Beginning a school wide journey toward building a Culture of Thinking, guided by Ron Ritchhart's work.

1. Building
Cultures of Thinking
In Our Classrooms and Schools
Emily Freeman
@emmytbots
ectfreeman@me.com

2. The Schroeder Story
One ordinary staff on an extraordinary journey.
“We are champions of our colleagues’ success. It’s a
think tank, not a shark tank!”
-Lauren Childs

3. 2010-11
PACE gone, Ellen Cale became
Differentiation Resource
Teacher
Visible Thinking on the
horizon
Approached our 2nd grade
team to “try out” VT in our
classrooms, with the goal
being a “bubble up” effect in
the building.
Understanding of building
culture - not a “jump right
in” staff!
Commitment to building
leadership necessary
Long-term movement
Actions Key Takeaways

4. 2011-12
2nd Grade “pilots”
Principal support: bought
the team books, gave us 1/2
day PD with Ellen, arranged
field trips to Bloomfield Hills
Trying routines in
classrooms - began to
notice a shift in what kinds
of responses and
engagement we were
getting from students.
Some routines were more
successful than others
Importance of ROUTINE in
using routines became
clear
Presented to staff - seen
as activities; not much
buy-in
Actions Key Takeaways

5. 2012-13
Cohort 1 with principal
Principal mandated
routine during formal
observation
Whole-staff
collaboration with
demonstration lessons
Informal breakfast
meetings
LOTS of anxiety on staff
Demo lessons were a big
turning point - staff could
“see”it for the first time
Informal meetings built
trust; “Celebrations and
Challenges”
Team of 8 to 4-day
workshop in June
Actions Key Takeaways

6. 2013-14
New, larger leadership
team planned four whole-
staff collaborations
Cohort 2 with principal
Moving beyond routines
with the 8 Cultural
Forces
Incorporated reflection
and goal-setting
Shifting from routine-
dependent to learning-
focused
Trust-building is ongoing!
Opportunities for open
dialogue is critical
Staff survey identified
Language as area to
focus on
Actions Key Takeaways

7. 2014-15
Teacher labs focused
on use of Language
in the classroom
County-wide visit
Breakfast meetings
reinstated
Summer book club
Teacher labs helped
teachers feel more
comfortable about
opening classrooms
County-wide visit was a
real confidence booster
for all staff
Camaraderie and trust
continue to be
important!
Actions Key Takeaways

8. What CoT Has Given our Students
Moving from teacher-centered to student-
centered classrooms
Values every child
No more “They either get it or they don’t!”
Whoever is doing the most talking is doing
the most learning
Gives students ownership

9. What CoT Has Given our Teachers
Confidence! Our practice is more aligned with our
teaching philosophy.
Deeper knowledge of our students…
Surprises!
Drives us to keep learning and growing as a staff
And…
Evaluations!

10. Culture-Building
begins with your building culture!
“For classrooms to be cultures of thinking for students,
schools must be cultures of thinking for teachers.”
-Ron Ritchhart

11. Consensograms
Choose a word card from the table.
Find the person who has the antonym.
Explore each consensogram together.
Place your dot along the continuum.
Don’t be shy!
Honor your colleagues’ feelings and perceptions,
even if they don’t match your own.

12. What do we notice?
What is there to celebrate?
What do we see that worries us?
What do we need to address?

13. Focusing on Learning
Over Work
Who’s doing the heavy lifting?
“When we hold the expectation that understanding is
a chief goal of learning…, then our teaching becomes
focused on deep rather than surface learning.”
-Ron Ritchhart, Building Cultures of Thinking p. 7

14. Minds of Our Own
Use the 3-2-1 Bridge routine to
track your thinking after each clip:
3 words that come to mind
2 questions the clip brings up
1 simile, analogy or metaphor
that captures your thinking
Between clips, use the Bridge to
make connections. How has your
thinking shifted?

15. Teaching vs. Learning
In thinking about the two classrooms in Minds of Our Own:
What was the difference in teacher/student roles?
How was language used in both classes?
What can we say about getting work done vs. focusing
on learning?

