Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners

by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, Karin Morrison

A proven program for enhancing students' thinking and comprehension abilities Visible Thinking is a research-based approach to teaching thinking, begun at Harvard's Project Zero, that develops students' thinking dispositions, while at the same time deepening their understanding of the topics they study. Rather than a set of fixed lessons, Visible Thinking is a varied collection of practices, including thinking routines, small sets of questions or a short sequence of steps as well as the documentation of student thinking. Using this process thinking becomes visible as the students' different viewpoints are expressed, documented, discussed and reflected upon.

Helps direct student thinking and structure classroom discussion.
Can be applied with students at all grade levels and in all content areas.
Includes easy-to-implement classroom strategies.

The book also comes with a DVD of video clips featuring Visible Thinking in practice in different classrooms.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, Professional Development, School, Leadership, Psychology

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2011

About the author

Ron Ritchhart is currently a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Project Zero where his work focuses on such issues as teaching for understanding, the development of intellectual character, creative teaching, making students' thinking visible, and most recently the development of school and classroom culture. Ron's research and writings, particularly his theory of Intellectual Character and framework for understanding group culture through the Cultural Forces, have informed the work of schools, school systems, and museums throughout the world. His current research focuses on how classrooms change as teachers strive to make thinking valued, visible, and actively promoted in their classrooms.

Reviews

[Anna Zehr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will both challenge and nurture my classroom practices and growth as a teacher for years to come. A valuable resource and one I hope to use as a reference book when designing any unit of study for elementary and adult students.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Making Thinking Visible lobbies teachers to change from knowledge instruction towards deeper synthesizing and understanding instruction. Although this is not a new concept, Bloom's Taxonomy etc., practical routines are shared as to how to deepen student thinking while at the same time helping teachers assess this process.

One of my favored parts was the DVD accompaniment where I was able to witness teachers meeting to discuss how their routines were working in the classroom. Ego aside, student first discussion was the norm.

This is a textbook, make no mistake about it, but a textbook with practical applications. As a teacher on summer break, I found the processes manageable, exciting, and motivating making me ready to start the new school year.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

For any educator who would like to feel like they are changing the world and wanting to learn how to create critical thinkers in the classroom, this is the book. This book teaches teachers how to foster a critical thinking environment in an educational world that just looks at scores. It promotes overall learning rather than just teaching to the test. I have already used some of these techniques in my 3rd grade classrooms and I have noticed a difference in my students' thinking as well as my thinking. The best part was to learn how teachers use these strategies in the classroom and what didn't work for them. I really appreciated the nonexamples included to help me not be discouraged when my lessons may not go as well as hoped.

[Lisajean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a great resource for elementary and middle school teachers. As a teacher of 11th and 12th graders, I would have to adapt almost all the activities; as is, the kids would find them too cheesy/simplistic, which would keep them from engaging in the the deep thinking the activities were intended to generate. For upper-level English teachers, specifically, I think Writing-Based Teaching would be a better source of activities to make thinking visible.

[Monica Hills · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had some great strategies for getting kids to think. The most valuable part to me was seeing how others used them in their classrooms. I would have loved to see more examples and diagrams/pictures but overall very useful. I look forward to using this in my classroom.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everybody in education these days is talking about critical and creative thinking. It’s one of the 21st Century skills! It’s engaging, rigorous, and what employers are looking for. But what exactly is it, and how do we foster it in our classrooms (and lives)? In Making Thinking Visible, the authors give teachers some much-needed traction on this question, identifying 8 activities that are components of critical and creative thinking, and then naming and explaining 21 routines for making those components that most often take place invisibly, inside our heads, visible. This is important so we can identify, value, and cultivate the thinking that is the motivation and the goal of learning.

I loved that the book gave examples of these routines being effectively used in all subject areas at all grade levels. Read the book to identify which handful of the 21 routines you can practically implement in your classroom—no one can effectively use them all.

[Laura McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

MTV is a book to make us (teachers) more thoughtful about the thinking our student do. The book identifies different types of thinking and describes a number of thinking routines that can help students 'see' their thinking and collaborate with peers. The use of the thinking routines has significantly raised the level of the language my First Graders are able to use effectively to explain and expand their thoughts. The website (Project Zero at Harvard) has a number of the routines that you can browse. Worthy professional resource, well written, easily accessible, and (most importantly) practical!

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book makes me want to go back to school again...but a school that follows what this book teaches us. Learning and thinking takes a lot of practice and deep thinking is far from teachers just teaching. Teachers must be mentors and guides. Students can take it from there. This book has many practical tools for every educator, but is also an interesting book to read for parents as well.

[Syd L · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in bits and pieces, but it works well that way. I liked that each strategy had ideas for situations where it would work rather than just prescribing a "this works!" kind of solution. I think that it is important that we make the abstract thought process as concrete as possible for our students as often as we can, and this book starts to give ways to do that.

[Ayn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was filled with some good ideas about how to see student's thinking, but the formatting and lengthiness of explanations made it difficult to skim and hard to keep focused. Overall, it's filled with some excellent strategies for teachers in every subject area and examples and tips of when to use the strategies to get the most out of them.

