This book has been designed specifically to engage and motivate primary and secondary school students to think ‘outside’ the box, to create new ideas and to have fun whilst learning. These activities have been based on the following underlying principles: Children need to be involved in activities that are engaging, relevant and exciting. Children should have the opportunity to choose various thinking tools to complete and to present the required tasks. These activities can be incorporated into the 48-grid matrix which integrates Bloom’s Taxonomy and Multiple Intelligences.In this way, we will provide for the thinking skills and learning styles of our students.It is anticipated that the children will be encouraged to work in groups and to present their ideas through their ‘preferred’ multiple intelligences.

In mixed-ability classrooms, it is inevitable that students will have different learning styles, backgrounds, prior knowledge, experience and willingness to learn. While teachers may be unable to change the content prescribed by their school, they have an enormous amount of control in the way they assign this content to their students. Differentiating the Curriculum: Supporting Teachers to Thrive in Mixed-Ability Classrooms adopts the principles of the Pirozzo Model, which offers six approaches teachers can use to effectively implement differentiation in their classroom. The Pirozzo Model consists of the following strategies: Ability Grouping Cooperative Learning Teams Learning Contracts Learning Centres Multi-age Grouping Individual Learning Plans Based on the author’s extensive work with over 20,000 educators, the Pirozzo Model is a dynamic teaching tool that empowers teachers with six different approaches to maximising student learning potential.

Providing effective feedback to teachers is critical in improving teaching standards and student performance – but how can we deliver this feedback in a way that does not lead to misunderstanding, animosity or the undermining of teachers’ professionalism? To assist schools in ensuring that any feedback provided to teachers is both accurate and constructive, Implementing an Effective Teacher Feedback Program presents the Pirozzo Process: a step-by-step method for building a sustainable, low-cost teacher feedback program that can be implemented in any school. Each chapter of the book is dedicated to one of the seven steps of the Pirozzo Process: Find your philosophy of leadership Create a Time Allocation Inventory Build knowledge of unit planning Learn to use a variety of thinking tools Develop conflict-resolution skills Launch an effective teacher feedback program Apply four strategies for providing effective feedback

Improving thinking in the classroom does not have to be difficult. This book, Improving Thinking in the Classroom, Second Edition, provides teachers with useful and practical strategies that will enable them to provide all their children with the most engaging, exciting and challenging learning environment. Teachers can achieve this most noble goal by: building depth and rigour using Bloom’s taxonomy engaging students with multiple intelligences transferring the knowledge to the real world. Engagement, depth and rigour are essential characteristics of a curriculum that will motivate and interest students. This means challenging, meaningful and relevant activities  that make the classroom an active centre of learning. 

Thinking tools are the strategies or scaffolding through which students can access the curriculum. They can be defined as artificial devices that have been developed specifically to improve children’s thinking by: focusing their attention (visually) on an issue that needs to be resolved offering immediate feedback through seeing their ideas on paper seeing the big picture making new connections analysing complex situations explaining relationships between concepts developing new thinking skills producing a larger number of possible solutions making informed choices constructing new knowledge creating new ideas and products. In this exciting resource, author Ralph Pirozzo offers an introduction to teachers to the world of thinking tools, covering a range of different tools for different tasks, and directing teachers as to how to choose the most appropriate tool for each. Transform your school into a thinking school with this helpful guide.