Making Fairy Tale Thinking Visible

When I do visible thinking routines in my class, I usually do them as a group to help guide the process and model my own thinking for them. 

This has gone pretty well, but recently I have noticed some students not thinking to their potential. The time had come to push them a little more.

I had planned on doing this as a group, but in an attempt to make it a little different, I gave each student the sheet below.

When I was thinking of this post, I at first reflecting on this lesson, I thought giving the students a worksheet like this was the wrong idea. But now that I reflect on this a little more, I think this was a good step for the students.

In the beginning of the lesson, I went through each question as a class and wrote ideas down on the board so they would be able to copy some words. For whatever reason, hopefully it was because of the holidays, the students were not focusing.

Then I gave them their own sheet and allowed them to work with partners or in groups. I think these routines best serve [young] students when they are able to gain insight by listening to others' ideas. I believe that this "idea sharing" helps push thinking further.

I think the issue here was that the students were overconfident. They thought they knew what to do. They did not need to discuss the story because they knew it.

Maybe I need to sell this better next time.

Or maybe I should do this in the morning instead of the afternoon.

**Follow up note: While working their way thorough this, one of my first graders said, "Hey. I can read this!" Maybe that alone made this lesson worth doing.