Instructional Strategies: Thinking Prompts

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. – Albert Einstein

Have you used any of the items in the above picture in your classroom?  It is our job as educators to help get students engaged in the learning process.  We can hook students into our lesson and have them actively participating and really want to be in our classes.  Using the instructional strategy of adding thinking prompts to your lessons will improve time-on-task, but you should also see results on their formative assessments.

For more information on how to use this strategy in your classroom, please click on read more below.

General Strategy
Thinking prompts are devices that provoke conversation, dialogue and deep thought within your classroom.  If used correctly, they can promote dialogue, help students make connections, provide background knowledge, and engage students. 

Our days are so full already; you might be asking yourself, “Can I really add one more thing?”  Yes, you can.  It is so worth it to create that engaging, problem-solving, community of learners which will help them retain content and actively participate in your classroom. 

The key is to use effective thinking prompts in the classroom.  When creating a list or coming up with various thinking prompts you might want to keep these things in mind:

• Is it provocative?  Will this provide a conversation starter?  It should grab attention right away making the students ready to talk.
  
• Is it complex?  Can the students view it focusing on different perspectives?  You want it to be more than there is only one correct answer.
  
• Is it personally relevant?  Will it speak to my students?  Thinking prompts that promote positive thinking will help with the mood of your discussion.
  
• Is it concise?  You want the biggest bang for your buck.  We don’t have a lot of time to spare: this is just the tip of the iceberg. Think of it as an appetizer!
  

Another key component to make thinking prompts successful in your classroom is management.  Some key items to think about are to establish norms for discussion in your classroom and practice those.  Make sure you pair the thinking prompt with the right types of questions to help promote conversations and engagement.  It is important to listen to all responses and encourage the students by offering praise for their thinking.  You can suggest connections between different student responses to help build community and connect various viewpoints in the classroom.  Something to remember is that if you are not careful time can get away from you.  Set a timer if you need to.

In the video below, Wendy Hopf and Jim Knight discuss thinking prompts and effective questions.

Specific Examples

Remember, video clips are one effective way to use thinking prompts in your classroom, but effective thinking prompts are not limited to just video clips.

• Film Clips - A short video to introduce 5th graders to place value, an introduction to statistics, context for a Kindergarten story about sharing, or a video to prompt a discussion about women’s rights.
• Cases - Students could discuss cases about environmental issues: you could present a mathematical situation to solve, discuss historical events, or even real life decisions that pioneers had to make.
• Short Stories (Click to see previous blog post) - You could have students read a short story to show issues related to compassion, or any story to take the reader inside others thinking about any issue which might help them see another side to the issue.
• Poem – The nice thing about poems is that they can be about any topic or you could use a poem to introduce poetry. For example, there are Science Poems, Social Studies Poems, and Math Poems.
• Photographs – Pictures are worth much more than a thousand words, so find pictures about environmental issues or that show climate change, or find historical photographs that will help provide deeper thinking and understanding
• Words and Metaphors – You could use a single word such as RESPECT or any metaphor to help broaden their thinking and to push the students to think creatively.

Remember that whatever thinking prompt you use, the key is that they promote dialogue within your classroom.  It allows you to create an engaging environment where you are not the dictator/lecturer.  Thinking prompts allow a level playing field where open dialogue and communication can occur. The teacher’s focus is on mediating and staying on topic.  Students will be making connections and providing some background knowledge with your content material which will allow them to set a purpose and become actively involved in the work set before them. 

District Indicators
Using thinking prompts in the classroom will help cognitively engage students in the subject (Indicator 1.2).  The teacher will be using the thinking prompt strategy to promote thinking and engage students in conversations about the content.  Teachers will also be increasing critical thinking (Indicator 4.1) by allowing discussion to take place after looking at a thinking prompt.  The key is to allow students to express their thinking in a meaningful way by applying it to their world.  By allowing students the time to discuss and guide the discussion, they will be more engaged and motivated (Indicator 5.1) to participate.

Additional Resources

• High Impact Instruction: A Framework for Great Teaching by Jim Knight. Chapter 5 discusses thinking prompts in the classroom. Please see your instructional coach if you are interested in this book.

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Post by: Christy Harris | Lewis Elementary Instructional Coach