Compass Points

The book Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners  by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church and Karin Morrison is FANTASTIC!  The book has routines, designed by researchers at Project Zero at Harvard, that scaffold and support thinking. These routines allow thinking to become visible through questioning, listening, documenting, expressing and reflecting.  Give one of the routines a try on the first day of school.  The following link will take you to an explanation of Compass Points. Please post a comment if you give it a try:-)

http://www.pz.harvard.edu/pz_in_practice.php

Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners 
by Ron Ritchhart et al. 
Link: http://amzn.com/047091551X