Visible Thinking Routine
Red Light, Yellow Light.
Flag what stops you (red) and what gives you pause (yellow).
Source pattern
reason
complexity
wonder
What is it
What is Red Light, Yellow Light?
Critical-reading routine. Surfaces doubts about truth or accuracy.
Setup: Provide the material.
How it works
The prompts
-
01
RED lights — claims that stop you in your tracks
What seems untrue or inaccurate?
Response: Longtext · bucket: red
-
02
YELLOW lights — claims that give you pause
What needs more checking?
Response: Longtext · bucket: yellow
When to use
Good moments for Red Light, Yellow Light
- 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.