Smith / Willett 2nd Grade Thinking Routine: See Think Wonder

Smith / Willett 2^nd Grade Thinking Routine:   See Think Wonder

Connect:  You begin by looking at an image or a problem and asking the students “What do you See” and writing everything they say down in the column.  Then, you ask “What do you Think” about anything that they noticed.  This probes them to look a little deeper at what they noticed on the surface to see if there is any significance to it.  Finally, you ask students “What do you Wonder?”, which allows them to take what they thought about the image or problem and let their imaginations run wild…what is the setting, what happened to cause this problem, why did the author/painter/creator set it up this way, what are we supposed to take away from this?  These are all high-level inquiries that propel our students into discovering the “answers” for themselves.

What I did:

Kids were getting ready to go on a field trip to the Botanical Gardens as a hands-on experience after researching plants and geology.  Kids were shown some pictures given to us by the Botanical Gardens and their welcome packet.  Some of the pictures showed seeds, leaves, and shiny stones.  Kids were given sticky notes to write a See, Think, and Wonder for each of the 3 pictures.  Kids placed their sticky notes on the appropriate chart.

 

Extend:

Kids in the other 2^nd grade classes were participating in the same routine and with the same photos.  The day after our routine, we went over some of the sticky note thoughts, sights, and wonders listed from our group of kids.  Kids were given time to discuss their reasonings and thinkings with each other through peer share. 

Kids were asked to pick their most insightful thought, sight, and wonder and bring them along to the field trip to hopefully extend their thinking, get answers, or discover new findings while on the trip with their adult chaperone and peers.  Kids got to review their new learnings with their peers once back in class after the field trip.

Challenge:

I would like to try to switch class See Think Wonder charts among the Literacy classes to have deep level discussions on how kids in other classes show their thinking.  Are there patterns?  Do other kids have the same ideas we do?  What are they doing well that we could try?  What are we doing well that they could try?