Thinking deeply and aloud (about AI slop?)

Dear Reader,

If you've been feeling a little overwhelmed by, well, *the world around us* with its geopolitical instability, dystopian forecasts about AI-induced mass unemployment and then, to top it all off on a difficult week, the Beckham family feud, let me ressure you: you're not alone.

On the flip side, when the world seems to scream at us with no regard for our mental health, sometimes small things will pop up to remind us that not all hope is lost. This week, for example, I found this:

*Credits: Burley Banksy. Yes, it appears as if there are local versions of Banksy.*

And for a brief moment, I smiled and reminded myself of how important that extra pint of kindness has been in moments like this: a text from a colleague asking how I was, a sticker from my child, a smile from a (non creepy) stranger on public transport.

Speaking of stress and overwhelm, I know many of you are facing the new oral exam of the concorso, which is its own challenge. I'll shortly be releasing the contents of the new updated lesson planning course, which I've tried to make as practical as humanly possible, as you can tell from this sneak peek slide:

If you'd like to download a guide to the key facts of the exam and our preparation programme, here it is.

And if you've got the date of your exam: first of all, good luck! May the belevolent gods of the tracce be with you. Second of all, if you need one-to-one support with your lesson plan in the 24 hours before your exam, registrations are now open to get help from our wonderful André and Emma.

Aside from working, I've been following lots of news this week - perhaps a bit more than usual, given the rather extraordinary geopolitical landscape that seems to be unfolding before our incredulous eyes.

To the detriment of my own mental health, I've also been reading about forecasts that Artificial Intelligence is going to cause mass unemployment and end life as we know it.

Now, as a teacher, I will say I've had just about enough of webinars and talks and presentations and courses about AI in education¹. We get it, there's lots of new shiny tools, there's lots of dangers. I kind of feel AI-fatigued now - not sure if you share that feeling?

But more to the point, I've been thinking about how AI has made our learners less able to think critically. It's no wonder that "AI slop", referring to low-quality, mass-produced content generated by AI, was chosen as word of the year by Macquarie Dictionary² last year.

With this in mind, I've been... thinking about thinking. I remember when, back at school, my teachers would ask us to answer comprehension questions, but that wasn't enough: you also had to explain why you had given a specific answer.

This apparently very simple activity hides a rather important process in learning: making thinking visible. So: I like to think of teaching as a profession that goes hand in hand with a toolbox. With time, you start to fill your toolbox with go-to activities that you pick out both when you're planning your lessons and also on the spot during your lessons. One of the tools I've added to my toolbox in recent years is thinking routines. You can whip them out with little or no preparation required and they help your students think more deeply and critically - and, why not, perhaps spot that AI slop.

So today, I'm going to tell you about some of my favourite thinking routines, with downloadable explanations for each one.

Get ready and let's get going 🚀

A disclaimer

You know I love a disclaimer. When it comes to thinking routines, we're talking about Harvard's Project Zero thinking routines. These thinking routines are purposefully designed to be generic and applicable to most teaching situations.

For the most part, I think this is a brilliant, time-saving and versatile concept. But for the record, it has been pointed out that some of them don't really develop metacognition (the ability to think about thinking) and that metacognition is better developed in context, i.e. in relation to specific curriculum content, rather than via generic thinking skills exercises. I would tend to agree with this, but I also very much see the value of developing the habit of using thinking routines across different subjects.

OK, so what are thinking routines?

A good question: thinking routines are sets of questions, prompts or short sequences of steps used to scaffold and support student thinking. They are designed to deepen students’ thinking and to help make that thinking visible.

You know when you're looking at your students and you don't have the faintest idea what they're thinking? Or when they give you a really weird answer and you, again, don't have the faintest idea how they got there?

Here are some of my favourite thinking routines to reveal those thinking processes: pick and choose as you please, and add them to your toolbox!

1. Unveiling Stories

Students answer the questions:

What’s the story?
What is the human story?
What is the world story?
What is the new story?
What is the untold story?

I love this for uncovering multiple layers of meaning in a text or a picture. It encourages students to consider different perspectives critically and the co-existence of contrasting or missing points. See the explanatory note for more.

2. Writing headlines

At the end of a lesson or topic, students write a headline that captures the most important aspect of the topic and answer the question: how does your headline differ from what you would have said yesterday? I've done this as a simple exit ticket/formative assessment at the end of lessons and the results were pretty interesting. First, because they spoke to the different experiences learners had of the very same lesson: a headline forces them to capture the key aspects, and lo and behold, the key aspects for student A can wildly differ from the key aspects for student B. Second, because it gave me great insights into the things that the students hadn't really understood, which was a hint that I should review them in the next lesson. See here for explanatory notes.

3. I used to think..., now I think ...

One of my all-time favourites. I've used it with learners but I've also used it a lot in teacher education courses, like Speak Better Teach Better. At the end of a lesson or an activity, you have learners complete this simple prompt. It's a really important routine especially if we know that students might have some beliefs or pre-conceptions that could be challenged by the contents of the lesson. Learn more about this routine here.

4. What makes you say that?

Another simple one, which is probably why I love it and use it a lot. I especially like using it when I'm hearing students voicing opinions: what makes you say that? It pushes them to find evidence for their claims and it's also an excellent preparation for debates, if one were so inclined. Here is more info about this.

5. The 3-2-1 bridge

An activity that is best explained visually:

Naturally, the key is the bridge, where the students explain how their responses are linked, similar or different from their initial ideas. I find this is a good activity to frame a lesson on a new topic on which the students already have some knowledge, a little like a KWL table. You can read more about the 3-2-1 bridge here.

And with that, I think (see what I did there) I've got to the end of today's newsletter! What thinking routines are your favourites? Which ones would you use in your lessons?

I wish you a lovely Sunday and hopefully a non-gloomy new week.

Take care, dear teacher ✨

¹ Which is why I've deliberately chosen to sign up for a conference about the human side of teaching and how to get rid of technology. If I make it there (a big if), it's going to be my first in-person conference since before the pandemic started, so I had to choose something that wouldn't make me violently ill.

² See here for more information on AI slop and Macquarie Dictionary. Do you also sometimes get incredibly disheartened after realising you've been reading something online and it's likely nothing but AI slop but now you've dedicated precious minutes of your already limited time to it and you will never get them back?

P.S.: My weekly suggestion for things to listen to/watch/read to improve your English while relaxing: If you've got Netflix, I thought you might enjoy the show House of Guinness. I mean, granted, I spend 60% of the time watching it actually googling the actors to confirm my suspicions that based on the credibility of their accent they're not actually Irish (to the great delight of my SO who's just trying to watch the series, bless him), but all in all it's interesting and it's got good plot twists. It's not a true rendition of historical facts, so it would be interesting to discuss with students and help them distinguish the historical from the non-historical.

✨Cool things I heard this week

Great news: I'm going to make it to the oral exam!

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