Lesson: Visible Thinking Routines - Generate, Sort, Connect, Elaborate

'Tis the season for research! Thankfully our visible thinking routines have helped students to make connections between the topics in both their novels & American life in the 1950s.

An overview of the routine, courtesy of the Harvard Project Zero website:

The process in progress:

1) Students used primary source research to generate ideas about three distinct topics:

A) The Cold War and The Red Scare

B) The American Dream & 1950s Women

C) The American Dream Deferred & The Montgomery Bus Boycott 

2) Students broke-out into idea teams to sort through the potential topics for research and discovery.

3) Students made connections between topics--truly reaching beyond their comfort zones to connect big ideas prevalent in American culture at this time period. Examples from their novels were seamlessly integrated within the study of American life in this decade.

4) Students eelaborated upon these connections by writing mini thesis statements and bulleted lists of potential research materials. Our bounty of sources and ideas grew as the routine continued.

I'll update this post with pictures, but I am happy to report that the activity helped our students to generate thoughtful ideas--the lifeblood of solid research!