Make thinking visible in action

copyright Ron Ritchhart 2003

Ron Ritchhart Creating powerful learning opportunities

Official website

The criteria are copyright to Ron Ritchhart

Images :Free Website Pictures

Introduction Think about one of your lessons, one of your

teaching units or task and rate against the following criteria.

1= not very apparent 5= strongly evident

Explain the justification and evidence you have to support your rating.

Look at where you can make improvements

Interpretation I am going to rate and compare two tasks for my

year 9 French class. They are 14-15 year olds with less than 2 years of secondary French.

The first task is a home work project they did which used to be a written assignment but I have converted it to a multimedia project because we have laptops.

The second task is a routine class exercise on vocabulary building and grammatical structure – ma petite wishlist non compliquée.

Student feedback is from the work I do with them on Twiducate.

First task: Paris project 1.You are studying the city of Paris

2.Research information from people, books, internet. List these as resources.  3.Present a PERSONAL report of 3 minutes on Paris. It will take the form of a slideshow/video which you will present to

the class and you need to embed one French song to go with your slides/video You can use iMovie, Powerpoint or KeyNote. You do not actually need to talk with your presentation.

4.If you are unable to play the song as an embedded file, be prepared to play it separately.

5. At the end of the slideshow/video you will read a half a page review about what you discovered, learnt, could have done better, found interesting and enjoyed….

This is section worth 10 marks.   Criteria for assessment:   Slide show/video is logically presented Visual aspect included….maps, diagrams, pictures.. Title page Song is appropriate Review is factually accurate , informative and personal. English is correct and fluent Information is accurate Sources are cited Personal involvement is clear Presentation is neat and original /30

Second task: ma petite wishlist non-compliquée

You will see a slideshow on adjectives in French and une petite wishlist non compliquée

Find 5 pictures which represent the things you would like in life

For each slide create three really good sentences practicing the grammar structures we have just learnt and adjectives.

Present this to the class as a PowerPoint/Keynote. We could learn to do it as an iMovie. (They opted for this.)

The focus is on how well you write your French.

You will learn to connect your laptop to the whiteboard to show your presentation to the class.

Focus on the content

1. In this class the work students are doing is connected to big to important ideas in the subject area.

Paris Paris is the most visited

city in the world.

Internationalisation is important in our world

Students need to understand the significance of Paris past the Eiffel Tower icon.

Wishlist They have an

opportunity for the first time to write more complex sentences

They are confronted with the complexity of the French language

This is their first real communication task.

2. In this class, the work is focussed on developing well articulated understandings . It is relatively evident what understandings are to be developed as a result of doing the work.

Paris It is a journey of

discovery to find their own view of Paris and then create something with visual impact.

Wishlist Conjugating verbs,

placing French adjectives and then working on agreements is quite a big task for English speakers

3. In this class , a few topics are explored in depth rather than attempting to cover or touch on many.

Paris We are looking at one

cultural aspect of France in the term. It is research which takes 3 months to develop.

Wishlist We are focussing

primarily on adjectives this term but including other expressions and tenses like the future and conditional to facilitate and broaden expression.

4. In this class the work is purposeful and has meaning for students. It is not just work for work’s sake.

Paris “I think my Paris

assignment could be influenced by a lot of people who included the map from Adelaide to Paris and some movies to make it a little more interesting.  Cate's parkour assignment was a big influence because it had action filled movies. “

Wishlist I enjoyed using iMovie

because I have never used it before and it was good to start learning how to use it and it was also fun to practise talking about the things you most want in life.

5. In this class, students find the work engaging and worthwhile. Engagement is intellectual as well as social and/or physical.

Paris “5 things I believe make a presentation

spectacular:1. Not crowding the screen with information, but enough to suffice

2. Playing appropriate, easy listening music behind the presentation

3. Have visually alluring pictures to draw in the audience

4. Visually entertaining effects 5. A positive, keen attitude

Rebecca, I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation. It was something I had never heard of before, so now I am extremely interested in visiting the Catacombs. Your presentation drew me in and I was extremely interested the entire time.” 