16. Crafting
Learning Targets
Setting Purpose for Meaningful Learning
“Teachers increase the likelihood that students will
view tasks and assignments as worthwhile when
students are able to see the purpose behind them…”

17. The Difference
“…This is not a simple matter of stating one’s
objectives and goals as many schools require,
however… Instead, it [is] the ability of the teacher to
place the activity within the context of a larger goal
or enterprise that [makes] it worthwhile.”
Ron Ritchhart, Creating Cultures of Thinking, p. 165

18. Identify Big Ideas
What are the overarching
unit goals, the core content
understanding that we want
students to understand?
Understanding takes
significant time. Choose a
narrow set of essential
questions to drive learning.
Share the essential
questions with students to
frame the unit. Plan on
returning to them often.
What is air?
Where is air?
What can air do?
How do we know air
is there?

19. Identify Lesson Goal
How does today’s lesson or
activity relate to the
larger goal?
What will students do to
further their
understanding?
This can be your “I can”
statement.
I can construct a
parachute and test
it under different
conditions.
I can observe how a
parachute interacts
with air.

20. Tie It All Together
Always return the class to a
discussion of your essential
questions at the end of a
lesson.
Help students see how today’s
learning fits with what they
have already discovered.
Document changes in the
class’s thinking.
The activity we do today is
always in service of building a
larger understanding.
What questions
have we answered
today? What did we
SEE that added to or
changed our
thinking?

21. Connect-Extend-Challenge
How does this connect with your experience
using learning targets? (What seems
familiar or similar to what you already do?)
How does this extend your understanding of
learning targets? (What new ideas does this
give you?)
What do you find to be a challenge in this
model of thinking about learning targets?

22. Break Time!
We will begin again at 11:05

23. Creating
Opportunities
“Bumping up” Existing Tasks
“Routines are content-neutral. Think of them as
containers that you fill with rich content. Without
good content, routines aren’t meaningful”
-Ron Ritchhart, Cohort I Professional Development

24. Video Lesson Debrief
Who was doing the heavy
lifting? What were the student
and teacher roles?
What moves could you take into
your classroom?
What actual MATH was
learned? What core content
understanding was being
developed?
What learning target could we
craft?

25. What do we see
here?
What do we
think it means?
78 + = 146
+ 2 = 80
+ 20 = 100
+ 46 = 146
68
Sitting in the Learner’s Seat

26. Demo Lesson Debrief
How did it feel as a learner?
What were the student and
teacher roles?
What moves could you take
into your classroom?
What actual MATH was
learned?
What learning target could
we craft?

27. Planning for Student
Thinking
Creating more opportunities for
thinking by bumping up tasks

28. Tips for creating thinking
opportunities with Zoom-In
Select a task with multiple steps. These become natural
break points for zooming in.
Consider something you know to be confusing to
students. They are often confused by our directions!
Students understand better when they come to it on
their own, by wrestling with the unfamiliar.
Choose something that already has a visual model for
you to use. No need to reinvent the wheel!
Think about the math content understanding that
students will be developing beyond knowing how to do a
certain algorithm. This will help guide your discussion/
questioning and tell you when it’s time to move on.
Craft a learning target that uses the language of
learning over work. Return to those deeper
mathematical understandings to guide you.

29. Charting Your Course
What will you need to move
forward in your planning for
classroom instruction that
focuses on learning over work?
What excites you about moving
forward with this work?
What suggestions do you have to
share with others about moving
forward?
What worries you?

30. Credits
Minds of Their Own video clips can be found at http://www.learner.org/resources/series26.html#
2 Rule Frames and Arrows lesson adapted from Everyday Math Grade 2 Teacher’s Edition
Adding Up lesson adapted from Math Expressions Grade 2 Teacher’s Edition
Ron Ritchhart quotes came from the books Making Thinking Visible and Creating Cultures of Thinking.
Two quotes came from Cultures of Thinking Cohort 1 professional development workshops through
Oakland Schools, 2012-13 school year (Lauren Childs and Ron Ritchhart)
FOSS science unit planning materials for Air and Weather Module can be found here: http://
www.fossweb.com/delegate/ssi-wdf-ucm-webContent?dDocName=D980854
“Break Time” photo attribution: Kansas Jayhawks 2008 NCAA Basketball National Champions—
Street Party by M31. https://www.flickr.com/photos/morphomir/2407451929
Compass illustration by Alan Kim, https://www.flickr.com/photos/igraph/8231264538/
Consensogram photo: http://gingersnapstreatsforteachers.blogspot.com/2011/08/for-
assessment.html
“Crafting Learning Targets” ideas were adapted from Understanding by Design, by Grant Wiggins and
Jay McTighe
“Teaching vs. Learning” comic strip is from the Tiger series by Bud Blake. Find out more about the
comic strip here: http://comicskingdom.com/tiger