Hexagonal Thinking Made Easy with Freeform

Hexagonal thinking is a strategy that helps students visualize how ideas connect, overlap, and influence one another. Each concept is written on a hexagon, and students physically (or digitally) arrange the shapes so that touching sides represent meaningful relationships. Instead of seeing topics as isolated facts, students begin to recognize patterns, themes, and cause-and-effect links. It’s an engaging, hands-on way to promote deeper understanding, spark discussion, and reveal the “big picture” behind historical events, literature, or complex topics. Using the iPad for hexagonal thinking makes it easy for students to arrange, adjust, and clearly show their thinking. I like using Freeform because the board can expand, allowing for an almost infinite amount of space to work with.

Teachers can tailor hexagonal thinking to their goals by either providing specific terms, words, or phrases for students to connect or allow students the freedom to identify the most important concepts from a unit themselves. Both approaches promote deeper analysis, just with different levels of guidance. Additionally, this activity requires very little (if any!) prep from teachers. Have students open Freeform and find the pentagon. Using the green dot (see below), rotate the shape until you get six sides. At this point you can specify the terms you wish your students to use or you can you identify the number of hexagons you expect your students to connect.

Once students have identified the terms for each hexagonal (double tap on the shape to type), they make a connection between each of the words. If two (or more) hexagons are touching, students should be able to explain why/how those terms are related! Ultimately, students will create a unique "road map" that illustrates their thinking. Each student may create something different!

To make the activity even more meaningful, have students share their "road map" and explain to their peers why they chose to place their hexagons together. This creates further discussion, analysis, and opens their minds to other interpretations. If needed, as you go through your future lessons, have them return to their Freeform board and add on to their roadmap as they learn new information.