Thinking Routines / What Makes You Say That?
What Makes You Say That?
The habit-forming one. Every idea a child offers gets the same follow-up, until backing it with evidence stops being something you have to ask for.
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What is the What Makes You Say That? thinking routine?
What Makes You Say That? is a thinking routine in which every interpretation is followed by a request for the evidence behind it. A child says what they notice, says what they think it means, and then has to point at the thing that made them think so.
How do you run What Makes You Say That? with a class?
Take an observation, take the interpretation it led to, and then ask the question — every single time, including when the answer is obviously right. The consistency is what does the work. Record each idea beside its evidence so the pairing stays visible.
Why not just ask children to explain?
'Explain' invites a longer version of the same opinion. What Makes You Say That? asks for something narrower: the specific detail that produced the thought. Children who cannot answer it usually discover they were repeating somebody else's idea, which is a useful thing to find out.
The mistake I made for a whole term was asking the question only when I disagreed with a child. They worked that out immediately, and 'what makes you say that?' became the signal that they were wrong — so the confident ones stopped volunteering and the quiet ones never started. Now I ask it every time, including when the answer is exactly what I was hoping for, and the room treats it as ordinary. Same four words, completely different lesson.
Which subjects does What Makes You Say That? suit?
Anywhere a class offers opinions you want evidence for.
- Reading — every inference about a character or a motive.
- History — what a source tells you, and what it only appears to tell you.
- Science — hypotheses, and conclusions drawn from results.
- Anything in the news — a claim somebody made, and what is behind it.
What usually goes wrong with this routine?
Asking the question only when a child is wrong. They spot the pattern within a lesson, and it becomes a signal rather than a habit — so the confident stop volunteering and the quiet never start. Ask it every time, including when the answer is right.
Which year groups is What Makes You Say That? for?
What Makes You Say That? works from Year 2 upwards, grade 1 in the US. Younger children answer with the whole picture rather than a detail, which is fine at first. By Year 5 you can insist on a single piece of evidence and refuse anything vaguer.
What do you do with it afterwards?
Nothing, usually. This routine is a habit rather than an outcome, and its value shows up somewhere else — in a written answer that cites the text without being asked, or in one child asking another what makes them say that. If you want evidence of it, listen rather than collect books.
How often should you use it?
Constantly. Unlike most routines this one is four words long, so it costs nothing to drop into any lesson, any subject, several times a day. That is the point: it only becomes a habit when children stop noticing you are using it.
| Year group | US grade | What to change | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| Years 2–3 | Grades 1–2 | Accept 'because of that bit' with a point at the board. | 5–10 min |
| Years 4–5 | Grades 3–4 | Ask for one detail, not the whole picture. | 10–15 min |
| Year 6 and up | Grade 5+ | Ask what evidence would change their mind. | 15–20 min |
What Makes You Say That? compared with Claim, Support, Question
Both routines make children justify themselves. What Makes You Say That? is short enough to use twenty times a week on anything at all. Claim, Support, Question is a longer sit-down version that also asks them to argue against themselves, which suits a written task better than a starter.
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Where this routine comes from: the What Makes You Say That? thinking routine was 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 prompts and the wording on this page are our own.