Differentiating the Questions with Six Thinking Hats® by Franny McAleer Education and Corporate Consultant Instructor, Indiana University of Pennsylvania www.learnerslink.com

, [email protected]

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The art of “Questioning” is at the heart of teaching and differentiation. SIX HATS®, using color to illustrate metaphorical hats with divergent thinking traits, provides teachers and students with a strategy that provokes inquiry and sparks fluency by categorizing types of questions. It enables both teachers and students to think at higher levels by moving discussions from facts, to application, to global connections and possibilities. Writing, reading, and speaking become clearer and more precise. Research has shown an increase of one year’s growth for students who write using the SIX HATS® strategy. So, put on the SIX THINKING HATS® and stimulate thinking, questioning, and communication while having fun!

Critical and creative thinking (SIX HATS®) to differentiate instruction Thinking levels – text, self, world Presentation of SIX HATS® Journaling Forced Associations for Vocabulary Enrichment and Problem Solving Which HAT is it anyway?

Why Six Thinking Hats®

The foundation for differentiating instruction is the questioning processes. Six Hats® is powerful because: 1. The colors and hats provide a visual that is easy to use.

2. Students ask quality questions. 3. Thinking is visible, focused and at higher levels of critical and creative thinking. 4. Instruction begins with concrete experiences, simple, more structured, then move to independent, abstract, sophisticated levels.

5. Interdisciplinary connections integrate the curriculum increasing retention. 6. Problem solving, decision making, leadership and independence are developed. 7. Student led discussions, peer communication, and projects are focused and in depth. 8. Cooperative groups and teamwork are effective and organized.

Introducing - The Six Thinking Hats® with Bloom

Facts, Information, Data, Missing Information, Remember(Bloom) Feelings, Emotion, Intuition, Gut Feeling Benefits, Values, Positives, The Good In It Caution, Wisdom, Problems, Risks Process, Summarizing, Conclusions, Overviews, Action Plans, Understand (Bloom) Creativity, Possibilities, Alternatives, New Ideas, Create (Bloom)

The Six Thinking Hats® Theme - Living in Canada, Competition, Success, … Hat® Key Word

Facts Research What do you know about _____?

Feelings How do you feel about _____?

Cautions What are the cautions of ____?

Text to text Text to self Text to world

Benefits What are the benefits of______?

Creativity New ideas What possibilities from ____?

Process Reflect Summarize Explain Action plan

Journaling with Six Thinking Hats®

Color in the hats and put this card in your folder to help you remember their meaning.

What do you need or want to know as a reader?

What do you like about your piece? How could you make problem areas work?

What were your character’s feelings when ____? About ______?

What if ______?

What other writing strategies could you use?

What part of the story/piece concerns you? What part does not work for you?

(Created by teacher in Schuylkill Intermediate Unit 29.) What were you hoping to accomplish in this piece? How did you organize it? Does your conclusion end the story satisfactorily? What is your plan for revision?

Six Hats has been transformational in the classroom and boardroom. The research is presented in the following slides showing why it is effective. This research provides a reference for you and does not have to be printed for this workshop.

We will learn the thinking behind each of the hats, enabling you to go to your students with an energizing thinking process that will take thinking to a new level!

Background for the workshop Why Six Hats® has been successful! 1.

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Dr. Edward DeBono’s Vision Research of Dr. Stanley Pogrow National Teacher Effectiveness Criteria (Charlotte Danielson) Psychology Today research Carol Tomlinson Differentiation 9 Strategies NCLB Scientific Based Evidence in Reading Comprehension Research article, ASCD Research Article, PASCD

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Your Brain, the Missing Manual, 2008

10. Reading Comprehension Research 5 11. Learning Centers, University of Virginia and Arkansas 12. Burgettstown School District Action Research, Superintendent and Teacher

Vision: Dr. Edward DeBono

"My one ambition is that around the world there should be a few more young people who come to say, 'I am a thinker.' I would be even more pleased if some of them were to go further and say: 'I am a thinker, and I

enjoy thinking.'"--Dr. Edward de Bono

Research of Stanley Pogrow Dr. Stanley Pogrow, in the October Kappan, discussed an essential feature of quality schools, effective traditionalist and progressive ideas. His search to identify the most effective resulted in the identification of two powerful interventions detailed in The Forum, University of Pittsburgh, Tri State Area School Study Council, (2007). One relates to the development of thinking skills. The Higher Order Thinking Skills project has systematically provided thinking skills development to Title 1 and learning-disabled students in place of remedial work and test preparation. Over the past 25 years results include “three times the growth in reading comprehension – even as it produces gains in overall intellectual and social development.” (The other relates to integrating art into the curriculum.)

Teacher Effectiveness, Charlotte Danielson 1.

