Visible Thinking Routine
Generate–Sort–Connect–Elaborate.
Concept-mapping routine — generate, sort by centrality, connect, elaborate.
N_prompt pattern
connect
complexity
What is it
What is Generate–Sort–Connect–Elaborate?
A concept-map routine. We capture the four steps as text fields here; drawing the actual map happens on paper or whiteboard.
Setup: Topic or concept to map.
How it works
The prompts
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01
GENERATE — initial ideas (one per line)
Response: Longtext
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02
SORT — which are central, which are tangential?
Response: Longtext
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03
CONNECT — which ideas connect, and how?
Response: Longtext
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04
ELABORATE — what new ideas extend or build on these?
Response: Longtext
When to use
Good moments for Generate–Sort–Connect–Elaborate
- 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.