At Ripponlea PS we’ve been looking at Visible Thinking to enhance the students learning. In the 1-2s we have just begun work on a Visible Thinking Routine called GENERATE SORT CONNECT ELABORATE. Our focus will be on Sports and the Olympics as part of our inquiry into how countries get along.

Earlier in the term 1-2C had a trial run with the routine where we looked at Healthy Living.

GENERATE Firstly the students brainstormed their ideas by writing and drawing different ways in which they stared healthy. They recorded their thoughts both in words and pictures and then brought them to the class where we recorded their answers.

 
SORT  For our next lesson we returned to all the ideas we had written down on our giant piece of paper. Children were then asked to sort them into categories in small groups. What kind of categories was up to them. The groups then came to the floor with their ideas which were discussed with the whole class. We then put the answers on another large poster.

CONNECT  For the next part of the routine (and our third lesson) we came together to work out how all these ideas we have are connected. As a group we decided that we connect everything in the form of a pie graph. Children working in groups made pie graphs to share with the class.

ELABORATE

By now the classroom was full of ideas. As an elaboration on the idea of healthy living we decided to make posters for the classroom highlighting a particularly activity that would lead to healthy living.

As our first extended Visible Thinking Routine I feel it was very successful and the students not only enjoyed themselves but gained a different insight into healthy living.

It was good to know that watching the footy on the TV on a Saturday afternoon is good for because it makes you happy. Reading a book or a comic makes your mind healthy. We talked about the amount of sleep we need and how much fruit to eat. Well done 1-2C

 

Next we’ll look at our SPORTS Visible Thinking Routine.