Building A Thinking Classroom - The Kids Are Starting To LIsten To Each Other

I've spent so much time and energy trying to figure out if the kids are thinking and learning as I try to build a Thinking Classroom in Mathematics that I almost didn't notice something beautiful - in addition to thinking, the kids are starting to listen to each other!

The early thinking tasks, while successful, involved a lot of instances of students basically just waiting for their turn to hold the marker, with only isolated bursts of discussing, explaining ideas, and listening.  Ever so subtly over time, however, I'm catching better and better conversations and seeing the kids both genuinely explaining their thinking (rather than just writing in silence) and genuinely listening (instead of just waiting to speak or write).  This is paying off not only in the thinking tasks, but also in more traditional class activities, as you can see above.

This may sound like a small thing, but it really isn't.  A willingness to listen to each other shows empathy, trust, comfort, and a sense of belonging, all of which I normally have to go to great lengths to cultivate.  I've yet to make many deliberate efforts toward these lofty goals with the new class because I've struggled to get them "broken in" with more routine practices (like listening to me, most frustratingly), so getting a glimpse that larger growth is happening is very encouraging!

I've written mostly about struggles with shifting to a Thinking Classroom lately, so it is nice to not only see something positive to share, but also to see myself noticing something positive to share (one of my bad mental habits is to pay attention to what is not happening instructionally even when what is happening is very valuable and productive).

So, into the holiday weekend with unexpected success!

If you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Want to make sure you never miss a new post?  Subscribe below for email notifications of new content.

Want to read more right now?  You're in luck - this is my 66th post! You can browse past posts by category:

• ​Building A Thinking Classroom
• Leaning Into The Science and Engineering Practices
• Classroom Practices
• Classroom Stories
• Ideas and Opinions
• Pandemic-Related Issues