Middle school ELA classrooms often face a common hurdle: students who are reluctant to engage with complex literary analysis because it feels too abstract or overwhelming. Hexagonal Thinking is the pedagogical bridge that turns “scary” critical thinking into a tactile, movement-based puzzle. By shifting the focus from a blank page to a hands-on connection map,…
The holiday season brings more than just decorations and festive cheer—it brings stories. Whether it’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, a retelling of A Christmas Carol, The Christmas Pig, or a cultural tale tied to Diwali, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, these narratives are packed with themes, character choices, and moral dilemmas waiting to be explored.That’s where…
If you’ve explored hexagonal thinking before, you already know its power to deepen academic discussion and spark rich connections. But there’s an overlooked benefit worth spotlighting — its ability to build empathy and strengthen social-emotional learning (SEL). When students link ideas through a hexagonal thinking template, they aren’t just organising information — they’re navigating perspectives,…
Hexagonal thinking templates are one of those teaching tools that students love and teachers instantly see the value in. It sparks deep conversations, invites unexpected connections, and gets even the quieter students involved. But once students have built a web full of brilliant thinking… what now? How do you assess it? Grading hexagonal thinking can…
There comes a point every school year—sometimes in week one, sometimes in week six—where you know it’s time for a reset. The classroom culture has started to wobble. Expectations are fuzzy. You find yourself repeating the same reminders and wondering, do they even hear me anymore? That’s when I pull out an old favourite: hexagonal…
If you haven’t already jumped on the hexagonal thinking bandwagon, now’s the time! This flexible and thought-provoking strategy can be used in just about any classroom setting. Whether you’re digging into a novel, unpacking tricky science or history concepts, building classroom norms, or guiding students through goal-setting, hexagonal thinking templates have you covered. This post…
