This document outlines an agenda for developing educators' skills in teaching thinking strategies to grow student understanding. It begins with introductions and establishing the workshop model approach. Key points include: examining research on comprehension strategies; focusing on an essential question of how to grow thinkers; using strategies like activating background knowledge, drawing inferences, asking questions, determining importance, synthesizing information, using sensory images and monitoring comprehension. The agenda covers modeling, conferring, reflection and using thinking routines. The goal is to increase educators' knowledge of metacognitive strategies, instructional techniques and planning to help students meet standards.

1. Investigating Thinking Strategies
2013-2014

2. Introductions

3. Who’s in the room?

4. The Public Education &
Business Coalition (PEBC)
is dedicated to developing
the intellectual and
scholarly practices of
educators across the
continuum of their
professional lives so our
schools are worthy of our
students.

5. We Started With Research
P. David Pearson, Roehler,
Dole, and Duffy, 1992.
“Developing Expertise in
Reading Comprehension.”
What Research Has To Say
About Reading Instruction.
IRA
Duke, N.K., & P.D. Pearson.
2002. Effective Practices for
Developing Reading
Comprehension.

6. Putting It Into Practice

7. Essential Question
How do we grow thinkers?

8. “Mix and Mingle”
1.Grab a quote, read it over, and mull it over.
2.Find a partner and share your quote and
thinking.
3.Trade quotes and find a new partner &
repeat.

9. How do we grow thinkers?
Create a working
explanation… use
words, icons, metaphors, e
tc.

11. Agenda Overview

12. Through Comprehension Strategies
we:
• Become more reflective readers & thinkers
• Develop a common language of thinking
• Teach deep level comprehension explicitly
• Raise expectations & support for all kids
• Emphasize reading with depth & focus
• Teach the “reader” not just the text
• Build a bank of content area knowledge
From: Comprehension Going Forward, “Comprehension Instruction Grows Up,”
Keene, 2011

13. Institute Outcomes . . .
1) Increased knowledge of
metacognitive strategies that
proficient thinkers use to grow
understanding

14. Institute Outcomes . . .
2) Increased knowledge of how
instructional techniques such as
workshop model and gradually
releasing responsibility support
thinking

15. 3 ) Increased knowledge of how
intentional planning helps students
meet rigorous standards such as
CCSS
Institute Outcomes . . .

16. • TRANSITION QUOTE

17. Self Assessment
• Self assess thinking strategies & workshop
model

18. Instructional Spotlight:
Workshop Model
“…I believe that (the reader’s workshop) empowers
students with the sense of time, self-
authority, decision-making, and intellectual depth
they need to foster their independence as nascent
readers.”
Patrick Allen, Conferring: The Keystone of
Reader’s Workshop
Resource: Section 2, 17 &
18

20. Workshop Model: Terminology
Crafting Lesson
(mini-lesson)
• 15-20 minutes
• Teachers:
Model & Share
their thinking
• Students:
Observe
Actively
• Instructional
chunk
Composing
(work time)
• 30-45 minutes
• Teachers:
Confer
• Students:
Practice the
mini-lesson:
reading, writing,
talking, thinking.
• Catch &
Release: Needs
based structure
Reflection
(synthesis)
• 15 minutes
• Teachers &
Students:
Synthesize new
insights
• “Zip Up the
Backpack”

22. Crafting

23. Composing: Work Time
Read and annotate your text
with your thinking… What are
you doing as a reader?
“Leave Tracks in the Snow”

24. Conferring
• Our goal is to understand you as readers and
thinkers
• Our task is to confer with you as you read

25. Catch & Release
Find a Partner & Share Annotations
What did you notice about yourself
as a reader of this type of text?

26. Stance: Being Curious

27. Reflection
Understanding the “reader” not the “reading”

28. Reflection
Cheryl’s
Classroom:
• What metacognitive
strategies did you use
to make meaning?
• How does annotating
the text support
understanding?
• How does discussing
your thinking support
understanding?

29. Return by

30. “Meaning making is not a
spectator sport.”
-Art Costa

31. What is it that
proficient thinkers do?

32. Deep Structure Systems

33. Cognitive Thinking Strategies
1.Activate, revise and apply schema
(background knowledge)
2.Draw inferences
3.Ask questions
4.Determine importance
5.Synthesize
6.Evoke sensory images
7.Monitor for meaning and employ fix up
strategies when meaning breaks down

34. Language Matters
Yes, vocabulary needs to be
taught…

35. Strategic Thinkers

36. Proficient thinkers draw on schema
or background knowledge.
We use our own
background
knowledge to
understand the
text as we read
Pearson, et al 1992., Gordon and
Pearson, 1983; Hansen, 1981.

37. Instructions: With a partner fill in the blanks. Be sure to
watch your mind in action as you solve this puzzle.
The questions that p face as they raise c____
from i to adult life are not easy to a . Both
f____ and m can become concerned when
health problems such as c arise any time after
the e state to later life. Experts recommend that
young c should have plenty of s and nutritious
food for healthy growth. B and g should not
share the same b or even sleep in the same r .
They may be afraid of the d .

