Julia Sansom

PLC 2B
Spring 2016

Professional Learning Plan Log

Throughout this semester I have engaged in professional development with my
peers and Dr. Haralson. We have studied the very interesting book about thinking and
learning entitled Making Thinking Visible by Karin Morrison, Mark Church, Ron
Ritchhart. We met four times to discuss what we were learning throughout this book and
how we have practiced applying these thinking routines into our lessons and units.
The two main take ways from this professional development experience: I grew to
know my peers as teachers, learning the importance of teaching students how to express
their thinking. One of the most beneficial aspects of each meeting was having the
opportunity to get to know my peers as teachers. I loved listening to their ideas, thoughts,
and experiences. I learned how each of my classmates viewed education, what they feel
their strengths and weakness are, and how they wanted to impact students through
education. I have heard it said many times that students learn a great deal from each
other, which I found to be extremely true through this experience. I also learned through
our discussions on Making Thinking Visible that it is of vital importance to scaffold for
students how to express their thinking. This was a very helpful tool for me because I have
always had a challenge prompting students to EXPLAIN their thinking. It is a higherlevel skill that must be scaffolded with specific strategies and tools. The thinking routines
such as see, think, wonder give students specific guidelines to follow what expressing
their thoughts and observations. I think it can be an overwhelming task for students to
look at a picture or object and express their observations in a meaningful way. I think
without a scaffold such as the thinking routines students observations can remain surface

level. I have found that with the use of the strategies students are more apt to go deeper in
their explanations.
I have applied thinking routines to my unit instruction. For example, I use the
step inside strategy when observing the historic photograph of Florence Owens
Thompson (a mother living in a Hoovervilles during the Great Depression). I love this
strategy because it prompts students to think of a historic event through another persons
perspective. This requires a great deal of critical thinking and definitely prompts student
to make this thinking very visible.
I plan to continue using thinking routines in my lesson because I believe that they
are a key piece to effective, conceptual instruction and will allow students to practice
their critical thinking skills.

Dates of Meetings

Chapters Discussed

February 3rd

Chapter 1 & 2

February 26th

Chapters 3 & 4

March 8th (online blog)

Chapters 5 & 6

April 20th

Chapters 7 & 8 (lead session

with CaDric)