab concept which has been a form of professional development Reuther has been using for a while (in the past with our MI-Class and Formative Assessment strategies). Teacher Lab provides the following opportunities for staff to grow professionally:
 
  • consult with a coach about embedding thinking routines into an upcoming unit of instruction 
  • visit a colleague's classroom to see a thinking routine in action
  • model a thinking routine with a class to another colleague to observe
  • co-teach a thinking routine with a colleague
visible_thinking_teacher_lab_exit_slip.pdf
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Ron Ritchhart, Harvard Project Zero Researcher
Staff was asked to complete an Exit Slip to rate themselves on a Visible Thinking Rubric that would help guide the structure of the Teacher Lab for the 2013-2014
school year.

Also unveiled today was the Visible Thinking Parent Night to be presented at Reuther by Harvard Senior Researcher Ron Ritchhart on October 28, 2013. Staff members could sign up to be a presenter this evening or attend the event.  Attendance at the event could count toward Personal Professional Development (PPD) hours required by the district.
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