Many approaches to encouraging better thinking are abilities-centric, but Visible Thinking is about fostering dispositions of thought, creating a Culture of Thinking, and bringing students to the center of the learning conversation.

I think it is vital to share the message and practices of Visible Thinking, especially as they apply to innovation and creativity in the classroom. Visible Thinking promotes the simultaneous development of non-cognitive and cognitive skills, something few other instructional frameworks can truly claim. The strategies are also not dependent on a certain subject area, curriculum, student demographic, or technology infrastructure. Visible Thinking can be implemented in a class with one iPad, a thousand Chromebooks, or ten sticky notes. There are no excuses to limit adoption.

One of the basic tools of the Visible Thinking framework is a series of Thinking Routines, simple patterns of conversation, or protocols, which encourage a spirit of inquiry, reflection, and metacognition. I created the resource below to help the teachers and students I work with as they pursue a Culture of Thinking. My plan is to use it when introducing Thinking Routines as part of an exploration activity. I am hoping these routines will become part of their reflective toolkit, a natural part of their questioning strategy and, eventually, a given in their classroom culture.

This can be cut and folded into one of those fortune teller things or you could punch a hole and put a spinner on it and have teachers or students explore the routines they land on and share where they might be best used.

For the VT Research Buffs: I know they aren’t really prompts, but I thought the word protocols might scare people.

Clarification: Since I plan to use this when teaching about the routines the randomized selection works. When using to actually select a routine to use… the randomized deal doesn’t so much work since there are more appropriate times to use each routine. Proceed with caution–you’ve been warned. 

The Visible Thinking framework and Thinking Routines can be found at http://visiblethinkingpz.org