[Temuujin Nyamdavaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the beginning of every school year, I go on searching for the book that might give insights into teaching and my career. Teach like a champion has been my bible since the beginning of my teaching career. Not long ago, I’ve come across this book, Making Thinking Visible. It has brought a kinda a total change in my teaching philosophy. Highly recommended!

[Jasmine Lane]

Some of the strategies are a bit too ‘how does this make you feel’ /reader response for my style, but because of other instructional knowledge I have, I can see plenty of the ideas going to good use. I’d give this 3.75 stars

[Joy Kirr · Rating 5 out of 5]

My thoughts here: http://geniushour.blogspot.com/2016/0...

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this but never reviewed it. During my feverish, read-anything-about-teaching phase. When I thought being a Master Teacher was possible. Yeah. Then.

[Matt Carton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The single best pedagogical guide I have ever read.

[Angie Hull · Rating 5 out of 5]

Making Thinking Visible is a crucial read for teachers who are trying to help students with deep thinking and understanding. It helps teachers guide students to make "invisible thinking" to "visible". The Thinking Routines are broken into three sections based on the level of understanding. This professional text works well in all contents and all grade levels. Enclosed with the text is a DVD of some of the Thinking Routines in action. This is a very important read for educators and one that can help transform your teaching with some basic steps.

[sam howie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new entry to my top 5 all-time educational textbooks. An entirely practical book filled with various 'routines' to help, not guide but draw out children's thinking. While some practical books can be quite closed, in a prescriptive nature, the routines here can be thought of as more of a springboard for engagement and available to be used with students from preschool to tertiary levels. This book is possibly the best way, I have seen, to avoid teachers working in the 'banking' system of learning as described by Paulo Freire as students are given the power to think and explain for themselves and to each other.

[Cathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent resource with a wide variety of specific activities that can be implemented tomorrow. So many fabulous ideas here for all ages, content, and goals.

[zero · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book feels like it says so much, but there's not a whole lot of substance

[Mariam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book, It helped me to look back at some of the workshops I give and I think I will always get back to it whenever I am designing a new learning experience.
Before reading this book I browsed quickly the thinking routines on the website http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/ and I was skeptic, not sure how to use it, how to put it into context or what is so special about those routines. After reading this book I realized that it's not about the routines it self but about the teacher who will use it, the effort she will put to understand her students thinking, to help them go from superficial thinking to deeper one. It's the teacher who will work hard to find the right context, choose the right prompt, reflect on how the process goes and seek assistance on how to improve it. It's the teacher who will have to be patient because building a culture where

a group’s collective as well as individual thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted as part of the regular, day-to-day experience of all group members.

will take long time and needs a safe environments where students can see the value of what they are doing and they are not just doing this to please the teacher or for the sake of assessment. So although the routines sound like simple questions or prompts, it needs alot of work around it from the teacher.

Two-Third of the book is about the thinking routines. For each routine there is a description, purpose, steps, selecting appropriate content, assessment, uses and variations and pictures of practice, but my really favorite chapter is the last one where it describes challenges teachers face through this process and mistakes they fall into. I just wish this chapter was bit longer.

[heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in bits and pieces at first while searching for new ways to assist my students with reading comprehension and analysis, but came back to it more extensively over the last few weeks to help vary the learning routines for some of the students I tutor, especially those who struggle with comprehension and explaining what they are thinking. I love the organization. Each routine is outlined with its purpose, appropriate content, steps of the practice, how it can be modified for different ages and skill levels, how to assess the routine, general tips, and then classroom examples. This structure not only makes the objective and application of the routine easy to follow but also allows the reader to return to specific areas without much searching. I also really like how the routines move along with Blooms Taxonomy from basic knowledge and comprehension to analysis and synthesis and evaluation. I have been able to apply many of these routines with high schoolers and elementary students alike.

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

The underlying concept of making the invisible practice of thinking more visible is great and this book offers some ideas on how to go about that task. There is great emphasis on group learning to leverage the collective thinking inherent in a classroom. In an effort to emphasize the group thinking, there is a noted de-emphasis of individual thinking and assessment of the individual's contribution. Given that we are charged with assessing the individual, I would like to see some suggestion as to how one might accomplish this within the framework that Ritchhart, et al outline here. Perhaps this addressed in his new book or on the website...

[Leticia Herrera Cubillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Todo profesor debería leer este libro. Es cierto que se contrapone un poco con nuestro currículum, normativo e inflexible, pero si nos quedamos esperando a que nos reduzcan el currículum, nunca enseñaremos nada realmente valioso a nuestros estudiantes.
Los capítulos iniciales te chupan el alma por lo fomes. Los de las rutinas de pensamiento son los más útiles y los capítulos finales son tremendamente bélicos, en el sentido de no aceptar nuestras clásicas excusas e hipocresías a la hora de enseñar a pensar. Muy bueno.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great discussion on helping teachers and students to "see" thinking, but a lot of the routines wouldn't be helpful in my high school language arts classroom. I will use a few though, like the 4 C's. I've already tried that one and found it effective.

