July Blogging Challenge - Last Day!!! More on Routines

Today is the last official day of the July Blogging Challenge - WE MADE IT!!! :)
Thank you to all of the bloggers who joined in with me this month.  Having the group accountability really made a HUGE difference!  My hope is that after blogging this month that I will have more of a "blogging habit" than before and therefore, be able to blog more often.  I'll be announcing the details of the 2014-15 School Year Challenge in the next week or so.

Thinking Routines
Last week, prior to TMC14, @pamjwilson and I were visiting about Making Thinking Visible, so I did some googling.  I ran across the Visible Thinking Resource Guide, which I've been reading since I found it.  I've made it through the first part of the book, so I wanted to blog about some of the routines that I feel I could use in my AP Stat class.

• Connect/Extend/Challenge - I'm not positive how often I would use this and it's not one of the "starred" routines by the authors, indicating that this wouldn't be one of their suggestions of a routine to try at first, but something about it really spoke to me.  I wonder about making a bulletin board or poster board into a 3 column chart with Connect/Extend/Challenge as the column headers and have kids use post-it notes to respond.  Or maybe use the larger group whiteboards for students to respond to the prompts?
• Headlines - This strategy reminded me of the "6 word memoir" that I heard about on NPR several years ago.  I loved using "6 word memoir" with my AVID classes as a way to summarize a guest speaker because it was amazing to me what they could say in just 6 words.  For whatever reason, I never thought to use it in my AP class!  I know this is one that will be used often this year! :)
• See-Think-Wonder - This reminds me a lot of Max Ray's "I notice.. I wonder..." and I can really see it being used with graphs or as an intro to inference when given a data set. 
• Think-Pair-Share - I would bet that any teacher reading this blog already knows about Think-Pair-Share, but it definitely is a strategy that I do not use enough.  I guess part of that is due to my own feelings of inadequacy when asked to pair/share at a conference.  For an introvert, this can be quite intimidating, so I think I probably should try "Write-Pair-Share" instead.  One suggestion given in this book is calling on students to explain what their partner shared.  In the examples, the authors gave the students a problem, then asked them to 1) Think about this problem; 2) Try to explain your thinking (work the problem); 3) Share your thoughts with a partner.  I like this scaffold because it feels more like "checking your work" than anything else.  I wonder if this could be done with groups as well?  Partner up with someone from another group and share what each group did?
• Think-Puzzle-Explore - This reminds me of a KWL but better. :)  I really like that it asks students "What do you THINK you know?" because sometimes previous knowledge isn't right and this structure provides a way to still include that information.  I also like "What puzzles you about this topic?" because I teach high school and was always afraid of using KWL because I always have at least one snarky kid that when asked "What do you want to know?" is going to give me an answer that I don't really want. :)  I think this might be a great exit ticket prompt before starting a unit or topic where students might have some previous knowledge just so I have a baseline/gauge of where they are prior to the lesson. 
• What Makes You Say That? - This is a routine that really packs a lot of punch into not a lot of space.  For example, when given a graph, students are expected to describe the shape, center, and spread.  I think if I follow up with "What Makes You Say That?", the kids will get used to saying things like "The distribution of this variable is skewed right because there is a tail on the right side."  Hopefully that will translate into better written explanations as well! :)
• Generate, Sort, Connect, Elaborate - This is related to a concept map and it is one of the routines I am most excited to try.  I think I will ask on an exit ticket for 5 words that come to mind for students for that chapter/unit.  The next day, I will have them on the board and on chart paper, have them sort and connect the words.  Then finally, they will do a written reflection and extend their concept map.  I think it will be a fascinating way to review for a quiz or test by seeing connections between topics.  If there's not time to generate a list of words, I wonder what connections kids may find in their vocabulary list for the unit. 

 I'm only 55 pages in and I'm already learning a lot!  Please share any ideas on thinking routines that you might have as well :)

Resources:
Visible Thinking Resource Guide
Visible Thinking Website

July Challenge
I am on a personal challenge to blog every day in July, just to see if I can do it. I would love to have you join me! If you are worried that you've missed a few days, please don't stress.. just jump on in! Maybe a month is too much, that's okay, try it for a week, or every other day, or once a week.. whatever works for you!

Don't forget to visit the other July bloggers and show them some love!
The bloggers (so far)
Robin at Flip! Learn! Share
Bridget at Reflections in the Plane
Teresa at GeometryWiz
Sherrie at Middle School Math Rules!
Brooke at Sined, Sealed, Calculated
John at Functions are Fun
Jedidiah at Math Butler
Pam at the radical rational
Roxy at Rockstar Math Teacher
Paul at TeacherPaulP
Tina at Palmer's Ponderings
Cindy at School Stuff
Robyn at Making Math Visible
Shelley at Making Math Visual

Add your blog in the comments if you would like to join in! :)
#July2014Challenge