Connect Extend Challenge
What connects to prior thinking, what extends it, what challenges it.
Making connectionsBuilding explanationsUncovering complexity
What is Connect Extend Challenge?
Reflective routine after engaging with new material.
Setup: Reference the material under discussion.
The prompts
- 1CONNECT · How is this connected to what you already knew?
- 2EXTEND · What extended or broadened your thinking?
- 3CHALLENGE · What challenges or puzzles surfaced?
Good moments for Connect Extend Challenge
- Classroom warm-upSurface what students bring before introducing new content.
- After a reading or videoConsolidate big ideas without testing recall.
- Discussion starterResponses become the seed material for the room conversation.
- End-of-session reflectionCapture how thinking changed.
About Visible Thinking
Visible Thinking Routines were developed by Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (Ron Ritchhart, David Perkins). They are short structured protocols for surfacing thinking, not assessments.
Project Zero website