Visible Thinking Routines
Visible Thinking Routines are a set of questions or a brief sequence of steps used to scaffold and support student thinking. The toolbox of Thinking Routines has been developed across a number of research projects at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project Zero.
What are Visible Thinking Routines?
Visible Thinking is a flexible and systematic research-based conceptual framework, which aims to integrate the development of students' thinking with content learning across subject matters. At the core of Visible Thinking are practices that help make thinking visible: Thinking Routines loosely guide learners' thought processes and encourage active processing.
Visible Thinking makes extensive use of learning routines that are rich in thinking. These routines are simple structures, for example a set of questions or a short sequence of steps, that can be used across various grade levels and content. What makes them routines, versus mere strategies, is that they get used over and over again in the classroom so that they become part of the fabric of classroom' culture. The routines become the ways in which students go about the process of learning. Routines are patterns of action that can be integrated and used in a variety of contexts. You might even use more than one routine in teaching a single lesson. Thus, you shouldn't think about the routine as taking time away from anything else you are doing; they should actually enhance what you are trying to do in the classroom.
Core Thinking Routines
Rather than 'reinventing the wheel,' in this section I am going to direct you to take a look at the Project Zero's Thinking Routines Toolbox
Alice Vigor's excellent website: Thinking Pathways contains a number of downloadable templates. In the Thinking Routines section of the website there are many practical examples of visible thinking routines in action.
The Project Zero Thinking Routines Toolbox associates a number of the routines with literacy, literature, reading and writing. The routines on the website are not the only routines you might like to use in your classroom, but they are a great start! The highlighted list is available here.
I have been using visible thinking routines in my classroom for over 10 years and as the toolbox has grown over the years, my exploration of it has deepened. Some of my favourite visible thinking routines for the language and literature classroom are linked below. If you're new to visible thinking routines, the routines below are a great place to start!
Connect Extend Challenge
This routine is useful to support students in connecting new ideas to those they already have and it encourages them to reflect on how they have extended and challenged their thinking further.
I used to think...now I think...
I use this routine to encourage students to reflect on how their thinking about a
how their thinking about a topic or idea has changed. It's a super quick routine to
use towards the end of a lesson and can be used as an exit feedback strategy to
gauge what students have learned during your lesson.
3-2-1 Bridge
In this routine, students develop an understanding of their own process of learning
by considering what they know about a topic before and after a learning
experience. The inclusion of a metaphor or simile encourages creative thinking.
Circle of Viewpoints
This routine helps students see and explore multiple perspectives. It's perfect for discussions of the debatable inquiry questions and topics raised in the language and literature classroom that lend themselves to expressing individual perspectives.
Artful Thinking Website
The Artful Thinking palette of visible thinking strategies will help Language and Literature teachers use works of visual art and music in ways that strengthen student thinking and learning in the arts and beyond. The goal is to help teachers create connections between works of art and the curriculum, and to help teachers use art as a force for developing students’ thinking dispositions. Using the artist's palette as a central metaphor, the Artful Thinking "palette" is comprised of six thinking dispositions which strengthen students' intellectual behaviors. These dispositions are developed through Thinking Routines, which are easy to learn and can deepen students' thinking in the classroom.