Lesson #2: Habits of Mind
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the eight Habits of Mind we will be working on throughout the unit. Though Kallick and Costa’s work puts forward sixteen Habits of Mind, this unit focuses on the following eight:
- Questioning and posing problems
- Responding with wonder and awe
- Thinking flexibly
- Persisting
- Striving for accuracy
- Gathering and evaluating information from a variety of sources
- Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision
- Thinking about thinking
I have prepared Habits of Mind quotation pages, which I use in a variety of ways. The quotation pages include the following:
-The Habit
-A definition
-Assorted Quotations related to the Habit of Mind
Activity: One way I use the quotation pages is a Habit of Mind Sorting and Ranking Activity.
- Make Habits of Mind Packages (which include cut-ups of the Habits, the definitions, and two quotations)
- Divide class into small groups and distribute packages, large paper, markers and tape
- Ask students to match the Habit of Mind to the correct definition and two related quotations
- Ask students to rank the Habits from 1-8 in terms of their importance (which one is most important to possess if you want a great mind? which one the least? etc.).
- Ask students to tape the materials to the large paper.
- Ask students to list people who seem to have a great mind (famous people, people they know etc.)
- Ask students to present their ideas to the class; I usually ask them to talk about the Habit they feel is most important and one or two of the people they think have great minds (state and explain/justify).
- Using Flipgrid (paper works just fine as well), I ask students to reflect on their own Habits of Mind.
