Lesson Plan: Thinking Flexibly

OBJECTIVE CONNECTION TO ACHIEVEMENT GOAL

What will your students be able to do?
1) SWBAT explain what “thinking flexibly”
means and that it is a Habit of Mind.
2) SWBAT explain 3 ways they can work to
become flexible thinkers.
3) SWBAT identify examples and non-examples learn that they have control over molding their
of thinking flexibly in scenarios in the
classroom, at home, and in the world.
4) SWBAT work in small groups to turn rigid
thinking examples into flexible thinking
examples.
5) SWBAT engage in coursework and
conversation with their peers where they
exhibit traits of flexible thinking such as ability perspective on a topic, engage in a conversation
to change perspective, considering the
viewpoints of others, and/or thinking of
alternative options.
How does the objective connect to your
achievement goal?
Students with intellectual and emotional disabilities
often struggle to consider content in multiple
perspectives and experience difficulty in changing
their viewpoints of misconceptions they have about
content. Thinking flexibly is a valuable skill for
students with disabilities because it helps students
thinking and can learn more about the world
around them by considering multiple points of view,
listening to the viewpoints of others, and thinking
about alternative options or answers. Thinking
flexibly is a Habit of Mind that will help students as
they pursue careers and advance through their
educational career to high school and beyond.
Students develop a sense of confidence and
independence when they are able to change their
with their peers around multiple viewpoints, and
discover multiple solutions to a problem.

PREREQUISITE SKILLS DIAGNOSTIC

What will your students need to know to master the How will you assess students’ mastery of these
grade-level objective? foundational skills?
● The meaning of “thinking flexibly” in the ● Students’ ability to explain and elaborate
context of Habits of Mind on the concept of thinking flexibly
● What rigid thinking looks like versus thinking ● Students’ ability to identify 3 ways they can
flexibly become flexible thinkers
● Identify examples of thinking flexibly in ● Students’ ability to identify ways they are
multiple social situations already thinking flexibly and reflecting on
● Ways to become a flexible thinker those experiences
● How to recognize when they are thinking ● Students’ ability to turn scenarios of rigid
flexibly in the classroom thinking into examples of flexible thinking
● Students’ ability to apply learned concepts
of thinking flexibly in the classroom setting
during conversations and coursework
END OF LESSON ASSESSMENT
How will you know whether your students have made progress toward the objective?
I will know if students have made progress towards understanding and internalizing the Habit of
Mind, “thinking flexibly,” if students are able to explain the Habit of Mind in their own words,
identify examples and non-examples of flexible thinking, identify ways they are becoming flexible
thinkers, and students exercising their ability to be flexible thinkers in the classroom by ​changing their
perspective, considering the viewpoints of others, and/or thinking of alternative options for problems.

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Lesson Plan Template 1
 KEY POINTS
What three to five key points will you emphasize?
1) Thinking flexibly is a Habit of Mind where an individual changes and grows their brain by
changing their perspective on a topic, considering the viewpoints and opinions of others,
creating alternative ways to think about a topic, and/or weighing options.

2) Flexible thinking can look like listening to and reflecting on the opinions of your classmates,
your family, or the news. Flexible thinking can look like changing your mind about a topic and
thinking from different points of view. Flexible thinking can look like reading and listening to
many kinds of resources to learn about the history of the United States of America.

3) One way you can work on becoming a flexible thinker is by listening to other points of view
before deciding how you feel about a topic. You can also become a flexible thinker by listening
to understand instead of listening to respond, which means focussing on everything the other
person/people is/are saying instead of thinking of a response in your head while they are
talking. You can ask questions to learn more about different points of view, or take time to think
about new ideas. You can also think of many new ways to solve a problem or find an answer
instead of just one.

4) You can practice flexible thinking every day by working on opening your mind to new ideas,
thinking, and options in the classroom, at home, and in the world.

OPENING
(Consider: How will you communicate what is about to happen?
How will you communicate how it will happen?
How will you communicate its importance?
How will you communicate connections to previous lessons?
​ How will you engage students and capture their interest?)
● When students enter the classroom, they will pick up a post-it note and begin drawing or
L writing down what they think “flexible” means. The teacher will prompt the students by asking
E them to think about how “flexible” can have multiple meanings.
S ● After students write down what they think the word means, the teacher will select the student
S response(s) that most closely align(s) with “flexible.”
O ● The teacher will explain that today the students are learning a new way to grow their brain and
N will be practicing learning how to think flexibly in the classroom, at home, and in the world so
they can become smarter, lifelong learners.
INTRODUCTION OF NEW MATERIAL
C (Consider: What key points will you emphasize and reiterate?
Y How will you ensure that students actively take in information?
C How will you vary your approach to make information accessible to all students?
L ​
Which potential misunderstandings will you anticipate? Why will students be engaged/interested?)
E
● Students will login to Schoology and download the assignment called, “Becoming a Flexible
Thinker.”
● Students will read the definition of thinking flexibly as a choral reading with the teacher two
times. After reading the definition of thinking flexibly, students will pair up with one other
student and create their own explanation or image of what thinking flexibly means.
● Each student pair will share their images or definitions with the class and the teacher will
create a collective Google Doc that students can access during the lesson to see all of the

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Lesson Plan Template 2
 definitions and images of thinking flexibly. During this time, the teacher will address any
common themes or misconceptions they see about thinking flexibly to reiterate the defintion.
GUIDED PRACTICE/INDEPENDENT PRACTICE
(Consider: How will you clearly state and model behavioral expectations?
How will you ensure that all students have multiple opportunities to practice?
How will you scaffold practice exercises from easy to hard? How will you monitor and correct student
performance? Why will students be engaged/interested?)
● The teacher will play a video of the weekly Week In Rap video (from Flocabulary) for the
students and point out ways the “news rappers” are thinking flexibly in the video by sharing all
of the information about news topics and asking questions to the listeners instead of telling the
listeners what to think.
● The teacher will also share a personal example of when they experienced flexible thinking. Ex:
The teacher once thought they did not like broccoli because they had only eaten it raw. When
they tried the broccoli when it was cooked they really liked it and thought about eating it in
more different ways. They also started looking for more ways to cook broccoli.
● After viewing these two examples of thinking flexibly in real life, students will complete an
exercise in a small group where they turn rigid thinking (teacher explains this is when a person
is “stuck” in their views and is unwilling/won’t think about a topic through another perspective or
in another way) into flexible thinking examples.
● After completing the group examples activity, students will engage in a discussion where they
pull a topic of discussion out of a bowl (a This or That? type game) and set a timer for 1 minute
where they discuss their opinion, why that is their opinion, and give every member of the group
a chance to share their viewpoint. The group will choose 5 topics out of a bowl and must stop
conversation and move to the next card when the timer goes off.
● After finishing this activity, students will reflect on one opinion that made them think flexibly or
one way they thought flexibly in the activity and share it with their group.
CLOSING ​(Consider: How will students summarize what they learned?
How will students be asked to state the significance of what they learned?
How will you provide all students with opportunities to demonstrate mastery of (or progress toward) the
objective?
Why will students be engaged/interested?)
● Students will respond to a reflection question on the group activities from the day by recording
their thoughts, typing their thoughts, or creating a combination of images and writing to
describe one way they practiced flexible thinking during the lesson and how it made them feel.
Students will turn in this reflection on Schoology.

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Lesson Plan Template 3