Visible Thinking Routine
3–2–1 Bridge.
3 words, 2 questions, 1 metaphor — twice — then bridge them.
What is it
What is 3–2–1 Bridge?
Two-stage routine with explicit reflection. Initial response captures naive understanding; new response captures it after engagement; the bridge makes the change visible.
Setup: What's the key concept or topic?.
How it works
The prompts
Initial response
-
01
3 words
Three single words that come to mind.
Response: Words
-
02
2 questions
Response: Words
-
03
1 metaphor or simile
"This is like…"
Response: Text
New response
-
01
3 words
Response: Words
-
02
2 questions
Response: Words
-
03
1 metaphor or simile
Response: Text
Bridge
-
01
How did your thinking shift?
Connect your new responses to your initial ones.
Response: Longtext
When to use
Good moments for 3–2–1 Bridge
- 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.