Thinking routines are structured sets of questions or steps designed to scaffold students’ cognitive processes and deepen their understanding. Developed by Project Zero (PZ) researchers, these routines are grounded in the idea of making thinking visible—to instructors and students alike. They encourage learners to engage more thoughtfully with content while recognizing and reflecting on the “thinking moves” they are employing.

Circle of Viewpoints

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? This routine helps students see and explore multiple perspectives. It helps them understand that different people can have different kinds of connections to the same thing, and that these different connections influence what people see and think.

Application: When and where can it be used? The routine works well with topics and artworks that deal with complex issues. It also works well when students are having a hard time seeing other perspectives or when things seem like there are only two sides to an issue. The routine can be used to open discussions about dilemmas and other controversial issues.

Claim, Support, Question

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? This routine supports reasoning by having students form claims, explanations, or interpretations and support them with evidence. Questioning claims helps students see reasoning as an ongoing process.

Application: When and where can I use it? Statements of fact or belief are presented everywhere. This routine is designed to help students take notice of claims and thoughtfully examine them. Use the routine with any topic, work of art, piece of text, poem, etc. to invite careful reasoning and evaluation.

Compass Points

Purpose: Why use this routine? This routine helps students flesh out an idea or proposition and eventually evaluate it.

Application: When and where can I use it? This routine works well to explore various sides and facets of a proposition or idea prior to taking a stand or expressing an opinion on it. For instance, the school may be considering the idea of a dress code, a teacher might present the class with idea of altering the room arrangement, a character in a book might be confronted with making a choice, a politician might be putting forth a new way of structuring taxes, and so on

Connect, Extend, Challenge

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? This routine helps students connect new ideas to those they know and encourages them to reflect upon how they have extended their thinking as a result of what they are learning about or experiencing.

Application: When and where can I use it? Use this routine when you want students to make explicit connections to something previously learned or experienced. Since it is designed to help students process new information actively, it works well as the conclusion to lessons in which students have been reading, watching videos, or otherwise taking in new information. Another approach is to use the routine to close the discussion of a topic or unit of study in order to help students synthesize the information. Some questions you might consider in your planning: Are there connections to be made between this content and what students already know? Will students be engaging with new information that they might find challenging?

I Used to Think… Now I Think…

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? This routine helps students to reflect on their thinking about a topic or issue and explore how and why their thinking has changed. It helps consolidate new learning.

Application: When and where can I use it? This routine can be used whenever students’ initial thoughts, opinions, or beliefs are likely to have changed as a result of a learning experience. This may be after reading new information, watching a film, listening to a speaker, experiencing something new, having a class discussion, at the end of a unit of study, and so on

See, Think, Wonder

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? This routine encourages students to make careful observations and thoughtful interpretations. It helps stimulate curiosity and sets the stage for inquiry.

Application: When and where can I use it? Use this routine when you want students to think carefully about why something looks the way it does or is the way it is. Use the routine with a relevant object (such as an artwork, image, artifact, chart, video, etc.) at the beginning of a new unit to motivate student interest, or try it with an object that connects to a topic during the unit of study. Consider using the routine with an interesting object near the end of a unit to encourage students to further apply their knowledge and ideas

Think, Pair, Share

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? This routine promotes understanding through active reasoning and explanation. Because students listen to and share ideas with others, it also encourages students to understand multiple perspectives.

Application: When and where can I use it? This routine can be used when it would help for students to process their thinking aloud with another student. For example, you may ask students to Think, Pair, Share before starting a science experiment, in the middle of solving a math problem, after reading a passage of a book, etc. Sharing can also be done in small groups.

Think, Puzzle, Explore

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? This routine activates prior knowledge, generates ideas and curiosity, and prepares students for deeper inquiry.

Application: When and where can I use it? This routine works especially well when introducing a new topic, concept, or theme in the classroom. It helps students recall what they already think they know about the topic and then invites them to identify puzzling questions or areas of interest to pursue. This routine can help you gauge students’ current understanding of a topic and inform your subsequent lesson planning. You might return to this thinking routine throughout the study of a topic to surface changes in student conceptions

What Makes You Say That?

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? This routine cultivates observation, description, explanation-building, and evidence-based reasoning. Because students share their interpretations, they are encouraged to see multiple perspectives.

Application: When and where can I use it? Use this routine when you want students to look closely at something and uncover their reasoning about the way it works, how it came to be, or why it is the way it is. For example, you can use this routine when students are looking at works of art or historical artifacts, reading poetry, making scientific observations and hypotheses, or delving into broad conceptual topics like culture, change, or creativity. It also is useful for gathering information on students’ prior understandings when introducing a new topic.