PLP

Log

Dr. Haralson, Julia Sansom, CaDric Moulton, Rebecca Hastings, Lindsey Harding

Date:
Chapters:
Summary:
February 3 1 and 2 For our first meeting we read prior to our discussion and
reviewed the two chapters together. Rebecca led us with
guiding questions, but most of our conversation flowed
from the parts of the chapters that we made comments
about. We all agreed that this first part was a slow read
and covered much of what we have been taught over the
past few months. It was all about how to engage students
in actually understanding the material. The way to do
this is to make their thinking visible. I think that this
constructivist concept is a wonderful way to encourage
students to think critically, but we all agreed that it is
hard to teach that way in the education system today. It
will be a hard fight not to teach to the test as a teacher
when that is one of the main goals that teachers have
to meet because of the state. Although it is a fight, I think
that the concept is great and I will incorporate the
inquiry, listening, and many other strategies mentioned
in these two chapters into my unit. It was a great first
discussion and I look forward to the next meeting.
February 24 3 and 4
For our second meeting we discussed the next two
chapters that we assigned. I lead the discussion this
week and began by highlighting some points in chapter 3
and asking the group what their views were on
establishing routines in the classroom. We talked about
positive aspects of routines and we noted how it was
interesting that the author referred to the strategies as
routines. One quote that we all highlighted on was when
it said that we are getting students to think not only
about other ideas but recognize and elaborate on their
own thinking. The strategies/ routines in chapter 4 are
very useful for introducing a new concept. We all shared
what strategy stood out to us and how we could use it in
our classroom. Something that we always come back to

March
18

April
20

and discuss is the impact of these thinking strategies

when there is so much pressure on standardized tests
today. We discussed how that as teachers we are going
to have to discern what our students need and what will
help them learn and grow while still preparing them for
the content that they need to know for those tests. I just
wish there was not so much pressure for those tests and
that children could go to school to learn and grow more
in these areas that we discussed. I really liked the
strategy 3-2-1 bridges and plan to incorporate it into my
unit. I love how there is an initial response and a new
response once the topic has been discussed. I think it
would be great to use during engagement and
assessment or closure to watch the students thinking
develop. I really enjoyed seeing explicit strategies in this
chapter and am excited to learn more.
5 and 6
We decided to this session virtually and we did a blog
post. Each of us posted a question from each chapter and
we responded to each persons questions. I really
enjoyed doing this because I reflect well by writing and I
was able to do that with these strategies. One strategy
that really resonated with me that I have incorporated
into my unit was Generate-Sort-Connect-Elaborate:
Concept Maps. Whenever I look at a map I usually dont
think it to be vital in helping me understand the content.
This strategy helps teach students that you can gain a lot
of great information through analyzing a map and of
course, making connections. I used this in my unit by
having them look at a map of the United States divided
into slave and free states in the 1800s before the Civil
War. These strategies that we discussed were very
helpful because they are meant to support and extend
instruction. That is not the only strategy I used from
these two chapters, but it was one that I had never
though of applying before until now. I enjoyed seeing
everyones blog posts and questions and I am looking
forward to our last meeting together.
7 and 8 Today was our last meeting and Julia and CaDric led our
discussion. One of the first things that we discussed was

how the purpose of all of these strategies to make

students thinking visible is to develop routines of
thinking this way in the classroom. It is easy for me to
think of them as just strategies and not routines that
should be developed over time that the students
eventually do naturally when looking at a text, picture,
etc. When writing our units it is hard to think of them as
routines because we dont have our own classroom. As I
have written mine I have used most of the strategies as
assessments to test the students thinking and
understanding of the concept. That is its purpose, but
this discussion was helpful for me by reminding me that
these can become daily routines that students do in all
subject areas not just strategies to make their thinking
visible one time. Since our first meeting I feel like we
have all had so much more experience. Our first meeting
we talked a lot about standardized tests and how we are
supposed to incorporate these strategies with the
pressure of teaching for the test that many schools put
on teachers. A few people in our PLC including myself
saw standardized testing in action at our Urban
placement. My teacher is recently out of college and had
the same concept based instruction as we are receiving
and has not been able to get comfortable using these
thinking routines because of the pressure that is put on
her. After reading this book I want to make it my goal as
a teacher to incorporate these thinking strategies in
teaching the content that the students need to know for
the standardized tests. I think that we need to work
more on connecting the both of them together and doing
our best to help students learn by making their thinking
visible in any way we can. Dr. Haralson asked us all to
sum up this book in one sentence and I said, This book
is full of practical strategies and routines that challenge
and encourage student thinking in the everyday
classroom. I really enjoyed this book study and look
forward to incorporating the thinking routines in my
classroom.