Wishlist “I liked this activity because we

got to use iMovie and put music in. I think adding the music aspect to it makes it just a little bit more exciting. I enjoyed using the board and I like presenting things on the big board. “

“I enjoyed doing the iMovie project, as I haven't used that program before. I was a little bit nervous because I was the first one presenting, but overall it went quite well. I need to work on my masculine and feminine words.  “

6. In this class, there is a level of meaningful choice embedded in the work that allows students to have ownership of the work or helps them to personalise it.

Paris Looking at the videos of

other people it seems that we have all seen a different side to Paris, as we've gone from restaurants, to gardens, to monuments and even things like parkour.

I liked Nick's the best as I can remember his music and transitions working well for the information and photos.

Wishlist “I liked using iMovie in

this activity as it was different and it was good to do something different. I think adding the music made it sound more exciting. I need to work on my masculine and feminine words a bit more.  “

Depth of work

7. In this class, the work challenges students in some way, by pushing their thinking in new directions or asking them to re-examine ideas or beliefs.

Paris “To make my presentation

spectacular, I need to make it interesting, have really clear pictures, make it different from others to make it more entertaining, include the information that is not that boring, and have a good song if I'll do the presentation on iMovie or PowerPoint. In my opinion, Cate's presentation was really interesting because she included a video, which made the presentation more interesting. Rebecca's presentation was really different from others, which made it really attractive. Maddie's presentation included really clear and beautiful pictures.”

Wishlist “I liked doing my presentation

on iMovie, because it's easy to fit in a French song and put cool effects on it. although, next time,I’ll do everything on iMovie because I took screenshots and then put them on iMovie. But after I had done that I realised that I had got a feminine and masculine wrong. I think it was fun when we did it on iMovie because I have more knowledge of it.  “

8. In this class, the work asks students to generate original ideas, explanations, solutions, responses or findings.

Paris I have learnt that

pictures and music can make a lot of difference on how good the presentation is. The presentation that I won't forget is Emily's because it is such a different topic and she had really really good pictures.

Wishlist “I really enjoyed doing

those presentations on iMovie. Not only I learned many different adjectives in French, but I also learned how to use iMovie. In my opinion, iMovie is way better for presentations than PowerPoint. It is better and easier to use when you learn how to.

9. In this class, the work has depth and regularly goes beyond the level of knowledge/skill building

Paris “Energetic song +

awesome slide transitions + cool information + amazing pictures + enthusiasm = a really spectacular presentation.” 

Wishlist “Think this was very

good because we could practise our nouns, adjectives, masculines and feminines as well as thinking what we want in life. Also we used this to get used to iMovies which I think I am better at using iMovie now. “

Presence of thinking

10.In this class, students’ thinking is made visible through the work/discussion/reflections they do so it can be discussed, shared examined or reflected upon.

Paris It is an important part

of the assignment they read out their review at the end. They articulate well what it has meant to them. As a class we give them feedback on what they have done well.

I sent them on to Twiducate to find out what they thought of this. The class had enjoyed watching the presentations but what they learnt was French, technology and life skills.

11. In this class, patterns of thinking/habits of mind are on display. It is possible to identify the types of thinking that students are engaged in and must do to be successful with the work.

Paris We were looking at how

you could do this well. How we could use language in a video, how we could get a unique perspective on Paris and how we could make a visual statement. We then had to find suitable music and all along consider acknowledgement of resources

To achieve well in this there is considerable attention needed to detail. To write a complex sentence in French you have to consider a number of elements. To then combine that with a visual and technological aspect only increases the complexity of the thinking.

12. In this class, there is adequate time for thinking , to prepare responses, and express ideas

Paris This was set in the last

week of term one and due in week one of term 3. We had plenty of time to consider what we were doing. Each week we looked at a different aspect of developing this assignment.

Wishlist This was largely

interrupted by different events the year 9s or some of the year 9s had to attend.

It was further disrupted by a nasty illness going around the school.

Class time can no longer be taken for granted.

@sally07 2011