Appropriate interactions between teacher and students and among students

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Use of questioning and discussion strategies that encourage many students to participate

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Engagement of students in learning and adequate pacing of instruction 4.

Flexibility and responsiveness in meeting the learning needs of students 5.

Integration of disciplines within the educational curriculum 6.

Effective communication, both oral and written with students, colleagues, paraprofessionals, related service personnel, and administrators

Paul MacCready Ph.D. one of the greatest engineers of the 20th century.

"First I would introduce Edward de Bono's thinking courses in all schools."

MacCready is the Inventor of the world's first human and solar-powered aircraft and car, President of Aerovironment Inc. Monrovia, CA.

Sheldon Lee Glashow Nobel Prize Laureate for Physics (1979)

"Dr. de Bono's innovative thinking methods have been tried and tested by many pupils and professionals, and they do seem to help people to be more creative and original. I saw the system in action at an impasse during a seminar of Nobel laureates. When a Random Word (one of de Bono's thinking tools) was injected into the discussion, the problem was quickly resolved.“

Psychology Today

… commented on Six Hats® claiming, “We owe DeBono a debt for constantly reminding us that thinking is a skill and can be improved.” When we put on our thinking hats, we have not one, but six.

Differentiation Strategy 1 of 9: Adjusting the Questions Teachers adjust the sorts of questions posed to learners based on their readiness, interest, and learning profiles.

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All students need to be accountable for information and thinking at high levels Some students will be challenged by more basic thought questions Others will be challenged by a question that requires speed of response, large leaps of insight, or making remote connections Teachers can vary the sorts of questions as one means of assessing student progress and readiness Motivation increases with success In oral settings, all students can learn from a wide range of responses

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Target some questions to particular students and “open the floor” to others Use open-ended questions Use wait time before taking answers Use thinking partners before giving answers Encourage students to explain and defend their answers Adjust complexity, abstractness, degree of mental leap, time, and connections required between topics, based on learning profiles of the student Carol Tomlinson, ASCD, How to

Differentiate Instruction in a Mixed

Ability Classroom, 1995

Roles of the Teacher

Instructor -- Facilitator -- Audience

Solanco School District Quarrysville, PA

"Our work with DeBono's SIX HATS® has been a great base for improving our work with higher level thinking. I often hear references to those darn "White Hat questions", so deadly in large numbers. The awareness created from the SIX HATS® has been valuable. Suzanne Herr, Principal Solanco School District, PA

Educational Leadership, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, ASCD

Research article: If we

make thinking visible

, we can teach it and improve critical and creative thinking.

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, ASCD Interdisciplinary Connections

Interdisciplinary connections improve learning and retention. Six Hats® provides interdisciplinary process connections.

ASCD, Robin Fogarty

Reading and Writing Using Six Thinking Hats ® Reading Comprehension -- “Truths about comprehension: good readers are purposeful and active when they read. They read for a purpose and they're always thinking and working through the text. Their brains are very active while they are reading.” (Implications for Scientific Based Evidence Approach in Reading Eunice Greer, NCLB Research) Six Thinking Hats® is a tool that supports this at all grade levels.

There are six strategies that improve comprehension. The Six Thinking Hats® is tool that develops the first five. These are teaching children

1. to monitor their comprehension; 2. to use graphic and semantic organizers; 3. to create organizational pictures of the text content; 4. to answer questions about what you've read; 5. to generate questions about what you've read; 6. to recognize the story structure.

+ Learning Centers

Six Hats is a tool in ASCD resources – Learning Centers, handout on pages 6 and 7 PowerPoint University of Virginia and University of Arkansas Learning Center PowerPoint http://www.wilmette39.org/DI39/dipdf/UVALearni ngCenters2006.pdf

Brain Research

Brain research indicates improved learning with color and when the activity is playful, resembling a game. It also looks for patterns which Six Hats® provides. Prior knowledge is activated when new learning in connected with the lesson or task.

Strategy in The Brain, the Missing Manual, (2008) pages 176-177

College of William and Mary

Students benefit from experiences when they ask at least two questions related to a content area in a week.

Dr. Joyce VanTassel Baska

Burgettstown School District Research

Writing with the HATS® to Focus, Clarify, and Improve your Writing Let’s see what happened in seventh (7 th ) grade at Burgettstown Middle School in Jacque Goodburn’s classes.

• • • Narrative Informational Persuasive Pennsylvania Language Arts Academic Standard 1.5

Burgettstown Writing Research Project

Six Hats® group -- Three heterogeneous classes, 60 students, 10 of whom are learning support. Control group -- Three heterogeneous classes, 63 students, 10 of whom are learning support The prompts were PSSA writing assessment released prompts.

