What happens when Building Thinking Classrooms moves into an additional language classroom? This session explores how its principles can be applied to language learning. Using strategies such as vertical non-permanent surfaces, random grouping, and open-ended tasks, we will create spaces where students think together, use the target language more naturally, and make their learning visible. The focus shifts from producing perfect language to building confidence, encouraging risk-taking, and using language as a tool for meaning making. Participants will leave with practical ideas and adaptable tasks that can be used immediately to promote engagement, thinking, and authentic communication in additional language classrooms.
Are students doing the work—or doing the thinking? This session applies Building Thinking Classrooms practices to writing instruction, helping teachers shift from task-oriented writing to thinking-centered learning. Participants will explore how to reduce answer-getting behaviors, increase discourse, and design tasks that require reasoning, interpretation, and creativity. Using the BTC framework developed by Peter Liljedahl, teachers will leave with actionable strategies to deepen engagement and improve writing outcomes.
(Here is my updated session description that could be used to explain my session in the schedule) - Whiteboards, random groups, and thinking tasks aren’t just for math. They belong in humanities classrooms too! As a junior high ELA, FLA, and Social teacher who has spent four years learning about BTC without ever teaching a math class, I’ve worked hard to adapt these strategies for my subjects. I’ve had flops, but I’ve also had incredible successes! In this session, I’ll share the thinking tasks I’ve created and walk you through some of them, so you can see how they work and how to build student buy-in. I also want to leave time for questions and discussion, because those conversations are where we all gain the most, myself included, and I’ll do my best to answer your questions based on my own classroom experiences.
Picture books paired with joyful math problems spark curiosity, foster collaboration, and build a sense of belonging in a Thinking Classroom. Learn how these story-driven learning experiences support your students in developing a growth mindset, perseverance, and a positive math identity. Leave with practical strategies and ready-to-use lessons to help all students see themselves as mathematicians and problem solvers. Most importantly, come experience the joy of connecting an amazing picture book to a great math problem!
Numeracy Lead Teacher, Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools
Alicia Burdess has been a teacher, assistant principal, and math coach with Grande Prairie and District Catholic Schools since 2005. She has served as the President of the Math Council of the Alberta Teachers' Association and the Chairperson of the National Council of Teachers of... Read More →
Move students from passively reading to active engagement in the text through the BTC framework. This session will explore the use of randomized groups at vertical non-permanent surfaces to foster critical thinking about a variety of text types. We will discuss the ways that teachers can thin-slice ELA tasks to scaffold literary and non-fiction text analysis. You will leave the session with a variety of strategies to use thinking tasks to encourage every student to think critically about their texts.
This assignment brings Building Thinking Classrooms to life through image, story, and shared inquiry. Students interpret an image of an Indigenous rider overlooking the land, connected to She Holds Up the Stars by Sandra Laronde, a novel centered on identity, belonging, and voice. Framed by a personal narrative, students are invited to give voice to an untold story. In randomized groups, they co-construct a narrative using evolving sentence constraints, fostering creativity, risk-taking, and collective meaning-making.
In this interactive session, participants will experience a Building Thinking Classrooms approach to writing instruction. Beginning with Gary Provost's famous poem on sentence variation, educators will work in visibly random groups to uncover how authors use sentence length, word choice, and structure to engage readers.
Using thin-slicing, participants will collaboratively build and revise a story one small piece at a time. Along the way, they will explore how choices in sentence length and word selection can transform ordinary writing into compelling text.
Teachers will leave with a practical, classroom-ready literacy task.
