Making Thinking Visible in Practice
ESCALANTE MIDDLE SCHOOL Durango, Colorado
2025–2026
What happens when teachers use thinking routines not simply as activities, but as opportunities to better understand and advance students’ thinking? In these three pictures of practice, Mary Miller, Nevada Benton, and Abigail Perry share what they discovered as they experimented with routines, responded to students’ needs, and worked toward greater learner independence. Across these three classrooms, thinking routines become more powerful when teachers attend closely to students’ ideas, use that thinking to inform their next instructional moves, and gradually transfer greater responsibility for learning to students themselves.
MARY MILLER | +1 Routine
Through a poetry inquiry, Mary discovered how structured opportunities for students to exchange ideas could build confidence, encourage curiosity about differing perspectives, and support meaningful dialogue. As students became more comfortable questioning, responding, and revising their thinking, they increasingly began to see one another as resources for learning.
“My ultimate classroom goal is for my students to become the facilitators and my role was to guide them.”
ABIGAIL PERRY | Take Note
Abigail challenged the assumption that good note-taking means accurately recording what the teacher provides. By inviting students to identify what mattered, what puzzled them, and where they were struggling, she made note-taking a process of reflection and collective sense-making. Students developed more personally meaningful notes, while their questions and mistakes became valuable resources for moving learning forward.
“This is part of building a culture where mistakes are not shamed, but celebrated as learning opportunities.”
NEVADA BENTON | Color, Symbol, Image
Nevada shows that visual representations can be much more than engaging products. By asking students to explain and justify their choices, she turned creative expression into an opportunity for analysis, synthesis, and reasoning with evidence. Her experience highlights the importance of modeling thinking, supporting revision, and gradually helping students become more aware of the quality of their own reasoning.
“I focus on a progression from modeling to metacognition.”
Our Process
Each phase builds on the previous, enabling cumulative insight and continuous optimization.
Articulated objectives
Baseline metrics establish a reference point for subsequent measurement.
Evidence-based insight
Advanced analytics uncover patterns that traditional reviews may overlook.