Thinking Frames

At Old Clee, our vision is to prepare children for the next stage of their education ensuring they have a lifelong love of learning. We do this by ensuring every child is 'Inspired to Believe, Learning to Succeed', therefore we felt that it was vitally important to provide all our pupils with quality learning and teaching opportunities to succeed.

We need to ensure each and every learner fulfils his or her full potential at every stage of his or her development’ and thinking frames have now been introduced as these will be a successful tool in our school, to lead learning for all our pupils. We believe in the concept of lifelong learning, learning should be fun, therefore, in teaching we equip our pupils with skills, knowledge and understanding to access a broad and balanced curriculum.

Thinking frames will now provide all pupils with a framework to guide them through learning activities whilst they use a range of thinking processes. These visual tools will enable our pupils to take control of their learning.

The Thinking Frames are based on an understanding of how connections are made within the brain to aid understanding and memory, especially where words and visual images are combined.

These tools should support pupils being clearer about making connections with their learning and can apply their knowledge and skills into other situations.

Why use thinking frames? They are a visual tool; research has shown that between 80% and 90% of the information that we receive is visual.

The use of these visual tools provides all pupils with the opportunities to develop the seven classroom strategies of:
 

• Making thinking important
• Making thinking explicit
• Promoting independent learning
• Enabling collaborative learning
• Setting Open Ended Challenges
• Effective questioning
• Making connections

Thinking frames are such a versatile tool, they can be used by any child, at any time and in any place. They are easy to draw, a sheet of paper and a pencil is the only equipment which is required when using thinking frames.

The 'Reflective Lens' engages the student's brain, enabling them to think at a much deeper level as they consider why the information is important and where they obtained the information. This is a powerful tool which increases pupil's learning potential.