Thinking Routines — 18 free visible thinking routines for the classroom

Free thinking routines for the classroom

A thinking routine is a short, repeatable set of prompts that makes a class reason out loud instead of guessing. There are eighteen of them here. Choose a picture or a topic, pick a routine, and step through it together on the whiteboard — two minutes as a lesson starter, or twenty as the lesson itself. They work in any subject and with any stimulus, and there is no sign-up.

The routines

Looking closely at a picture

• Zoom In — the picture is hidden and uncovered a piece at a time, so every new tile forces the class to rewrite a guess they were sure about.
• I See, I Think, I Wonder — separate what is actually there from what it might mean, then from what it makes you curious about.
• What Makes You Say That? — the habit-forming one. Every interpretation has to be followed by the evidence behind it.
• Step Inside — think from inside a person, creature or object in the picture. What do they see, feel and want?

Building and testing an argument

• Claim, Support, Question — make a bold claim, back it with evidence, then argue against yourself.
• The Explanation Game — name it, explain it, give reasons, then answer the hardest question of the four: so what?
• Fact or Fiction? — weigh a statement against the evidence and commit to a verdict.

Opening or closing a topic

• Think, Puzzle, Explore — surface what a class thinks it already knows before you teach anything.
• Connect, Extend, Challenge — tie new learning to old, push it further, and name what still does not fit.
• Predict, Observe, Explain — commit to a prediction, watch, then explain the gap. The staple of primary science.
• Generate, Sort, Connect, Elaborate — concept mapping, where the sorting step does the real work.
• Colour, Symbol, Image — represent an idea three ways without words, and justify each one.

Weighing up an idea

• Compass Points — excited, worrisome, need to know, and only then where you stand.
• Tug of War — a rope with a side at each end; the strongest reasons get pulled furthest out.
• Peel the Fruit — six layers, from what they notice on the surface down to what it is really about.

Before and after, and talking well

• 3-2-1 Bridge — three words, two questions, one analogy, collected before a topic and again after it.
• Headlines — the one line a newspaper would run about what you have been studying.
• The Micro Lab Protocol — a timed talk protocol for threes. Everybody speaks, nobody interrupts.

Frequently asked questions

Where the routines come from

Several of these are visible thinking routines developed by Project Zero, a research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Sage Teachers is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Harvard University or Project Zero. The routines are named and described here in our own words; the wording of the prompts and the way each one is run on screen is ours.

Related apps

Want a rich image to reason about? Pair it with Picture This. Opening a lesson with a hook? Try The Hook. For reading specifically, there are 29 more in Reading Activities.