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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Making Thinking Visible

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Overview

Becoming an Independent Reader is a professional learning resource with four sessions:1. Engaging Early Learners2. Making Thinking Visible3. Supporting Student Inquiry4. Reflecting on Learning

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Key Messages• The purposeful integration of the four roles of

the literate learner supports higher-order thinking and student independence in early primary classrooms.

• An inquiry approach to teaching and learning leads to student and teacher efficacy and supports the development of independence in reading.

• Ongoing reflection on research findings and classroom practices deepens the professional knowledge of educators and informs their teaching practices.

• Ministry resources (e.g., monographs, webcasts and curriculum documents) support early primary teachers in planning effective literacy instruction.

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

“In adopting an inquiry stance, we push our beliefs out of their resting positions and engage in a cycle where new knowledge provokes new questions and where new questions generate new knowledge.”

– Mitzi Lewison, Christine Leland, Jerome Harste

Creating critical classrooms: K –8 Reading and Writing with an Edge (2008, page 17)

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Setting the Purpose

This session probes the following questions:

• What teacher actions provoke talk about substantive topics?

• How does a teacher inquiry stance support students in talking about their learning? How does classroom inquiry help students to make their thinking visible?

• What does the integration of the four roles of the literate learner look like and sound like in early primary classrooms?

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

“Children’s capacity for thinking is nearly limitless if we create the learning conditions to support it, if we provide a language to define and describe thinking, and if we simply ask, ‘What else?’, or ‘I know you don’t know, but what would you say if you did know?’ There is always a deeper idea, an idea well beyond the superficial, if we have the patience to ask, and the faith that they will answer.”

– Ellin Oliver KeeneTo Understand – New Horizons in

Reading Comprehension, 2008, pages 244–245

Making Thinking Visible

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Connecting the documents…

Oral language is the basis for literacy, thinking and relating in any language.

Oral communication skills are fundamental to the development of literacy and essential for thinking and learning.

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

This monograph, building on Gordon Wells’ notion of “grand conversation,” explores the kind of talk that enables students to:• ask questions• disagree• explain their thinking• explore different

perspectives• negotiate meaning

Grand Conversations

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Talking about Learning in Kindergarten

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Reading Different Texts in Grade 2

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Thinking about The Four Roles of the Literate Learner

Adapted from Literacy for Learning: The Report of the Expert Panel on Literacy in Grades 4 to 6 in Ontario (2004). For discussion purposes only.

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Play-based Learning in Authentic

Real-life Contexts

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Connecting the documents…

and identifying how our thinking aboutcritical literacy has evolved.

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Critical Literacy… a Lens for Learning

• All texts are constructions. • All texts contain belief and value messages. • Each person interprets messages differently. • Texts serve different interests. • Mediums develop their own “language” to

position readers/ viewers in certain ways.

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Relevance and Authenticity: Articulating Values

and Beliefs and Taking Action in Grade 2

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Reading the World: Allan Luke

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Thinking about InquiryWhat are the learning needs of our students?What do they already know?What do they need to learn and do?How do we build on what they know?

What are our learning needs?What do we already know that we can useto support student learning needs?What do we need to learn to doto support student learning needs?What sources of evidence/knowledgecan we utilize to learn this?

What teaching actions will support student learning within the tasks and experiences?

What was the impact of:• the learning tasks/experiences? • our teaching actions?

What learning tasks and experiences can we design to support student needs?

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Collaborative Teacher Inquiry

reciprocal relevant

collaborative

reflective

iterative

reasoned

adaptive

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Moving Thinking Forward

“Confirmation bias” is the tendency to seek confirmation of what we already think, believe, know and do.When we read professionally, our natural inclination is to focus on the things that confirm what we already think, believe, know and do.

Katz and Dack suggest that in order to “intentionally interrupt” the confirmation bias, we should highlight the things we don’t agree with and create an opportunity to make our tacit knowledge explicit – to create the conditions for possible real, new learning.”

– Adapted from Steven Katz and Lisa DackIntentional Interruption (in press)

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Connecting Theory and Practice

“With such wide and varied bodies of knowledge to explore, and limited time to act on the specific needs of students, it is important that the use of expert knowledge is strategic and purposeful.”

– Collaborative Teacher Inquiry, Capacity Building Series, 2010, page 4

Research articles to support ongoing professional learning are available to all members of the Ontario College of Teachers in the Members Area/ Margaret Wilson Library.

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Research Reflections on Session Two

Making Thinking Visible, How to promote Engagement, Understanding and Independence in All Learners(Ritchhart, Church & Morrison, 2011)

Using the Everyday to Engage in Critical Literacy with Young Children(Vasquez, 2009)

Critical Literacy in Australia: A matter of context and standpoint(Luke, 2000)

Teachers Talking to Young Children: Invitations to Negotiate Meaning in Everyday Conversations(Gjems, 2010)

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Curriculum DocumentsSessions 1 – 4

The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Language, 2006 (revised)

The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Science and Technology, 2007 (revised)

The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Mathematics, 2005 (revised)

The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: The Arts, 2009 (revised)

The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Health and Physical Education, 2010 (revised/interim edition)

All resource and curriculum documents used in Thinking about Thinking sessions are available online in PDF – click to download file to desktop.

