Hexagonal Thinking: Using Manipulatives to Aid in Analysis

A few months ago I started hearing about hexagonal thinking. I couldn’t figure out what that was; what do hexagons have to do with thinking? Even as I saw the words cross my social media feeds more and more, I chalked it up to a new learning fad that would soon wear itself out.

Until one day (when I was supposed to be working but was really procrasting), and I did a search for a definition. Soon I found myself reading article after article, becoming more intrigued by what I read. The descriptions were vague so as not to put unnecessary restrictions on their use but specific enough that possibilities started running through my mind. I knew I had to try them.

Not one to do anything halfway, I made my own set of hexagons that included literary elements, character names, thematic elements, and quotes from the story. Then we used them at our next two book club meetings.

What is hexagonal thinking? Basically, for a simple lit assignment, you put terms relating to the book/story/article/assignment on hexagons – each on a separate one. Then you ask students to connect hexagons that have a relationship in the story/article/assignment. Every touching hexagon side must represent a concrete or abstract relationship in the literary work.

Hexagonal thinking was a raging success for my students.

I work with small groups and a range of backgrounds. They’re all used to doing things in a variety of ways, so it’s hard to do a specific, hardcore analysis activity because it’s likely that much of the information will be new to at least one of them.

With hexagonal thinking, it didn’t matter.

The hexagons were like math manipulatives: they provided a concrete visual that the students could move around, testing and exploring possibilities until they could find the best fit.

As we did these in small groups, the students talked out their choices. They explained to each other why they wanted to connect certain hexagons and listened to other ideas. They made choices, evaluated, and then made new decisions based on their analysis. They worked together and shared ideas but also contributed individually.

Some of the students who rarely have anything to say were totally engaged in this activity! Best of all, it’s not a one-and-done thing. One group flew through it. They tried to connect their hexagons based purely on concrete relationships and finished quickly.

I asked them if they could connect their hexagons in new ways. They looked at me, stumped, for a moment, and then they swept hands across the table, stirring up the hexagons, and started talking about which one they should put in the middle now. As I listened, I heard them taking their analysis to a depth they hadn’t the first time. The relationships they discussed were both deeper and more abstract, and they looked harder to find connections between hexagonal elements.

My other group had a student who wanted to stay at the concrete level. He first shared concrete elements every time, and though he discussed abstract ones when they were shared by someone else, he didn’t choose to go there – for a while. After a few minutes, with a friend enthusiastically pointing out abstract relationships and a few gentle questions from me, he started going more abstract, too. I think with more exposure to this type of activity – and with more ‘manipulatives’ in his hands to help visualize the elements and a bit more practice – he would naturally move to explore abstract elements sooner.

So why should you use hexagonal thinking with your students?

• It helps guide reluctant students to a deeper understanding of analysis.
• It helps students work together by giving them something concrete to discuss.
• It adds visuals to potentially difficult and abstract concepts.
• It can be done myriads of ways – with no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer.
• It encourages students to provide textual evidence in a realistic way.

With variations in structure or organization, hexagonal thinking can be to help formulate pre-reading ideas or as cooperative work, homework, assessments, reading checks, and more. The possibilities are endless!

I’m having lots of fun creating hexagonal thinking resources to go with our favorite literature. (You don’t have to use hexagonal thinking only with literature, but that’s my favorite way thus far.) If you don’t want to recreate the wheel, you can find mine here.

Have you tried hexagonal thinking with your students? What do you think?