NET Scheme News 2024 Spring issue 45

Although the approaches varied somewhat from group to group, all six outlines contained strong claims in support of using land for open space and recreation, as well as counter arguments against developing more land for residential and commercial purposes. We were encouraged by the feedback from some participants, who told us they liked the interactive nature of the workshop and felt that using Thinking Routines would work well to engage students in writing. If your school is part of a larger network of schools that holds annual staff development days and you are looking for ways to make the experience more relevant and rewarding for NETs, local English teachers and other English-speaking teachers, please consider contacting us at the NET Section. Stephen Cooley, Regional NET Coordinator NET Section The next two Thinking Routines we introduced were ‘Step Inside’ and ‘Circle of Viewpoints’. For the ‘Step Inside’ routine, participants worked in groups to explore one stakeholder position. The Step Inside questions helped each group dig deeper into their respective roles. The participants were then rearranged into mixed groups for the ‘Circle of Viewpoints’ routine. In this activity, each group elected a scribe whose job was to write down on Post-it notes the responses of each stakeholder to the Circle ofViewpoints prompts,including how they thought land should be used and why, and what questions they had for other stakeholders. In the final activity,we returned to the 2024 HKDSE Sample Paper 2 Question 5. Participants were asked to place their Post-it notes on poster paper to create an outline for the letter in support of the position “that more land should be used for open space and recreation.” In this activity, we used the ‘Claim Support Question’ routine in combination with ‘Generate Sort Connect’. Participants had already generated the arguments (claims), supporting evidence (supports), and questions for each stakeholder role referenced in the question. Now it was time to sort the Post-it notes and connect the ideas into a logical and cohesive outline for the letter. We encouraged participants to incorporate the claims of the residential and commercial stakeholders by refuting them with counter arguments. References Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education. (2022). Thinking Routine Toolbox: Background on PZ’s Visible Thinking. Retrieved from https://pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines Ritchard, R., Church, M., & Morisson, K. (2011). Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners. Jossey-Bass. Thinking Pathways. (2024). Thinking Routines. Retrieved from https://thinkingpathwayz.weebly.com/thinkingroutines.html Vigors,A.(2023).TheThinking Classroom: Supporting Educators to Embed Critical and Creative Thinking.Amba Press. 21 NET Scheme News Issue 45