Making thinking visible is a great way to encourage students to show/share their process that is unique to them. This offers oppotunities to learn and interact in different ways. This is also a great way to build a sense of community, so that students can work together and encourage one another throughout their learning process.

Making thinking visible is a great way to teach/show  strategy, scaffolding, and organization.  Thinking maps are great to teach students skills and strategies using their own point of view and understanding to express what stands out for them in a certain lesson or topic.

Making thinking visible by using thinking maps is a great strategy for organizing information for students to acquire deeper learning.  

Making Thinking Visible: This unpacks how using Thinking Maps in a classroom the students are able to take their thoughts and put them on paper to better explore, discover and discuss the lessons and make connections while creating a life skill of using critical thinking. 

Paula Pleasant

I adapt this for Kindergarten verbally and with pictures, they don't have writing skill yet, but we will develop them throughout the year.  I do read stories and then together with the students break down the main ideas, characters, lessons, etc.... The students are then encouraged to draw pictures that answer my questions.  I really love to see them actually understand a story and discuss it with friends and share it with parents at home. It was a great video.