Over the course of nine learning modules, participants will develop not only strategies, but also tangible learning materials, to encourage students to show their thought processes and problem-solving procedures in any K-12 classroom discipline. In addition to encouraging student autonomy, incorporating visible thinking into a classroom benefits teachers by facilitating the observation of trends in individual students’ levels of understanding. Using Making Thinking Visible (Ritchart, et. al.) as a guide, in addition to a wealth of resources sourced from Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, participants will reflect upon their own metacognition, participate in discussion with colleagues to discuss best-practices and potential challenges of incorporating these new thinking routines into their teaching practice, and update their own existing learning materials to foster more opportunities for visible thinking. This course will provide tools to jumpstart visible thinking in your K-12 classroom in a meaningful and sustainable way.

About the Instructor

Jessica Zwillinger taught studio art at Hopkinton Middle School for eleven years. Before following her passion to begin her career as educator, Jessica spent several years working as an information technology consultant. Jessica’s unique background informs her teaching philosophy that an authentic art education can transcend the walls of a classroom to become a lifelong tool. Jessica recently presented at the National Art Education Association annual conference about the digital workflow in her art classroom.