THE EVOLVING CLASSROOM, K-6

Provide time for journaling throughout your units. These can be personal and include any connected thinking that students are experiencing as they learn = more hooks in their mind for retrieval.

Make challenging questions that are ambiguous and hold multiple considerations, then support student discussions as they collectively unpack their thinking. "Was the Revolutionary War, revolutionary?"

Provide targeted questions for interactive reflective discussions. What was your favorite planet? and what are it's characteristics? What is the most interesting fact you learned about the solar system? why is that so fascinating to you?

Provide space and time for students to look into their own minds without interruption and contemplate what they have just learned, experienced, or observed.

Provide opportunities for students to pause and look deeply into an idea, skill, fact, event, or artifact. "What else do you see?"

Give meaningful choice questions that get to the heart of your content or skill in a structured way that prompts students to reflect and commit to a position.

Create or find interesting graphics that hit the major content or concepts covered. Anchor student discussions to encourage connections and creative thought around key knowledge.

Provide movement for students to add thinking to reflection questions of the larger themes in your content. Stage sheets with categories or questions around your room and have them contribute ideas to several topics. Follow with a museum walk and keep these up for anchors over your unit.

Generate novel thinking by making connections between disparate concrete objects and the knowledge learned. "How is a rock stack like a persuasive paragraph?"