Building Thinking Classrooms is a practice most well known for having students working on thinking tasks, in random groups, and at vertical whiteboards—all of which take place during the body of the lesson. 

In this session, we will discuss why these practices are important as well as why it is important to think beyond the body of the lesson to the closing of the lesson. In particular, we will look at the new research on the three practices that close a thinking classroom lesson—consolidation, meaningful notes, and check-your-understanding questions. These three practices are instrumental in helping students turn the unorganized, unstructured, and informal conception they gained from their group work into organized, structured, and formalized learning for themselves. 

The practices discussed will intertwine with, and make extensive references to, the soon to be released books, Mathematics Tasks for the Thinking Classrooms (K-5 and 6-12).

Peter Liljedahl is the author and co-author of the books:

Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics (Grades K-12):  14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning

Mathematics Tasks for the Thinking Classroom, Grades K-5 

Mathematics Tasks for the Thinking Classroom, Grades 6-12  

This is a "deeper dive" into Building Thinking Classrooms practices.  It is strongly recommended that you have already participated in an introductory Building Thinking Classrooms.

This session is day 2 out of a 5 day series. Here are the links to register for the other dates:

Day 1: March 2, Intro to BTC

Day 2: March 3, Closing the Lesson

Day 3: March 4, Assessment

Day 4: March 5, Thin-Slicing

Day 5: March 6, Leadership

If registering for more than 1 session, please use coupon code "BTC2026" to get a $25 discount per session.