View Content #21094

Emily Munn is the Advanced Academics Lead Coach for Metro Nashville Public Schools in Nashville, Tennessee. She is experienced in providing concrete and researched-based support to K-12 teachers in International Baccalaureate, Cambridge, AVID, and Advanced Placement programs.

One of the most valuable tools in the inquiry cycle is the student’s desire to ask/pose questions. By using a well-designed thinking structure to enhance a student’s natural curiosity, the learning of all students can be enriched and developed.  One example of a structured thinking routine is “I see, I think, I wonder.”

In this method, a carefully selected photograph or an art piece is presented to the learners.  The picture is used as a provocation to stimulate curiosity and inquiry for a topic, a concept, or an idea that the teacher wants to the students to explore. Through this routine the teacher can observe students’ prior knowledge, beliefs, and even misconceptions.  The use of this preassessment of the students’ observations can be a key factor in sparking student interest and finding relevance in a topic for the students.

Through three simple stages of exploration, the teacher facilitates a discussion drawing from the students’ statements and interpretations of the image.  In the first round of discussion the teacher asks students to use the sentence stem, “I see” in order to list only what can be seen or touched in the photo.  Students are asked not to make any assumptions or inferences but rather state only what is explicitly observed in the picture.  Teachers may gently guide students back to the “I see” stage by redirecting with a question, “What did you see that made you think that?”   It is very important for every student to have the opportunity to respond.  Often students ‘see’ contrasting elements.  It is not at this point that we add any value or level of correctness to what students are seeing.  Students are free to take academic risks because they trust the community that has been built.

After careful attention to detail, acknowledgement of all students’ statements, and ample wait time, the teacher transitions to the next level of exploration- the “I think” stage.  The teacher asks students to use “I think” as the beginnings of all statements.  A teacher can follow up asking for evidence for what led the students to their belief.   The juxtaposition of interpretations of the same image can help students appreciate different perspectives.  The evidence based claims that the students present can lead to richer, more detailed writing as students learn to develop their ideas and justify their beliefs.

The next stage of exploration is questioning.  Students have had time to observe and explore the image.  They have analyzed the explicit and implied details.  Now students get to ask, “I wonder,” based on what they saw, what they learned from other students’ statements and evidence, what might the student still want to know about this image.  As with the other stages, the teacher acts as the facilitator and need not provide all, or any of, the answers.  After engaging in this structure multiple times, students may be comfortable to help each other through the wonders that are presented.  As students become accustomed to this strategy their questions become more developed higher-level inquiry statements built on concepts and beliefs.

 A teacher may want to document all the stages or chose only the final stage of “I wonder” to record.  These questions can guide further inquiry throughout the unit of study and can be referred to either by the student or by the teacher.

A structured thinking routine serves a variety of purposes.  It benefits the needs of the individual learner, the needs of the community of learners, and the needs of the instructor.  It’s a simple but powerful method to provoke inquiry and build a foundation of trust and confidence for students.

For more information, please see http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03c_Core_routines/SeeThinkWonder/SeeThinkWonder_Routine.html