Think Dots

Explanation: After students have worked to gain essential knowledge, understanding, and skill about a topic, they can use a versatile strategy called Think Dots to review, demonstrate, and extend their thinking on the subject. Developed by Kay Brimijoin in 1999, Think Dots is a modification of the strategy called cubing. The modifications make the approach teacher-friendly, while at the same time allowing for maximum flexibility in terms of differentiation. Unlike paper cubes that are often fragile, even when laminated, or plastic figure cubes that can be costly for large classes, Think Dots are inexpensive, easy to construct, and compact for storage.

A Think Dots set consists of six cards that are hole punched in one corner. The set is held together with a "notebook ring," a loop of string, or any other device that allows students to flip through the set easily. Each card has one or more dots on its front (each card corresponding to one of the six dot configurations on a die). On the back of each card is a question or task that asks students to work directly with important knowledge, understanding, and skill related to the topic they are studying. Dots are easily drawn on cards, or can be quickly created using small paper disks. Laminating the cards enables teacher and students to use them more than once during a year or unit, and allows teachers to use them in successive years.

Think Dots can be used to respond to learner readiness by developing Think Dots tasks at varying levels of difficulty. In addition, Think Dots can be used to respond to learning profiles by developing prompts based on varied intelligence preferences, requiring different modes of expression, or even by encouraging students to work alone or collaboratively with Think Dots tasks. Think Dots questions can also invite learners to apply key ideas and skills based on interest or choice.

For example, in one setting, teachers might place students of somewhat similar readiness levels together with a Think Dots set designed to review and extend key goals at a level of difficulty challenging for that group. In another setting, the teacher might design Think Dots sets to correspond to students' learning preferences, with one group expressing ideas through visual modes, another through kinesthetic modes, another in writing, and so on.

To address interests, students might select a group, for example, representing a particular interest in music, sports, science, and so forth. ThinkDots tasks in this instance would ask students to see how ideas studied in the unit apply to their particular interest. For example, in a unit on fractions, Think Dots questions could ask students to find out how fractions are used in a sport, develop a brief scenario showing how fractions work in action in the sport, explain how the sport would change if fractions ceased to exist, and so on. To address learning profile, students might select a group based on a preferred mode of learning (visual, practical, kinesthetic, reading, and others) and work with peers with the same preference. Students in all groups would address the same essential learning goals, but Think Dots tasks would aid them in exploring and expressing ideas in ways that are most effective for them. 

The procedure for implementing Think Dots includes the following:

• The teacher determines the key knowledge, understanding, or skill in which the Think Dots strategy will be used
• The teacher reviews students' readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles and assigns students to groups based on needs and learning goals
• Each student or group receives a set of activities, a die, and an activity log
• Students roll the die and complete activities marked with dots that correspond to the dots rolled on the die. Students may be asked to roll their die one to six times and complete the corresponding tasks. Generally, a student can complete only one or two tasks when the tasks are more complex, but it is feasible to expect each to complete multiple tasks when the tasks are less complex and multi-faceted or when students complete review and extension questions. In some cases, it might be appropriate for all students to complete other tasks as indicated by rolling the die.
• Each student then records answers or results in their activity log and attaches any additional material required to show work process, steps in thinking, resources consulted, and so on.

Because students will not complete all the tasks in the set, it is important that each task require them to work with the unit's essential knowledge, understanding, and skill. It is also very helpful to have students share their work with peers to have the key goals reinforced by seeing them explored through various approaches. Careful and systematic collaboration is imperative if varied tasks call on only selected essential unit goals so that students explore ideas they "missed" in their own work by learning from peers. In these instances, it is particularly necessary for teachers to bring common closure to the Think Dots process so that all students are comfortable with all key outcomes. Such closure not only helps students understand they are working toward common goals, but also gives them an opportunity to take part in a teacher-guided review of all the lesson's key ideas and skills, even though the student may not have worked directly with all those ideas and skills in the Think Dots activity.