38. The questions that poultry men face as they
raise chickens from incubation to adult life are
not easy to answer. Both farmers and
merchants can become concerned when health
problems such as coccidiosis arise any time
after the egg state to later life. Experts
recommend that young chicks should have
plenty of sunshine and nutritious food for healthy
growth. Banties and geese should not share the
same barnyard or even sleep in the same roost.
They may be afraid of the dark.

40. Activating Schema Looks and
Sounds Like:
• This reminds me of…
• How is this like…?
• How can I connect this to
concepts I already know?

41. Proficient thinkers draw inferences
We infer when we use
schema and textual
information to draw
conclusions and form unique
interpretations and when we
make predictions, confirm
them, and test them as we
read. Anderson and Pearson, 1984
Aha!!!

42. What are you inferring?

43. Investigating Inferences
In Triads
• Visit 3 posters and write a caption for
each picture

44. Investigating Inferences
Reflect
• What did you do to infer?
• How did thinking with others enhance your
understanding?
• How did the thinking of others enhance your
understanding

45. Drawing Inferences Looks and
Sounds Like:
• I bet…
• Can I draw a conclusion?
• My hunch is…
• I’m thinking that…
• The text doesn’t say this
but I think/ it seems like…
• I’m inferring…because…

46. Proficient thinkers ask questions.
We generate questions
BEFORE, DURING, and
AFTER reading which
helps us focus our
attention on important
components of the text.
Andre and Anderson, 1979; Brown and Palincsar, 1985

47. Asking Questions:
Six Word Memoir
For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.
-Ernest Hemingway

48. Questioning with Thinking Routines
What do I
see?
What do I
think?
What do I
wonder?

49. Asking Questions Looks and
Sounds Like:
• I am wondering…
• Why did that happen?
• What is important?
• How will my questions
help me understand?

50. Proficient thinkers determine
importance in text
We identify key ideas or
themes as we read,
distinguish important from
unimportant information,
and support our ideas with
evidence from the text.
Afflerbach and Johnston, 1984; Baumann, 1986;
Tierney and Cunningham, 1984; Winograd and Bridge, 1986
I
found
it!

51. Determining Importance
Hotheads
• From Discover Magazine, April 2004

52. Thinking Routine: Compass Points
E = Excited
W = Worrisome
N=Need to Know
S = Stance or Suggestion
for Moving Forward

53. Determining Importance Looks and
Sounds Like:
• What is essential?
• I’ll remember…
• The big ideas are…

54. Proficient thinkers synthesize
information
As we read, we
monitor the overall
meaning, important
concepts and themes.
We are aware of how
these elements fit
together to create
overarching ideas.
Brown and Day, 1983

55. Synthesizing
Read the blog
• Determine importance: highlight key ideas
• Re-read: thinking about the Six Word Memoir.
What do you now know?

56. Thinking Routine: Headlines
If you were to write a headline for this topic or
issue right now that captured the most
important aspect that should be remembered,
what would that headline be?

57. Synthesizing Looks and Sounds
Like:
• First I thought, but now I
am thinking….
• Now I understand…
• Like putting a puzzle
together, the pieces
are…

58. Proficient thinkers use
sensory images and mental models
We use five senses to
draw conclusions, create
unique interpretations of
the text, clarify and
enhance
comprehension, and give
depth and dimension to
the reading.
Keene and Zimmerman, 1996

59. Evoking Sensory Images

60. Tapping into your 5 senses
Imagine the taste,
smell, texture,
color, and sound
of these red
cherries. What
does it make you
think of? turn and
talk

61. Evoking sensory images
Durian

62. Tapping into your 5 senses
Imagine the
taste, smell,
texture, color,
and sound of
durian…turn
and talk

63. Sensory images: Being there
• How do sensory
images build
understanding
or interfere with
understanding?

64. Creating Sensory Images Looks and
Sounds Like:
• In my mind, I can
see/hear/smell/feel/taste…
• The movie in my head…
• I am experiencing…

65. Proficient thinkers monitor their
comprehension
We know when the text
makes sense, when it
does not, and what to
do when meaning
breaks down. We have
effective and flexible
strategies to repair
confusions and revise
interpretations.
Duffy et al, 1987; Paris, Cross, and
Lipson, 1984; Garner, 1987

66. Monitoring For Meaning
The Constitution

67. Composing: Work Time
Read and annotate your text with
your thinking… What are you doing
as a reader?
“Leave Tracks in the Snow”

68. How did we monitor for meaning?
Find a Partner & Share Annotations
What did you do to monitor your
understanding?

69. Monitoring for Understanding Looks
and Sounds Like:
• I am confused…
• I understand…
• I don’t get it…
• This makes sense…

70. Guiding Question
How do we grow
thinkers?

71. How Do We Grow Thinkers?
Write a six word memoir

72. Tomorrow…
• Bring some text that use for planning
• Preview Day 2

73. Day 2
• Look at standards… + dig into your own text
• (strikes and wonders protocol)