Visual Thinking Strategies in the Classroom

Visual Thinking Strategies

 

Ready to increase critical thinking and engagement in class?  I found a GREAT resource that will help both of these goals called Visual Thinking Strategies.   I read about these strategies first in books about medical students having class at the art museum.  In Michael Blanding’s article Museum Studies, “Educators use the paintings and sculptures in nearby museums to help [medical] students to not only develop empathy and talk about their feelings but also to hone their diagnostic and communication skills and their ability to work in teams.”

All of my photographs in my lessons are from the New York Times and in particular the New York Times Learning Network page What’s Going on in this Picture?   The discussions that result from this short 15 minute activity are wonderful!  Students are discussing and I make sure we talk about agreeing and disagreeing with “ideas” and not the person.  Students are connecting and building on each other’s thoughts.  Some students really dig deep into their empathy skills to describe the feelings and emotions of the people in the photograph.

I created a Google Slideshow that I show below to tell students what the goal is for this activity and the learning target.   After 1-2 activities, the kids are SO excited to get into Google Classroom and find the next photograph.  I post it in Google Classroom as “Materials” so they can zoom in and out.  I think it draws them in when they can interact with the photograph.  Plus, they can see things in the photo with zooming in than when I have just the slideshow up.  The older students use their chromebooks to research items like license plates which I thought showed great initiative and research skills.

CLICK HERE to create a copy of this Visual Thinking Strategies Slideshow.

STEP ONE:  Students get 1-2 minutes to silently view the photograph.   I have them jot down notes to “What’s going on in this picture?” in their notebook or on scratch paper.  To help guide students, I suggest maybe thinking about who, what, where, why, when and how.

STEP TWO:  For larger classes, they turn and talk about what they thought was going on in the photograph.  Next, I ask for volunteers from the pairs.  I point to the part of the picture they are talking about.  I paraphrase what he or she said in similar words, or I will use synonyms or clarifying words that help illustrate what the student meant.  I try to connect that student’s ideas to the next when possible.  Paraphrasing I find SO important to help show students how to communicate and build that vocabulary.  You might try with “I hear you say….”  or “It sounds to me like you said….” or “I hear you say…. because…..”.  You can restate using different words and those words can help clarify what the student means.

Students are encouraged to come up with “maybes” and “probably-s”.  There is no wrong answer.   The students can disagree and need to be taught how to disagree.  I emphasize disagreeing with the idea and not the person.  I offer sentence stems like “I understand why you think…., but here is why I think……”  or “I agree with your idea that ……., and here is why I think…..”

STEP THREE: After the student is finished, I will ask “What in the photo makes you say that?”  The student tells us what he or she saw in the photograph to back up their claim.  The student will tell us how the inference was created.  You can use various ways to do this depending on the age of the students.  Sometimes they include this in their first answer.

STEP FOUR: Finally, to go to the next student I ask “What else can we find?”  Just like a medical doctor trying to make a diagnosis or a crime scene detective looking for clues, the next student finds more in the photograph.  Or, the next student may find something that agrees or disagrees with a previous idea.

At the end, I do share the reveal.  We discuss many successes and celebrate what the students figured out all on their own.

STEP FIVE: A new piece I added was to have them mark where in the world that we are.  I find the area on Google Earth and show where we are in reference to where the photograph was taken.  Students use a marker to highlight the place on earth that we found each week.  Eventually they will have a map full of places that we have “visited”!

Here is the World Map that I printed for each student.

It may or may not go well the first time around, but the students learn REALLY fast how to do this and get better and better each time around.  Keep it up!  You will be AMAZING!

 

Breakout EDU – Education’s Escape Room

Wow!  I had heard of Breakout EDU before but to actually start one in class was really amazing!  There are quite a few things I learned along the way and I probably have many more things to learn.  Here are my reflections, education standards, sources of materials and steps I used to do this particular game which could apply other games.

First, I notice that they suggest whole class sizes and I see videos with classes given the puzzle.  I am not sure this is the best way to go about it.  There are only so many things you can do with the clues once everyone has gathered the evidence.  While watching the videos I noticed how some people would hang out in the back and not participate or after gathering the clues some of them had nothing to do.  I am sure some breakout games could work around this with more small lock boxes and more clues.

