Visible Thinking Routine
CSI: Color, Symbol, Image.
Capture a big idea as a color, a symbol, and an image.
What is it
What is CSI: Color, Symbol, Image?
Used after reading, viewing, or hearing something. Forces a non-verbal distillation of the core idea.
Setup: What did the participants just read, see, or hear?.
How it works
The prompts
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01
COLOR — what color captures the essence?
Pick a color and say why.
Response: Color · bucket: color
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02
Why this color?
Response: Longtext · bucket: color
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03
SYMBOL — sketch a symbol that captures it.
A simple mark — arrow, shape, glyph.
Response: Drawing · bucket: symbol
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04
Why this symbol?
Response: Longtext · bucket: symbol
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05
IMAGE — sketch or upload an image that captures it.
A scene, an object, anything visual.
Response: Drawing · bucket: image
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06
Why this image?
Response: Longtext · bucket: image
When to use
Good moments for CSI: Color, Symbol, Image
- 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.