Learning is making connections

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This afternoon we were thinking back over our “Biodiversity” topic and thinking about our learning. We tried out a new visible thinking routine for the first time –  “Connect, Extend, Challenge”.

We want to focus in on an aspect of  “Biodiversity” that is really interesting so that we can investigate it in a personal project. This thinking routine will

  • help us link our new learning with our prior knowledge,
  • help us work out how we have extended our ideas
  • and help us articulate what we are still wondering about the topic.

These “wonderings” will point us in the direction of an area to study in our personal project!

Talking about our thinking can be pretty tricky – but this is what we came up with today:

(You can make the images larger, and easier to read,  by clicking on them!)

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5 thoughts on “Learning is making connections

  1. Thanks Pam,
    It was surprising to everyone how hard it was to think about our learning. But the thinking routines help by giving us a structure or scaffold to work with.
    MrsP

  2. Many thanks Allstars for posting this idea about how to develop your critical thinking skills. I am going to share your Connect, Extend, Challenge strategy with my students.

    They have been learning about prehistoric humans and this kind of strategy could help them dig even deeper. I think it will not only help them learn, but it will be fun. Did you find it helped you “get” more about biodiversity? It looked like it did from the information you posted.

    Thank you for posting the pictures. They really helped my students understand what you wrote about. Hopefully we can post some pictures as we tryout the strategy using our topic of prehistoric humans.

    Maybe we’ll end up helping each learn this thinking strategy.

  3. Thank you Ms Ratzel for your lovely comment.
    We found this thinking routine a bit tricky because we hadn’t used it before – but as you pointed out, it did help us organize our thinking quite well.
    It was pretty exciting to hear that you will be using this with your class as well and we will keep a look out on your blog to see how you use this thinking routine.
    Good luck!

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