Well-run Thinking Classrooms are places of paradox. A lot of what happens in them is the opposite of what it appears to be.
I'm on my own when it comes to Building a Thinking Classroom in my school. My peers and administrators know I do something different, but they don't know much more than it involves a lot of standing up, no computers, and lots of groups working at whiteboards. When I'm observed or when I share video from my class with somebody who doesn't know what they're seeing, but knows that it's different, there is one comment that comes up far more often than any other: "It looks so easy." I get it. In the moment, with no context and with no knowledge of what went into Building the easy, breezy looking Thinking Classroom in front of you, it really does look easy in the moment. So much of the hard work is done way before what's visible at present:
So that must be my answer, right? "Sure, it's easy now. All the real work happens in the preparation, and then I get to take it pretty easy and the kids do all the work once we start thinking." Right? Not at all. When you see ten or twelve groups of kids working like this - engaging, teaching themselves, supporting each other, having a high-level conversation about rigorous mathematics, and seemingly happy doing so, it's easy not to notice what else is going on.
But if you can bring yourself to watch me rather than the kids for a span of time, and if you observe carefully, you'll notice that I'm doing the same thing any teacher does in any high-functioning classroom of any style:
Actively Observing. Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics differ from traditional ones in myriad ways, but I think it is important to keep in mind that great teaching and great classroom experiences share certain features that don't differ regardless of style, philosophy, or framework. In Teach Like A Champion 3.0, Doug Lemov and tells us that:
"there are teachers who without much fanfare take the students who others say 'can't' - can't read great literature, can't do algebra or calculus, can't and don't want to learn - and help, inspire, motivate, and even cajole them into being scholars who do."
In these classrooms, he goes on to tell us,
"the activities differ, but the techniques are the same.... My goal was to find as many such teachers as I could and to honor them by focusing on and studying their teaching. What I found is that while each great teacher is unique, as a group their teaching held elements in common..... In the aggregate, a story emerged. There is a toolbox for excellence... it turns out" (pp. xxxvi - xxxvii).
One of the tools in that toolbox, he found, is that great teachers actively observe (Technique #9). What is Active Observation?
Active Observation is the act of circulating as students work, paying attention to what they're doing, giving them feedback, and planning what to do next based on what is observed. Most commonly, it is done while students are working independently. Here's an example of traditional Active Observation while my students are working on some retrieval practice.
Why is Active Observation Important?
Throughout the section on this technique, Lemov offers a laundry list Active Observation's benefits:
It's a powerful technique. It teaches us a lot about our students, and it teaches our students a lot about us. There's a lot of nuance to it (for being such a conceptually simple technique, Lemov's write-up is eleven full pages), but as with most of the techniques in Teach Like A Champion 3.0, 80% of the benefit of the technique comes from just doing it at all, even if imperfectly or without all of the finer details covered. How and When Do I use Active Observation in A Thinking Classroom?
In my Thinking Classroom, there are long stretches of time when the kids are thinking, problem-solving, note-making, or checking their understanding without me.
As I explained above, it looks so easy, right? The kids are doing everything! Without me! So what exactly am I doing all class period? I'm actively observing all of it. During The Thinking Task
During thinking tasks, if they're planned them well, the teacher is primarily:
Yesterday, my worked on a thin-sliced task involving comparing ratios in situations like this one:
"One shade of pink paint is made by mixing 4 cups of red paint for every 1 cup of white. Another shade is made by mixing 5 cups of red for every two cups of white. Are the two paints the same shade of pink? If not, which is darker/redder?"
During the task, I'm doing most of the same things you saw me doing in the video above.
Since I was able to tell, through Active Observation, that this was a widespread misunderstanding, I could pause the groups pursuing this line of thinking, share and celebrate the idea, and talk through why this strategy required us to use the whole rather than the part as the denominator.
A ton of good came of this. We reinforced a major part of fractional reasoning (which is a major background knowledge gap and stumbling block for this particular group of kids), validated the idea as a strong one even though the mechanics weren't perfect, gave the kids pursuing a different line of thinking a chance to listen in, AND it was a natural point to mobilize knowledge by showing off other strategies to group members who didn't really understand this one.
Here's a clip of my active observation on a different day's thinking task. In this one, the students are solving ratio problems that don't involve neat, even multiples, and that are particularly challenging for that reason. During Note-Making
My kids generally do an incredible job during the thinking tasks and during consolidation. During note-making... not so much. Once we get here, I guess it starts to feel like typical class "work," and I tend to see a big drop in, well, pretty much everything.
