Student Centered Thinking
1. Student Centered Learning

Students’ development as thoughtful, caring, responsible learners is reflected in learning outcomes, attitudes, behavior of pupils, across diverse populations.

How would you summarize your progress in this aspect of your journey toward developing as a Thinking School?

Over 85% of the students who enter kindergarten in our school speak Spanish as their primary language. By law, we are required to differentiate the instructional practices based on the level of English-language proficiency of students. Theoretically, differentiation seems so simple: Teach differently to different students based on their individual needs. Easier said than done. However, one of the differences that Thinking Maps has made at my school is that teachers teach the same content to various groups in their classroom, but they have begun to provide alternate means for students to access and to show what they know. For example, some teachers expect students to use the Thinking Maps as processes to a final product, while others expect students to use the tools as a final product to demonstrate their thinking and comprehension of the content.

What documentation (interviews, artifacts) would you include to show evidence (video, documents, photos) of yours chool's development in this area?

See examples on this page and on the following pages:

What have you learned about your school in this aspect of developing as a Thinking School?

The important point here is that the teachers are able to assess content learning and use student maps as data points to see whether or not it is language that is getting in the way of understanding or if there are content misconceptions that need reteaching. It is often difficult to determine how much limited English-proficient students understand of what is taught. If a teacher wants to know what a second language learner has learned, does the teacher ask the student to use the second-language if the student does not have verbal or written fluency? If assignments ask them to write what they know, these students often drown in the English language.

In what specific ways do you envision your school further developing in this area?

When teachers ask students to use Thinking Maps to demonstrate what they know, then the students do not have to focus on English and can use their mental energies to communicate what they know about the content. They do not even have to use words to convey this information. In most cases. Thinking Maps lend themselves to visuals (e.g., drawings or pictures from magazines) to communicate the content.

 

 

Student Centered Learning
McKinley School is a community where all are welcome. We develop a climate of empathy, respect and creativity. We value intellectual, emotional, social and physical safety for all. We pledge the courage to hold ourselves and each other to our highest academic and social expectations.

We will prove that teachers have changed their instructional methodology after being trained in Thinking Maps resulting in significant improvement in quantitative as well as qualitative data. In addition, the data will confirm that the academic instructional level has risen from primarily knowledge based learning to higher order thinking skills such as application and synthesis.

Thinking Schools
Composite

Thinking Schools Accreditation: Case Study Composite

Student Centered Thinking
2. Student Fluency

A high percentage of students are fluent with skills, tools, and models and use them in an integrated manner.

How would you summarize your progress in this aspect of your journey toward developing as a Thinking School?

One of the key components of the changes I focused on in my first year was to insist that teachers be able to evaluate the degree to which students learned what was taught. In some cases, such as in mathematics, which has its own universal symbol system, this was easy to do with a pre- and posttest. We did not wait until the results of the state's standardized tests to determine if students achieved growth. Thinking Maps became a powerful strategy that teachers used to evaluate student learning. The results provided teachers with information that was used to monitor student growth and to adjust teaching..

What documentation (interviews, artifacts) would you include to show evidence (video, documents, photos) of yours chool's development in this area?

See examples on this page and on the following pages:

What have you learned about your school in this aspect of developing as a Thinking School?

Teachers used Thinking Maps in various ways to determine the quantity and quality of what students learned. Some used Circle Maps as preand posttests to determine what they learned. Other teachers gave students an assignment that required them to demonstrate their thinking. For example, one first-grade teacher asked students to retell a story. She was able to evaluate the students' comprehension based on the Flow Maps they created.

In what specific ways do you envision your school further developing in this area?

A third-grade teacher asked students to determine the causes and effects of pollution on the ocean. It was quite evident who "got it" and who didn't. The teacher was able to quickly reteach those who needed it. In all these cases, our English-language learners were able to participate fully in the core curriculum.

 

Student Centered Thinking
3. Communicating Learning

Media/technologies are used by students with thinking models to access, process, and communicate ideas.

How would you summarize your progress in this aspect of your journey toward developing as a Thinking School?

The capacity for students to be able to apply higher-order thinking skills is referenced everywhere as an ultimate goal of school outcomes in content standards, in textbooks, and on standardized tests. Most teachers are aware of a hierarchy of skills as referenced in Bloom's Tcixonomy of Educational Objectives..

What documentation (interviews, artifacts) would you include to show evidence (video, documents, photos) of yours chool's development in this area?

See examples on this page and on the following pages:

What have you learned about your school in this aspect of developing as a Thinking School?

All students in Grades 1-5 were tested on a standardized test in reading and math, and Grades 2-5 were also tested on the California standards test. Much of the math section includes reading. The teachers taught students to analyze the type of math question it was, for example, comparison, whole to part/part to whole, relationships, patterns, e t ~a.n d the map associated with each. Once the students understood the five kinds of "story problems," they were able to tease out the critical attributes of these and apply them to the test..

In what specific ways do you envision your school further developing in this area?

The change in students' ability to do these problems made a significant difference between last year's and this year's school scores.