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Visible Thinking is a flexible and systematic research-based approach to integrating the development of students' thinking with content learning across subject matters. This site informs on the pedagogy and practices to enable visible thinking in students.

Alan November article covers: Did the assignment build capacity for critical thinking on the web? Did the assignment develop new lines of inquiry? Are there opportunities for students to make their thinking visible? Are there opportunities to broaden the perspective of the conversation with authentic audiences from around the world? Are there opportunities for students to create a contribution (purposeful work)? Do students own their learning?

Considers strategies to apply the tools of Visible Learning to guide my students to succeed in math beyond their own expectations. The precision of my learning targets sharpens and streamlines my lesson plans, and allows me to create formative assessments that shape my planning going forward.

"To develop understanding of a topic or subject area, one has to experience and engage in Authentic Intellectual Activity. That means solving problems, making decisions, and developing new understanding using methods and tools (Ritchhart, Church & Morrison, 2011). Exploring a range of Thinking Pathways allows teachers and students to move beyond surface learning that focuses on the memorisation of knowledge and facts, to more deep and reflective learning that is focused on developing understanding through more active and constructive processes."

How can you teach Shakespeare to students accustomed to tiny screens with brief flashes of communication that instantly fade away (both in meaning endurance and visible text)? Begin by focusing on the macro. The context and need here is clear enough I think to jump right in to the strategies.

Two very common acronyms in classrooms are our dear friends WALT and WILF, which stand for "We are learning to…" and "What I am looking for…" These two characters are child friendly ways to share the less prosaic and perhaps less easily understood, learning objectives (LO) and success criteria (SC).

"When metacognitive talk is employed as an instructional tool, students learn to use discussion as a way to build knowledge instead of just participating to display what they already know."

This routine helps students to reflect on their thinking about a topic or issue and explore how and why that thinking has changed. It can be useful in consolidating new learning as students identify their new understandings, opinions, and beliefs. By examining and explaining how and why their thinking has changed, students are developing their reasoning abilities and recognizing cause and effect relationships.

"We all can agree that one of the most rewarding experiences in teaching is helping that one student find their voice and take a commanding role to contribute to the classroom learning experience. Allowing students the opportunity to engage in discourse that involves externalizing, elaborating on their thinking, and receiving feedback will lead to construction of their knowledge and understanding of a topic. However, these discussions require students to have authority and command over their own thinking to reconstruct ideas and concepts based on their previous knowledge and existing schemas."

"In this routine, students are generally recording their thinking at each step along the way before moving on to the next one. Decide whether sharing of thinking will happen in small groups or as a whole class. Document the main threads that permeate the discussion of the whole class, particularly noting the differences in viewpoints."

"Getting kids to contribute in virtual classrooms takes some work, it turns out. "We keep calling this generation digital natives as if they are simply whizzes at everything computerized. They aren't," wrote Tim O'Brien on Facebook. "They need personal support, scaffolding, and reassurance that technology does not provide. It is simply a tool, not a teacher.""