I came across an enticing book today, Making Thinking Visible. It requires more time than I or any teacher might have for reading right now. So I skimmed the pages for visuals that make the authors’ thinking visible, so to speak.

The chapter on “Routines for Introducing and Exploring Ideas” caught my eye with the “see–think–wonder” routine because this concept is so similar to the conversation starters that Sharon Davidson shared in her blog earlier this month.

“I see, I think, I wonder” is a great strategy for modeling and developing the mathematical practices of Common Core Standards. And it is easy to implement. Invite children to join the conversation with their own “I see, I think, I wonder” statements.

Here is an example related to introducing long division using 369 ÷ 7.

Teacher: What do you notice? Student: I see a division problem. Teacher: I wonder how many 7s we can take out of 369.
Student: I think it will be less than 100. Teacher: I wonder why you think that.
Student: Because 7 times 100 is 700 and we only have 369. Teacher: I wonder how we can use that idea to solve the problem.
Student: I think I’ll try 50. Teacher: I wonder how how you decided on 50.
Student: Half of 700 is 350. That’s close to 369.

Students are thinking all the time. Just ask!