In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Project Zero, part of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, started publishing innovative Thinking Routines designed to enhance and expand critical thinking skills for students of all ages. These powerful routines have evolved into ten categories, such as Core Thinking Routines and Global Thinking activities, promoting understanding from multiple perspectives.
Today’s Thinking Routines Toolbox offers diverse strategies and activities for boosting critical thinking, including Artful Thinking, Cultures of Thinking, Agency by Design, and Interdisciplinary and Global Studies. Incorporating these routines into your lessons can foster deeper understanding and engagement among your students. Remember to begin with core routines, which work well across all subject areas, topics, and grade levels. Once students are familiar with thinking routines, use the additional options to begin digging deeper into issues and spark curiosity and wonder in learning. Dive into the Project Zero website to discover these transformative thinking strategies.
This Presidents Day, let’s use these ten Thinking Routines to explore the fascinating world of American presidents and engage your students in meaningful learning experiences. Incorporate technology to make these activities even more dynamic and interactive.
Application: Have students make a claim about a president’s leadership style, support it with historical evidence, and ask questions about how it influenced their presidency or decisions.
Example: “Lincoln was a transformative leader during the Civil War because he prioritized unity. Evidence: The Emancipation Proclamation.”
Technology Implementation: Create a Padlet (reviewed here) with three columns using the stream feature for each part of the routine. Ask students to begin with a text or video post with their claim, add evidence in the next column, and then ask questions to discuss their observations with class members.
#2: Connect, Extend, Challenge
Application: After learning about a specific president or presidency, students reflect on how the information connects to what they know, extends their understanding, or challenges their preconceptions.
Example: Discuss the New Deal’s connection to economic challenges today or examine how past policies influence current debates. Younger students might discuss George Washington’s role and influence as the first president.
Technology Implementation: FigJam (reviewed here) is a digital whiteboard with real-time collaboration. Ask students to add sticky notes onto a FigJam that shares a connection to something already learned or extends their understanding in a new way. Extend the sticky note activity by asking students to draw connecting lines between notes with similar ideas shared by peers.
#3: Tug of War
Application: Use this routine for debates or dilemmas faced by presidents. Present students with a scenario (e.g., Should Washington have remained neutral during foreign conflicts? Should our current president make free school lunches mandatory?), and have them pull for each side using evidence.
Example: The decision to drop the atomic bomb during Truman’s presidency.
Technology Implementation: Use ClassQuestion (reviewed here) to conduct a quick poll before your discussion. Then, use the same survey to compare responses after you have completed your activity.
#4: Step Inside: Perceive, Know About, Care About
Application: Ask students to imagine themselves as presidents or figures from their era. Considering the historical context, students write or discuss what that person might think, feel, or want.
Example: Step into Lincoln’s perspective during the Civil War or FDR’s mindset during the Great Depression.
Technology Implementation: Ask students to write and share their thoughts using Google Slides (reviewed here) or Google Docs (reviewed here).
#5: Headlines
Application: After studying a president’s key accomplishments, students create a headline that captures the essence of their impact.
Example: “Theodore Roosevelt: Champion of Conservation and National Parks” or “Obama: First Black President and Advocate for Hope.”
Technology Implementation: Have students create magazine covers with headlines using BigHugeLabs (reviewed here) or with templates available from Canva (reviewed here).
#6: I Used to Think… Now I think…
Application: Have students reflect on their prior assumptions about a president or the presidency and how new learning has shifted their perspective.
Example: Before and after discussing presidents’ challenges to unite a nation during crises.
Technology Implementation: Gravity (reviewed here) offers tools for recording and participating in video discussions, or you can ask students to record a video in Seesaw (reviewed here).
#7: Peel the Fruit
Application: Use this routine to delve deeper into complex presidential decisions, such as Lincoln’s handling of the Civil War or Kennedy’s response to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Students explore layers of understanding from surface-level details to deeper implications.
Example: “What were the immediate and long-term effects of the Emancipation Proclamation?”
Technology Implementation: Create an interactive image using ClassTool’s Image Annotator (reviewed here) that includes links to additional information or text boxes exploring the thought process behind complex decisions.
#8: Compass Points
Application: Explore a president’s actions or policies by analyzing different perspectives: E (Excitements), W (Worries), N (Needs), and S (Suggestions).
Example: Analyze Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs or Eisenhower’s executive order to desegregate schools.
Technology Implementation: Add a compass icon as an image on a slide built on Microsoft PowerPoint Online (reviewed here) and add information to each compass portion.
#9: Zoom In
Application: Present students with a cropped image of a historical artifact, photo, or document associated with a president. Gradually reveal more of the image as students make predictions and ask questions.
Example: Use a portion of the Declaration of Independence to discuss Jefferson’s role.
Technology Implementation: Upload your image to the Lights Out! tool at ClassTools (reviewed here) to create a zoom-in and zoom-out image that allows you to explore an image by focusing on small areas instead of viewing the entire image.
#10: Facts or Fiction
Application: Have students distinguish between myths and realities about presidents or their policies, encouraging critical thinking and research.
Example: Address myths surrounding George Washington, such as the cherry tree story.
Technology Implementation: Use Quizizz (reviewed here) to build a true-false quiz to ask students about commonly held beliefs about presidents. After completing the quiz encourage students to explore the myths further.
Learn more about Thinking Routines for all subjects in this post, Thinking Routines: A Universal Tool for Deeper Learning Across All Subjects.
Thinking Routines and thoughtful technology integration enable students to analyze presidential history from many perspectives. These strategies can transform a basic Presidents Day lesson into an engaging learning process that expands knowledge and deepens understanding of all presidents’ duties and challenges.
How do you use Thinking Routines? Share your ideas and tips in the comments as we all learn together.