Adapted by RHS English teacher Mary Ellen Dakin and RHS
Science teacher Erin Parker from Making Thinking Visible by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, Karin Morrison, p.
64-70.
As one of their “routines for introducing and exploring
ideas,” the authors of Making Thinking
Visible devised this thinking routine to encourage students to observe an
image (a photograph, painting, map, chart, poster, book cover, etc.) closely in
carefully chosen segments, and with each reveal to make and then revise their
interpretations based on their growing knowledge of the image. The process can
also be reversed: start with the whole image (the “big picture”) and gradually
zoom in.
- Set up. Display a section of the
selected image and invite learners to look attentively at it, allowing
time for careful observation. You might want to begin with observations
before moving to invite learners to develop opinions or interpretations
based on what they see. They can do this individually, in small groups, or
as a whole class.
- Reveal. Uncover more of the image
and again ask learners to identify anything new they are seeing and
consider how this new information affects their previous interpretations.
Depending on the image, you may ask more pointed questions: “What do you
think the relationship is between the people / objects you observed in the
first section of the image and this new section? What feelings are you
getting from the words / numbers revealed so far? Do you have a prediction
of what the next section of the image will look like?” At this stage, you
might want to ask students about their wonderings as well.
- Repeat. Continue the process of
revealing and interpreting until the entire image has been revealed and
invite learners to ask any lingering questions they have. Encourage the
learners to discuss their different interpretations and reflect how their
thinking has changed with each new reveal.
 4. Share the thinking. Reflect on how
interpretations shifted and changed over time. How did seeing more of the
image influence their thinking? Which parts were rich in information and
had a dramatic effect? Which were more ambiguous? What would the effect
have been if the reveals had happened in a different order? What is the
effect of limited information on thinking?
NOTE: The images in this examples were excerpted from the cover of E. O. Wilson's book not only for their beauty and visual complexity but because of the author's purpose. In a book that examines environmental challenges to the future of life, the cover depicts endangered and extinct species.
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