What's going on?!

It's the end of April and testing season has begun. So "What's going on?!" seemed like a fitting introduction to this post. Up is down. Down is up. Will we ever make it to June? No worries, we think that EVERY year and we ALWAYS make it!


What's going on in this picture is actually a discussion technique for students posted each week by the New York Times. This is what their website says:

Students

1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:

• What is going on in this picture?

• What do you see that makes you say that?

• What more can you find?

2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)

3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.

Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern Time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.

4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?

This is great for any ELA or history teacher at ANY level to get students talking, making inferences, and talking about their thinking. Science teachers that observation is an important part of the scientific method, so it could be used to teach them to observe the world around them in a systematic way.  You could pose the visible thinking strategies questions to the students. This closely mirrors what we know about teaching students to practice close reading.

Some ideas for its use include:

• Using it as a Monday Google Classroom discussion prompt
• Giving the students the picture and letting them annotate around it
• Having them think-pair-share in partners about what it reminds them of in order to make connections

My favorite picture is this one - What's going on?!

How will you use this resource in your classroom?