3 Secrets to Low-Prep Hexagonal Thinking

If you haven’t heard of hexagonal thinking, it’s a retrieval and connection strategy that is student-led and hands-on. While it’s not new to the teaching world, it is not as widely known as fishbowl discussion or think-pair-share.

If you have heard of hexagonal thinking, you probably know it’s a powerful teaching strategy that engages all students and targets the perfect storm of speaking and listening, writing, reading, and language skills.

You probably also know that it can involve a lot of prep. work.

Spoiler Alert: In this post, I’m sharing three ways for teachers to reduce that prep. work to almost nothing. Skip ahead if you can’t wait!

In the meantime, if you’re just getting started, you’ll want to visit my previous post that goes into more detail about hexagonal thinking and how it works, including ideas for ELA classroom use.

I’m Hexagonal Thinking About Prep

When you use hexagonal thinking in the classroom, it benefits all learners. It takes the focus off of you as the sole source of knowledge and puts the responsibility on learners for co-creating knowledge.

I’m all about student-centered learning in my high school classroom. So, when I heard that all of the social studies teachers in my school had heard about this strategy at a summer workshop, I wanted to try it.

Then, I thought about the logistics of creating hexagons for students.

60+ hexagons x ALL of my students = a LOT more work than I wanted

Sure, I could be the teacher sitting in her office cutting out hexagons in her free time…

But I could also be the teacher NOT doing that and, um, doing pretty much anything else.

Being a Teacher Problem Solver

I decided to settle for a chai tea latte and a book, BUT this was not the solution to my problem.

How could I have all of the hexagon fun without the fuss and prep work?

Cue the confetti, folks! I thought of not one but THREE solutions to my hexagonal thinking prep problem. And, by the way, this is not being a “lazy” teacher. I don’t want hours of hexagon cutting for anyone, mmmkay?

Solution #1: Have Students Do the Work

This one is the most predictable and obvious answer in lieu of having a teacher’s assistant do the cutting. Anytime I find myself facing a lot of prep, the first question I ask myself is this: is this something that students could do for themselves? Yes, yes it is.

Now, if you want students to be working with a specific set of quotations and ideas, you will want to do some low-key prep work and design a set of cards. Teacher creation of hexagon cards is also necessary for differentiation purposes, i.e. giving specific card sets to specific student teams depending on ability and/or readiness. Then, you can copy and give to student teams to cut-out their sets of cards.

On the other hand, if you want students to generate their own terms and ideas, simply copy a template and let students go to town writing on their cards before cutting them out.

Here’s a quick list of what can go on the cards generated by you or your students:

• Vocabulary Words
• Literary and/or Rhetorical Devices
• Phrases/Quotes from a Non Fiction or Fiction Text
• Thematic Ideas
• Questions
• Student Responses/Ideas

Voila! Such a time-saver.

Solution #2: Use a Honeycomb Template

Maybe you don’t want to cut hexagons at all, but still want students to gain the rich experience of having to form connections on multiple sides of a hexagon card. I’ve got you, boo.

After some thinking, I designed a honeycomb template that can be copied and given to students with NO cutting. Download it now for free!

If you wish to give students a word or quote bank, put those on a separate handout or project on a slide. Then, have students work in teams to connect the terms (as per the usual hexagonal thinking activity). The only difference is that students are not moving around the cards and are thinking of the connections as they write down the terms/quotes.

There is the drawback of no card movement, but students can write in pencil. You can have them do a “re-shuffle” by copying the same honeycomb on both sides of the paper and then challenging teams to flip the paper over and find a new way to connect.

Solution #3: Go Digital

My last solution for you involves the use of Google Slides. I designed a template that allows students to drag-and-drop hexagons.

No printing OR cutting = happy dance!

So, if you’re 1:1 or have access to computers, this may work for you, too.

There were some creative challenges involved, including how to get that many hexagons on ONE slide and have room to move them around.

The solution I came up with involves having the first slide as a hexagon bank and the second (and third) slides as hexagon connection boards.

Students copy and paste the hexagons they wish to use from the first slide to the following slide and move them around. They can even use the arrow and shape tools to show and write connections! What’s more, students can take a screenshot and use it in a digital self-reflection journal or submit to a Padlet to show their thinking to the class. More slides can be added for re-shuffling purposes.

Hexagonal Thinking Template

After brainstorming these ideas, I was so excited that I started to create.

I have digital and print hexagonal thinking activities plus reflection worksheets and sentence stems available for purchase. Stop by to check out what I have so far. I’d love to create more activities teachers can use, so please leave a comment if I can create something specific to your needs.

Or, if you prefer to create your own classroom activity (non-commercial use only) using my digital templates, here you go!

Oh, and if you haven’t downloaded my free guide with strategies for 21st-century differentiation, here’s the link. You’ll join other awesome teachers who are interested in student-led learning and student engagement!