Plus - Minus - Interesting

The PMI strategy encourages students to think about many possibilities, and to explore the positive and negative aspects of ideas or activities. PMI encourages students to develop the habit of looking beyond the polarity of “yes or no,” “wrong or right,” “my answer or your answer.” The goal of PMI is to develop independent thinkers who consider a range of ideas and/or possibilities and see beyond the obvious. The “interesting” category can also include questions. This strategy works well when discussing books, events, family trips, musical instruments or any other ideas that can be considered through the lens of pluses, minuses, and interesting aspects. For example, your child is trying to decide which musical instrument to play. Together you make a chart of the plus, minus, and interesting aspects of each instrument that they are considering. Often the interesting column leads to insights that will help them make a decision.

Source: FCPS Critical and Creative Thinking Website

 

Listening Activity Using Podcasts!

Try listening to a kid friendly podcast together. It can be while doing traveling in the car, doing chores, or even making dinner in the evening.

Afterward, use the sentence stems below to think deeply about what you liked, what didn’t you like, and what was interesting!

Tumble Science Podcast: https://apple.co/3j0ri5I

Storytime: https://bedtime.fm/storytime

Brains On: https://apple.co/33ZxiaA

Peace Out: https://apple.co/3dypyj9

 

Questions to Support PMI:

• What are the positives/good things/advantages?
• What are the negatives/bad things/disadvantages?
• What are interesting ideas about ____?
• What is the value of ___?
• What would most people not know about ____?

Students should be able to share Positive/Negative/Interesting information in equal amounts.