Visible Thinking Routine
Chalk Talk.
Silent group response to a question; everyone adds + connects.
N_prompt pattern
connect
wonder
interpret
What is it
What is Chalk Talk?
Facilitator-led group routine. We support it as a single open prompt where everyone's responses appear together — read others' before adding.
Setup: Pose the question or problem.
How it works
The prompts
-
01
Add an idea, a connection, or a question
Read what others have written before you add yours.
Response: Longtext
When to use
Good moments for Chalk Talk
- Classroom warm-up. Surface what students bring before introducing new content.
- After a reading or video. Consolidate big ideas without testing recall.
- Discussion starter. Responses become the seed material for the room conversation.
- End-of-session reflection. Capture how thinking changed.
Keep exploring
Other thinking routines
Browse all 21 routines in the gallery, filtered by the kind of thinking you want to surface — observation, perspective-taking, reasoning with evidence, or capturing the heart of an idea.