Year 2: Visit to Clarkston High School

Principal Cheryl Gambaro, Bill Staugaard, and Deanna Knox traveled to Clarkston High School to dialogue with their CoT leaders (Principal Gary Kaul, Amy Hohlbein, Amy Quayle, and AP Liz Walker) and staff members about their transformation journey into a Culture of Thinking school. Some key items obtained from our visit included organizing Curriculum Night into stations for parents to see thinking routines in action, using Connect-Extend-Challenge as a self-assessment tool, displaying the day's agenda in the classroom to be a list of the types of thinking that will be utilized (vs. a list of the activities to be done), creating classroom posters of each type of thinking in the Understanding Map, incorporating the Depth of Knowledge Chart with the Understanding Map, reading Chapter 2 of Ron Ritchhart's new upcoming book (Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 Forces We Must Master to Truly Transform Our Schools) when introducing the 8 Cultural Forces in year 3, incorporating thinking routines into all PD discussions around various topics, working with reluctant staff members, offering design studio sessions in our own buildings (similar to Oakland Schools), staff keeping a photo journal of their use of thinking in the classroom, and additional ways to use thinking routines for assessment.