Cross-Curricular BTC

Devan Smith, Monica Lang, and Shanice Sucre

December 2024

Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl, colloquially referred to as BTC, has taken the mathematics education world by storm in recent years. But what about the other content areas? Can the 14 practices transfer to ELA, science, and history? What about CTE courses, fine arts courses, or Health and Physical Education courses?

Why Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) Beyond Mathematics?

Source: Risselada & Moree (2024)

While the book was written for mathematics, at the heart of it, BTC is about designing and implementing instruction that promotes thinking. All content areas will naturally benefit from students thinking rather than mimicking, as students who are thinking are learning.

Risselada and Moree (2024), state, “Liljedahl’s book was written for [math] teachers, but his ideas can also be used in other subjects” and define their reading of the book as a “recipe for success” for their subject area.

Dimond (2023) justifies why the BTC practices can be adapted for science classrooms as they encourage collaboration, implement visible thinking routines (VTRs), flip learning by allowing students to learn at their own pace, implement problem-solving techniques, emphasize and embed inquiry-based learning and project-based learning, promote critical thinking skills, and foster creativity, all of which are essential for effective science instruction. Hofer (2023), a high school ELA teacher, was “enthused by the promise of fostering deep thinking in [his] students”.

Clearly, these other disciplines have found value in BTC practices.

For those looking to start, Liljedahl’s so-called core practices (also referred to by him as Toolkit 1) encourage students to work in “visibly random” threesomes at vertical non-permanent surfaces (VNPSs or vertical whiteboards), sharing a single marker, on thinking tasks -tasks that are designed to promote thinking behaviors. If you want to learn more about the core practices, consider accessing the Building Thinking Classrooms book in the VBCPS virtual reference library (via Classlink).

Samples of students working at Princess Anne High School in other disciplines outside of mathematics.

Current Cross-Curricular BTC Efforts

Some schools have already expanded their BTC practices. Kempsville High School’s literacy coach has been working with her teams on BTC literacy practices. See an example of a lesson on Appositives here. The gifted specialist at Kempsville HS uses non-curricular tasks to start students thinking about conclusions. This leads into a group activity where they analyze various conclusion samples and then write about which sample was better and why.

Princess Anne High School has been offering professional development on BTC implementation school-wide. This presentation has compiled some samples of lessons from multiple disciplines. Our teachers are adding the BTC frameworks (Toolkit 1) to their favorite strategies such as: Jigsaw , Which One Doesn’t belong, QFT (Question Formulation Technique), Connections with new vocabulary, Hexagonal Thinking, Reading Text Dependent Questions, Writing (P.P.E. Point Prove Explain), and Analysis, to elevate engagement, make critical thinking and collaboration the focus of every learning experience.

A few math coaches attended the 2024 BTC Conference and were able to attend sessions targeting history and English. Here are a few sample presentations:

This poster was designed by Lindsay Saeunders from Salem HS at the conclusion of our first BTC Book & Action Study

You can also encourage other teachers to access this quick PD about the core practices and how to embed them into any curriculum.

BTC & AVID

An entry-point into implementing BTC in any classroom is taking AVID strategies and implementing them BTC style (groups of 3 with one marker at the VNPSs). According to avid.org, “Students would rather talk, move around, and ask questions than sit still and be quiet. Humans are wired to construct knowledge through action. AVID classrooms promote motion, communication, and team-building through activities such as Socratic Seminars, Collaborative Study Groups, peer tutoring, and Philosophical Chairs”. Doesn’t that sound just like BTC? We think so!

If you are interested in sharing BTC with other disciplines, contact one of your coaches or specialists to help coordinate a professional development!

References

Dimond, M. (2023, April 17). Building thinking classrooms in science. Mat Diamond. https://www.matdimond.com/blog/2023/4/2/building-thinking-classrooms-in-science

Hofer, A. (2023, December 15). Navigating building thinking classrooms in ELA: A mid-year reflection. Keep Indiana learning. https://keepindianalearning.org/navigating-building-thinking-classrooms-ela-mid-year-reflection/

Liljedahl, P., & Zager, T. (2021). Building thinking classrooms in mathematics : 14 teaching practices for enhancing learning, grades K-12. Corwin. http://www.vlebooks.com/vleweb/product/openreader?id=none&isbn=9781544374864

Risselada, T. and Moree, A. (2024, June 4). Building thinking classrooms in history. The formative action school. https://formative-action.com/building-thinking-classrooms-in-history/

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