Active Observation to the rescue. Active Observation during this activity is skewed more toward accountability feedback than content feedback. By this point, the kids understand the topic, and despite my constant reminders about forgetting curves and all the time we put into maintaining memory, they are not interested in creating notes for their future forgetful selves. Their present rememberful self understands it, and any effort on behalf of their future forgetful selves just feels like extra work for the now self. So I have to hold them to it.
I get it. They're not at an age where students are really going to review notes. Frankly, I don't even really particularly value notes myself. But note-making is a good extension of thinking when done well, and a good option for transferring understanding from the group to the individual. So I hold them to it through Active Observation. During Check-Your-Understanding Questions
I'm not sure if you've heard, but students aren't crazy about check-your-understanding questions. There are even widespread reports (read: rants) in the Building Thinking Classrooms community that large swaths of students don't do them at all. Ever!
I'm there with you. Unless, that is, I'm able to provide some time to do them in class. When they're under Active Observation! Once they get started, it's actually a great time in class. They typically are able to do most of the questions with ease, and we get to do lots of celebrating that fact as I observe. High fives and way-to-go's abound. The kids who may not have been willing to ask their peers questions during the task might be willing to ask me. I can find the kids who didn't learn during the task but managed to hide it. The kids get to celebrate that their "homework" is mostly done in class (even though they had no intention of doing it at home). It's nice. As long as I actively observe. What Are The Qualities of Good Active Observation?
To get the most out of Active Observation, Lemov does offer us quite a bit of advice, detail, and nuance.
First, observations get written down (p. 93). Teaching is a massive stress on working memory, so jotting observations down is essential. I like to carry an exemplar of whatever the kids are working on with me, including both a perfectly constructed answer (a planned exemplar) and the most common mistakes that tend to appear (a plan for error). You'll see me carrying that in the videos above. Here, I have a fruitful ground for making notes, tallying errors, jotting down names, and so on. Next, it involves feedback for the student or group on every visit (p. 93). Even if it is as quick as a "good," a "way to go," or a "you've really got this!" before I move on, the feedback is just for them and it reminds them that I'm there, I care, and I'm paying attention. Third, it is focused on the work/ideas/output of the student or group, not their apparent activity (p. 94). I'm not looking to see if they are working or trying hard, I'm looking to see if they understand. My attention and my feedback are focused on results, not effort. Furthermore, it guides what happens next (pp. 95-98). When we consolidate, I know what strategies have emerged and which groups rely on them. I know who to call on. I know what to highlight and what I can skip. I know who got to the spiciest problems and who was still mired in the mild. Finally, it incrementally builds the students' relationship with the teacher and with the content (pp. 99-103). Attention is a commodity in the modern world. Companies pay big bucks for it. When we give our attention to our students, they notice. It matters to them. They know full well I could be checking my email, checking my phone, or doing some other work. They see their other teachers doing all those things while they work. Active Observation tells them that "you are my priority. I see what you're doing and I care how it's going. I want to help. I want to celebrate with you. I want you to be confident and comfortable here." Will Active Observation REally Help Build A Better Thinking Classroom?
On of my favorite, unexpected benefits of Building A Thinking Classroom has been to see just how happy kids are in one. Just look at these people - smiling - in a math class!
More than ever before, I have students tell me that even though math isn't their favorite subject, it's their favorite class. There are plenty of factors that go into that. Visibly random groups help all the kids know an like each other. Well crafted tasks give allow every single kid to start thinking with confidence. Flow states make time seem to pass quickly and feel rewarding.
A lot of the credit, however, I also think goes to the sheer amount of time that I have to actively observe. On an average day, I probably spend 10 minutes in CQI/intervention/remediation time actively observing, then another forty minutes actively observing during class time. Nearly an hour with every class - a massive amount of time I can spend...
The Building Thinking Classrooms structure allows me the time to reap all of those benefits. As long as I spend it wisely. Actively Observing. 
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1 Comment
Stephen Abernathy
10/23/2024 02:35:56 pm
Doug, it was the highlight of my visit to Athens speaking with you Friday night. Your insights on kids and tech, smartphones, social media, from a teacher's perspective was transformative. Write me back, I'd love to talk more. Take care, Doug! Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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