In The Power of Making Thinking Visible (2020), Ron Ritchart and Mark Church detail what they call, “The Story Routine: Main, Side, Hidden.” I love how this routine really encourages inferencing and systems thinking because students not only discuss the main idea of the image or text they are analyzing, but the routine promotes critical thinking as the students delve deeper into connections and what may be directly and indirectly affecting what appears to be the obvious story. With appropriate scaffolding, the routine can be used with any grade level and any subject (though it may be a stretch to use it in math), though this digital template is best for 3rd grade and up.

I talked about this routine in detail in a post in March, and shared one of the templates I made for a PD on this routine for librarians. This summer, though, I happened to see a template from the one and only Paula at Slides Mania that would work perfectly for this routine. So, I asked her permission to use the template and share it with you. You can find her original template, “Top Secret,” here. (Please go to her link if you want to download the template for anything other than “The Story Routine.”) And here is a link to the version I modified to be used with “The Story Routine.”

I have been collecting all of my resources for digital templates for Visible Thinking Routines in this Wakelet in case you want to see what I’ve posted in the past. If you’re not familiar with Visible Thinking Routines, I definitely recommend reading the book (also the first one in the series), visiting the website, and some of the other links I have in the Google Slides presentation.

The most important thing to remember, in my view, is that these routines are designed to encourage deeper thinking through discussion so, although some of us provide digital resources, they should not be done in isolation. The routines are also what I like to call, “self-differentiating activities” because, by default, they allow students to bring their own individual strengths to the conversations and feel valued.

So, bottom line – more value to the students with less prep time for the teachers. Win/win!