Newsletter #15: De-MYST-ify Thinking Routines

Plan for Thinking: Embed Thinking Routines in Every Activity

The biggest misconception about Project Zero’s thinking routines is that they are activities merely meant to push or move a lesson along. They are not. Routines offer processes to get students thinking. Thinking routines should be part of every activity, not THE activity. “To make them work as tools for facilitating curiosity, conversation, and visible thinking, we must first plan for thinking.” (Ritchhart, Cultures of Thinking in Action). 

As teachers, are we planning for thinking? Are we giving students time, space, and opportunity to reflect, synthesize, and wonder? Where, when, and how do students look closely and make connections in the lessons we provide?

Project Zero, a Harvard Graduate School of Education initiative, gets students to think by making the thinking the essential part of the learning process. MYST is a tool or routine for teachers to ensure that “thinking is regularly modeled, discussed, shared, and challenged so that children are immersed in thinking, and it is no longer invisible and mysterious.” (Ritchhart, Cultures of Thinking in Action).

MYST: How to Evaluate your Classroom Thinking Practices

Use MYST to take stock of how to use thinking routines in your classroom. 

Me = How am I modeling my own thinking? How does my use of language highlight thinking?
You = What are you noticing about your students’ questions and attitudes about thinking?
Space = In what ways are you using your space to record or document the group’s thinking?
Time = How are you allocating time to create opportunities for thinking?

After evaluating your classroom procedures, identify a few core dispositions of thinking and learning that you want your students to acquire. Do you want them to provide evidence through observation, do you want them to brainstorm, or would you like to set a new protocol for group dialogue? Try to identify no more than FIVE habits that you would like students to develop. Choose a few from that list that YOU are passionate about and find a routine that best fits those characteristics. Remember, it’s ok to become proficient at just one thinking routine if it is promoting visible thinking in your classroom!