See, Think, Wonder

A lone gum tree in Bega, photo from abc.net.au

Today I had the pleasure of attending an Into English professional learning session on the HSC Advanced English Module A comparative study of 1984 and Metropolis in Burwood, Sydney. Aside from being a nice day of collegial discussion and delivery of English guru-dom from Emily Bosco and Anthony Bosco, I found it especially useful as a jumping off point for an idea that I could use beyond the comparative study. 

This quick, simple and flexible activity that seems like it could endure a multitude of contexts is the See Think Wonder routine, developed by Harvard Project Zero as part of their Visible Thinking framework, and regularly touted by Into English as a reliable way to get students to externalise their process for text analysis.

The model is brilliantly straightforward:

• What do you see?
• What do you think about that?
• What does it make you wonder?

This can be applied in so many different ways, and for multiple KLAs at multiple stages of student development.  

By the time Emily Bosco had demonstrated an example for analysing Metropolis I had already started applying it to things I was currently teaching.

I'm currently doing Belonging as the Area of Study with my Year 11 Advanced class, with Skryznecki's Immigrant Chronicle as the Prescribed Text. In a week or so from now the class will be longing at an example of a Related Text, so I'll give them some guided questions in the See, Think, Wonder fashion.

SEE: What characteristics of belonging do you see in this text?

THINK: What perspective of belonging do you think is being communicated in this text?

What elements of context do you think may have influenced the composer of this text?

WONDER: In what way might this text relate to Skryznecki's treatment of belonging in his poetry?

The activity is effective because it pushes students towards incorporating observations into the thinking process and owning the answers to the questions. It shouldn't come as a surprise to most teachers reading this, but half the battle in helping students find success is getting them to take risks when it comes to learning. The See, Think, Wonder routine acts as a scaffold to encourage ownership of the analytical process.

Here's another example I'm toying with for use with Year 9 in their current study of indigenous poetry. It relates to the Oodgeroo Noonuccal poem Municipal Gum. 

SEE: What characteristics of Australian society do you see in this text?

THINK: What perspective of Australian society do you think is being communicated in this poem?

What do you think the context of the poet and poem might be?

WONDER: How might this poem relate to other poems we have looked at this term?

I hope to try it this week, so we'll see how it goes!

You can check out Into English here. They provide great professional learning on a range of HSC English modules, and I recommend them unequivocally.

For more on Harvard Project Zero's Visible Learning (particularly in regards to See Think Wonder), follow this link. This is also a great resource.