TURNING FIRST THOUGHTS INTO FURTHER THINKING           Judy Lightfoot
Background:
This is a simple but powerful framework. It's a useful core feature of any curriculum of study because it encourages students to move their thinking continually forward instead of letting them stop with a single likely answer. The framework also focuses students' attention on the direction and nature of their mental operations instead of on "corrections," giving the exploratory, provisional thoughts of students a respected place in the learning process. That is, instead of calling an idea flimsy or poor or weak, we can call it a first thought that needs further thinking. This helps us draw its energies into the work of a class instead of squelching the student or the potentially good idea with a premature critique.

The descriptors for First Thoughts and Further Thinking are carefully phrased to suggest 3 ways in which students can expand, refine, or deepen their ideas to improve provisional thinking. The teacher can draw up the table below for students from a guided class discussion and later post it on the wall as a point of reference for course work. Although simple and general, it is applicable to everything a person needs to do to think and write better. Students appreciate its elegance. (These concepts have been adapted from Harvard's Project Zero, Cognitive Skills Group).
FIRST THOUGHTS
FURTHER THINKING
First thoughts are quick and impulsive.
But they're a necessary, useful starting point, and their endless energy gives us pleasure. 
Further thinking takes time.
We improve first thoughts by revising them, and the endless potential of revision gives us pleasure.
 Because first thoughts are quick... So...
they're often shallow, simple, fragmentary make thoughts deep, complex, complete. (Explore!)
they tend to be hazy, approximate, vague make thoughts focused, definite, precise. (Clarify!)
 they're rambling, chaotic, contradictory make them logical, organized, consistent. (Connect!) 

        Explore!
Look at the material again and again. Be thorough. Don't skip anything.
Notice details. Note how the material is organized. Seek complexity.
Spot puzzles and contradictions. Come up with six hunches instead of one.
Find more to say than you think you will need.
        Clarify!
Make your thinking precise, accurate, and clear. Explain fully.
Qualify generalizations carefully; say what you really mean.
Sharpen your claim by considering the opposite case.
Choose exact words; define your terms; illustrate with apt examples.
        Connect!
Organize your ideas. Divide them into manageable chunks.
Sequence your ideas so they will lead another person's mind.
Make the links between ideas clear to others.
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