A Guide to Effective Literacy Instruction, Grades 4 to 6 – Volume One, Foundations of Literacy Instruction for the Junior Learner, 2006 Part 1 & Part 2

The Full-Day Early Learning – Kindergarten Program, 2010–2011 (draft version)

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

MonographsSessions 1 – 4

• Asking Effective Questions in Mathematics – Capacity Building Series, 2011

• Collaborative Teacher Inquiry – Capacity Building Series, 2010

• Critical Literacy – Capacity Building Series, 2009

• Getting Started with Student Inquiry – Capacity Building Series, 2011

• Grand Conversations in Primary Classrooms – Capacity Building Series, 2011

All monographs used in Thinking about Thinking sessions are available online in PDF – click to download file to desktop. • Integrated Curriculum – What Work

s? – Research into Practice, 2010• Integrated Learning in the Classroo

m – Capacity Building Series, 2010• Let’

s Talk about Listening – Capacity Building Series, 2009

• Primary Assessment – Capacity Building Series, 2010

• Student Identity and Engagement in Elementary Schools – Capacity Building Series, 2011

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Research ArticlesSessions 1 – 4

Session 1• The Ecology of Learning: Factors Contributing to Learner-centred Classroom

Cultures (Crick, McCombs, Haddon, Broadfoot, & Tew, 2007)• The Classroom Environment First, Last and Always (Roskos & Neuman,

2011)• Philosophy in Primary Schools: Fostering Thinking Skills and Literacy

(Fisher, 2001)• Organizing Literacy Classrooms for Effective Instruction (Reutzel & Clark,

2011)Session 2• Making Thinking Visible – How to Promote Engagement, Understanding and

Independence in All Learners (Ritchhart, Church & Morrison, Karin, 2011)• Critical Literacy in Australia: A Matter of Context and Standpoint (Luke,

2000) • Using the Everyday to Engage in Critical Literacy with Young Children

(Vasquez, 2009)• Teachers Talking to Young Children: Invitations to Negotiate Meaning in

Everyday Conversations (Gjems, 2010)

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All research articles are available online in PDF to members of the Ontario College of Teachers. Click here to proceed.

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Research ArticlesSessions 1 – 4

Session 2 (continued)• The Nature of Student Teacher Discourse in an Elementary Classroom

(Dickson, 2005) • Orchestrating Discussions (Smith, Hughes & Engle, 2009)• Teachers Talking to Young Children: Invitations to Negotiate Meaning in

Everyday Conversations (Gjems, 2010)Session 3• It’s a Mystery: A Case of Implementing Forensic Science in a Preschool

Science Inquiry (Howett, Lewis & Upson, 2011)• Reading Through a Disciplinary Lens (Juel, Hebard, Haubner & Moran,

2010)• Inquiring Minds Learn to Read, Write and Think: Reaching all Learners

Through Inquiry (Wilhelm & Wilhelm, 2010)• An Early Start on Thinking (Epstein, 2008)• New Horizons in Comprehension (Keene, 2010)

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

Research ArticlesSessions 1 – 4

Session 4• Children’s Self-Assessment of Their Schoolwork in Elementary School

(Elder, 2010)• Using Self-assessment in Elementary Classrooms (Bingham, Holbrook &

Meyers, 2010)• Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Answer (Aukerman, 2006) • Launching Self-Directed Learners (Costa & Kallick, 2004)• Talking in Class: Remembering What is Important about Classroom Talk

(Johnston, Ivey & Faulkner, 2010)Res

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

HandoutsSessions 1 – 4

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Thinking about Thinking: Becoming an Independent Reader

VideosSessions 1 – 4

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SESSION 1• A Child’s Perspective on Reading 1.02• Teaching with an Inquiry Stance Grade

1 / 2 Teacher 3:11• Authentic Real-life Inquiry Kindergarten

4:27• The Gradual Release of Responsibility 7:

19• Peer Conferencing in Grade 2 2:43

SESSION 2• Talking About Learning in Kindergarten

2:14• Reading Different Texts Grade 2 4:03• Play-Based Learning in Authentic, Real-L

ife Contexts Kindergarten 2:17

• Relevance and Authenticity: Articulating Values and Beliefs and Taking Action Grade 2 6:20

• Reading the World: Allan Luke 5:12

SESSION 3• It’s About a Repertoire: Allan Luke 0:44• An Inquiry Approach to Learning Grade

1/2 Teacher 3:06• Inquiry in Kindergarten 3:06• Sharing Learning in Grade 1 2:11

SESSION 4• Student Teacher Reading Conference

Grade 1 4:26• Questioning and Listening Grade 1

3:14• Consolidating the Learning Grade 2

5:55