In the current classrooms, teachers mostly focus on completing worksheets and assignments, instead of emphasizing the importance of truly understanding the material. We don’t expect students to “think”, they are mostly only required to memorize and recall knowledge. Effective teaching only comes with understanding our student’s thinking, which allows us to uncover the misconceptions and prior knowledge they are bringing into the classroom.
By making thinking visible, we will be able to plan lessons that are geared towards the needs of our students and use that information to further engage and support them in understanding the material.
So how do we teach our students to “think out loud”? It’s easy when you incorporate making thinking visible strategies into your classroom.
Strategies for Making Thinking Visible!
See-Think-Wonder
- “SEE”: Students will state what they observe from an image/ object. No interpretations should be made at this stage, make sure to only state observations.
- “THINK”: Students will then think about what is going on in the image/ object. This stage is where they interpret and make tentative hypotheses.
- “WONDER”: At this stage, students will now wonder about based on what they have observed and interpreted. Make sure to differentiate “wondering” and “thinking”.
They can share their thinking at each step along the way, noticing what other students may have observed that they have missed, different interpretations they may have and different issues or ideas that can be raised by the image/ object. Documenting the thoughts will allow new discussions to occur, as students raise new ideas and questions.
Here’s a video of how See Think Wonder is used to facilitate learning about human rights.
- Step Inside
This strategy allows students to put themselves in other situations or events, and to think from their point of view. You can ask the students to think about these questions:
This strategy would be useful for students to further their understanding of a certain character or an event and would be much more memorable as well. After asking these questions, make sure to make a list of the ideas and even ask for their reasons and justifications for their thoughts.
- The Explanation Game
The explanation game is divided into 4 steps:
This strategy is similar to See Think Wonder, but in this case, students may know the image/ object but still might not understand how it operates or functions. Through this explanation game, students can explain for themselves why something is the way it is, its purposes, or how it functions.
For example, when starting the chapter on cells, the students may know what a cell looks like but may not be familiar with the functions of each cell component. They can then use this strategy to better understand the different cell organelles and predict their functions.
Making thinking visible is essential to nurture thinking in our students and visualizing thinking will create a culture of thinking which will eventually lead to a strong learning community in your classroom.
Hey Woojin, you mention in the beginning that we as teachers can only be effective if we understand our students thinking, I think this is a great point to emphasize when talking about these MTV strategies. These strategies aren’t just for the students benefit, they benefit us as well. thank you for the reminder. I’d like to know how you might use step inside in the science classrooms, is it only for actual people or could it be used for more abstract processes?
Hi Woojin!
I really enjoyed reading your blog post! I thoroughly agree that our school system is much more focused on memorization and routine than actually teaching students how to think and formulate their own ideas. I think the strategies that involve exploring other viewpoints are really interesting because it is easy to see how it would have a place in a English or social studies classroom, but how would you incorporate a strategy like into a chemistry or biology lesson?
Thank you! I think that strategies like Step Inside would be particularly useful when I’m talking about social issues in Science, such as GMOs, vaccines, nuclear energy etc. Since everyone might have different opinions and viewpoints, this strategy would allow them to think in other perspectives and understand different viewpoints.