(Source: Breakout EDU.com)

Like most times when flipping the classroom, I put a LOT of time into it beforehand and then just aid the students through the game.  It is HARD not giving them hints and watching them fail and go back.  Oh my goodness!  Since changing my teaching strategy from what I used to do, it really is harder but the kids eyes light up like crazy when they get it.

Reflection:  All of us reflected on the game at the end.  The game timer of 45 minutes gives us 10 minutes to discuss:  how did we work in a group?  Were you a leader or did we all lead at different times?  Why did we make that mistake and how can we fix it next time?  So for example one student solved a clue by clicking on the eye of the Statue of Liberty.  She didn’t tell anyone though that she did this.  So the other students were looking for clues relating to the eyes of the Statue of Liberty for a good chunk of time.  So we discussed how next time clues or problems could be posted on the dry erase board.  This is really important when you have larger groups of students.

Standards:  How and what standards did I use?  I used this in the gifted class at my school for 6th grade.  We are working this quarter on Divergent Thinking, developing fluency in our ideas, flexibility in our solutions and elaborating.  They need to learn how to organize their creative thoughts and find connections between ideas.  This type of escape room is a microcosm for exercising the 4 main 21st century skills that students need:

  • Collaboration and teamwork.
  • Creativity and imagination.
  • Critical thinking.
  • Problem solving.**This game and everything listed will work in other classrooms as well!  This just happens to be the class I am teaching at the time.  To modify it for a regular classroom, I would choose a game at their level (this one was for middle school/high school) and the appropriate amount of students listed on the game or what you think your students need.   I chose a game a little above their age and used fewer players**

Step One:  Buy a Breakout EDU box or make your own.  You can purchase the locks at Amazon and the hardware store.  The number locks, directional lock and alpha lock are the key to many of the games’ puzzle.  A black light marker and black light flashlight were also used in the game.  You want to make sure the marker is invisible in normal light.

The USB drive that came with the box did’t work for me.  I used my own which was nice because it twists and added a little “twist” to solving the puzzle.  This was simply because I used to own a company and put my client’s photographs on custom made USB drives.

(Photo from Breakout EDU)

Step Two:  Create your own game or find one already created for you on the website.  I wanted to follow one first in order to be able to manipulate it later for my own needs.

Dr. Johnson’s Lab is part of the Breakout EDU so you need to purchase a kit to have access to the games.

You can also find games online and on Teachers Pay Teachers.  When doing a search, also try the term “escape room.”

Here is the set up video.

I noticed that the set up video skips the other lockbox with the Delta Airlines code on it.  Since this was my first time doing a Breakout EDU I left it out as well.  I think it would have and could have been included seamlessly into the game.  I have a small class size and this removal worked well with me.  If I had more  students, then this part would have been included.

Step Three:

Print everything out.  Mark and cut and get your items created.  So, for Dr. Johnson’s lab I had to print out just 3 or 4 sheets of paper.  The rest were colored arrows vital to the game.  Since I don’t have a colored printer, I just drew them and colored them myself.

Here are Printables for the end of the game.

Step Four:

Set all of the locks.  There is handy tutorial on how to do this.

Tutorial

Video for Letter Lock

Video for Number Lock

Add something fun inside the box!!  I printed out the printables, a pretend vial of the antidote and also included some Hershey Kisses in the box. The kids went nuts!

Step Five:

You need to set up the room before the students enter.  I set it up at the beginning  of the day.  Nobody noticed the extra items much.  I drew the breakout symbol with the arrow on small sticky notes and put those on the Breakout clues.  That way they could tell it was a clue versus not a clue.  You also need a computer for the kids to use.  I borrowed a Chromebook from another teacher or let the students use my computer.  Letting my students use my computer was fine except we couldn’t see the timer sometimes.

Step Six:

Set up your computer and play!
I have the Breakout Facilitator Slideshow up for introducing our game.
I have the Youtube video with the crazy mad scientist to introduce the game.
Finally, I have the Breakout timer running on another tab.