Informational Narrative Persuasive

Microsoft Word Tools to determine writing quality using an objective tool – Flesch-Kincaid readability Although readability formulas cannot capture all aspects of quality writing, they can be used to evaluate the length of sentences and the

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 6 HA TS NON 6 HA TS 1 2 3 1- Informational 2- Narrative 3- Persuasive

Flesch-Kincaid Results

For the informational and the narrative prompts, the students using the Six Hats® were writing an average of a half-year ahead of the control group students. For the persuasive prompt, which was completed last, the students using the Six Hats® were writing almost a year ahead of the control group students.

Benefits for the Teacher

•Consistency for writing process discussions/writing workshops •All classes receive the same message •Grading becomes objective and focused •Six Hats ® has the benefit of helping students to organize their ideas and begin to see what they are thinking before beginning to write. Students see where their strengths lie and where they need to focus their efforts to gain control of their thinking.

Benefits for the Teacher

•Teachers are expected to reach students “where they are” and to individualize instruction. With Six Hats®, both student and teacher can agree on the starting point for instruction. (NCLB) •In time, students learn self evaluation and independence •Higher ability students can review independently, freeing the teacher to spend time with students requiring one-on-one instruction •Students can anticipate their grade more accurately

Benefits to Teachers

• Ownership of the words remains with the student. • The student can see what is missing independently and decide how to correct their omissions.

• This places the teacher in the position of being a facilitator of a student’s own thought rather than the person who simply tells a student what to think.

Benefits to the Students

• Students can clearly understand what the English teacher means by a

well-developed

piece. They have a better idea of when their work is ready to share. • Students can revise their own draft with less direction. • The Six Hats ® system helps students get started in prewriting and it helps them see where they need to add details. • The Six Hats ® is a life long learning and communication tool that also teaches students how to present constructive criticism to peers in a non-threatening manner.

Benefits to Both Student and Teacher • The writing process is focused. • As reviewers of writing, it is more specific to tell a writer to add more of the yellow hat or to address the black hat concerns. • It is less confrontational to tell a student to balance the black hat concerns with evidence of other hats than it is to simply say to a student “try not to be so negative.” • Constructive criticism to improve writing focuses on the hats rather than addressing the writer who may take suggestions personally.

Project-Based Learning

Six Hats® are embedded in the critical thinking, project-based learning format of Envisions.com.

What teachers say about Six Hats®?

" A special thank you for introducing me to the thinking hats and opening me up to becoming a better teacher by teaching my students to think about thinking." Jena Brodhead, Easton Area School District I am using the SIX HATS® daily. I refer to them to get the children thinking in a certain direction. What I like about this program is that it gives the students a direction to think towards by the questions on the hats. In the primary grades especially, the students need to develop specific thinking areas. I did an activity where they had to pick a wish and then use white and black hat thinking about the wish. They did a great job. This is the first

program I have used that starts students in the direction of thinking critically. They loved the activities especially the green hat. I'm happy with where I'm going especially as I use this with PSSA (state

assessment) preparation. Debbie Miller, Wilkes Barre School District

What teachers say about Six Hats®?

"After attending the workshop, I was excited about going back to my classroom and trying out the Six Thinking Hats with my ESL students. I found it easy to simplify and adapt to their proficiency levels and they responded with enthusiasm to the visual and tactile presentation of the hats. They were motivated to answer questions and were able to demonstrate increased comprehension of the story. Even my most reluctant student was more responsive to questions. Though many of us are already doing some of the things Franny spoke about in the workshop, The Six Thinking Hats provides a way for us to create a more muiltisensory learning environment, giving our students a greater chance for success. I found the SIX HATS workshop to be dynamic and inspiring. The Six Thinking Hats concept is a valuable teaching tool that can be adapted to many areas of learning." Karen Lau, ESL Teacher, Luzerne Intermediate Unit

What teachers say about Six Hats®?

"We love the hats. Tara and I introduced our students to them right away on Friday. Our Academic/Honors students were skeptical. My Applied Communications class LOVED them. Since then, with a little encouragement, we have had nothing but success with the hats. Tara’s Journalism class is attacking the school magazine all with hats. My Applied class designed and implemented a new independent novel unit utilizing the hats. My Honors Speech and Debate class has implemented a new peer comment format that revolves around yellow, black, and green hat ideas. My Honors III class is exploring The Red Badge of Courage with the hats. The red hat is especially helpful because they are putting themselves in a few of the characters’ shoes. They also linked the current Jessica Lynch debate (hero or not) to the novel with the hats. I’ll admit, although your talk was informative and fun, I had doubts about getting the students to use it. After one day, my Applied students were correcting each other during a green hat session with, 'We’re wearing our green hats now. Save the black hat comments for later.' Amazingly no one was offended and the class continued working. I just wanted you to know how excited we are to share in this great method and how much we appreciate your instruction in it." Renee Sorensen, Teacher at Tunkhannock High School

Additional information and examples

www.learnerslink.com/sixthinkinghats