I love the visible thinking routines from Project Zero. They are stunning and give amazing insights into the things children know. If you have not used them before to help your students express themselves, now is a good time to start!
Need more encouragement than that? Check out this post by MYP teacher Rebekah Madrid. Ironically, Rebekah used to teacher at Munich International School (where I am now) and now teaches at Yokohama International School (where I used to teach). She was inspired by the elementary teachers at YIS school who were successfully using thinking routines to draw out student learning, and she explains what happens in her class as a result of her bringing thinking routines to her classroom.
Our colleague, Frank Curkovic, (who has since left YIS for Singapore) created these stunning guides to both the Making Thinking Visible routines and the Artful Thinking routines. Check them out:
If you are at all interested in tech integration, transformational learning, the future of learning, design thinking, and visible thinking, get comfy with a cup of tea and Rebekah’s blog and you won’t be disappointed.
sonya terborg 
Love, love love visible thinking! Putting together a post now about it. Ceci has Rebekah this year for home room and humanities, which is now called something else. Looking forward to what comes out of their class!
Lucky Ceci!
Seriously! Is she in 7th grade already??? Crikey!
Thanks for the incredibly kind words and for sharing my post. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Hope all is good at MIS…I still miss the biergartens!
MIS is great, as are the biergartens – although to be fair our priority in picking one now lies in wether or not it has a playground for our 15 month old! Keep sharing your work – it is inspiring!
I have introduced some of these routines during lessons in the library in the hopes teachers will run with them. I have also introduced DeBono’s Thinking Hats using picture books. I will be sharing my experiences at the ECIS Libraries’ Conference in Waterloo at the end of September. 🙂
Love the hats too. I am looking at integrating more of this with my new role as Learning Technology teacher in our Junior School.