[LadyDi · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Nameh dah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buenísimas rutinas para visibilizar las formas en que los estudiantes piensan e ir en camino hacia la metacognición.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

In chapter one, the authors argue that “in most school settings, educators have focused more on completion of work and assignments than on a true development of understanding.” This statement captures a lot of my recent thinking about education: we need a paradigm shift that moves from teaching to learning. Simply because we’ve “taught” something doesn’t mean students have learned it.

This incredibly practical, yet thoughtful, book is centered around teachers asking “what kinds of thinking do I value and want to promote in my classroom?” and then asking “what kinds of thinking does this lesson force students to do?” To help teachers consider those questions, the book then outlines a score of “thinking routines” that not only guide students through specific content, but also give them habits of mind to approach all of their learning. I especially love that these routines are skills that students can apply to anything independent of a specific classroom. Empowering students with thinking skills is—in my opinion—vastly more important than making sure they remember the plot of To Kill a Mockingbird.

The book is well organized: it introduces a thinking routine, briefly outlines it, discusses appropriate content, steps, variations, assessment, and tips. Each routine concludes with a “Picture of Practice” that describes how a practicing teacher uses it in her classroom. This section was essential to helping me see the possibilities that I may not have noticed before.

Some of my favorite thinking routines in the book are:
1. Zoom In: look closely at a small bit of image that is revealed
2. 3-2-1 Bridge: a variation on the basic 3-2-1, which I’ve used before. This one has a second 3-2-1 at the end of the lesson, then asks students to discuss how their thinking has changed between the two.
3. Compass Points: students consider an idea/question/proposition use the compass points: E=excitements; W=worries; N=needs; S=stance, steps, or suggestions
4. Headlines: students condense the learning in the lesson to a headline that captures a key aspect
5. CSI: students generate a Color, Symbol, and Image that best represents the essence of an idea/theme
6. Generate-Sort-Connect-Elaborate: Concept Map (variation on concept maps that I like a lot and that’s too complex to explain here)
7. The Micro Lab Protocol: a discussion protocol for small groups that helps develop listening and speaking skills
8. Tug-of-War: students generate “tugs” that support each side of a dilemma and use this set up to process it.

The authors are careful to include all content areas and grade levels. This is an incredibly helpful teaching resource that I will return to for both work with students and with other education professionals.

[Michael Loveless · Rating 5 out of 5]

Making Thinking Visible makes my top-five list of must-read books for educators. The focus of the book is to help students move away from getting the right answer and memorizing information toward thinking critically. As the title suggests, the authors offer solutions to how a teacher can assess (formally and informally) the thinking that students are doing. The heart of the book is "thinking routines" like "See-Think-Wonder," "Red Light - Yellow Light," and "I Used to Think..., But Now I Think...." For each of the thinking routines, the authors provide the reader with a number of helpful components to help the teacher use the routine effectively. There is a description of the type of thinking the routine promotes, the subject matter that works well with it, step by step procedures, and a picture of practice that is an example of a teacher using the routine. The authors admit that teachers will probably begin using the routines as stand-alone activities, but that teachers tend to move toward a focus on the thinking they want to develop. At that point the routines become tools that can be plugged in for the appropriate purpose. Ideally, when a number of routines are used repeatedly, students will gain self-sufficiency with them and gain tools they can use to think well on their own. Of course some thinking routines are better suited for some subjects than for others, but the authors make an effort to show how each skill could be used in a variety of courses including math and the arts. The book also uses examples from all grade levels. I'm excited to try many of these routines in my classroom to help my students be able to use and evaluate information more effectively. I highly recommend this book as a tool to enable any teacher to help kids become better thinkers and discover the richness of the subjects they encounter in school.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've ever taken a class on how to teach ELLs, you've probably gotten handed the 99 Ideas and Activities book and/or even been made to lead activities from that book.

I would say that, for me, this is a much more usable and thoughtful version of that book--with only 21 activities, all fully explained with purpose, content ideas, ways to alter, assess, and in depth picture of the routine in practice.

The introductory chapters about thinking and how we do it, and how to promote it, and the final chapters on reflecting are all nice bonuses to the book (and good to promote your own thinking) but the "routines" or practices are the real meat here and can be used even if you don't have time to ponder those other chapters right now.

It's also great that I somehow randomly just found time to finally skim/read and skim through this book as there is a great activity in here that I was already finding myself intrigued by...and then the practice example was a teacher doing it as she finished The Giver, which is what we are doing this week, so I'm pretty excited to try out one of these routines right away!

[Luca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got to this book from the artful thinking project which is a great way to combine art and critical, lateral, creative maybe just good thinking together.

In this book, there are several strategies to help students to develop good thinking. Those strategies are divided into different categories that serve different purposes. Everything is very detailed and well explained.
One could be unhappy that there are no "real" examples to look at, but with the book, comes a cd where you can see how these routines are used in real-life.
This book is impeccable in delivering practical strategies to improve your students thinking. I have tested myself some of those thinking routines with great results. I could have used more theory in this book but I guess that the purpose of this book is to be "practical".

This book is for every teacher that wants to improve his or her ability to understanding and train good thinking in his or her class. To have a significative effect on your student thinking, however, throwing some of these routines here and there is not enough.... but is a good start!