What Makes You Say That?
Pair an interpretation with the reasoning behind it.
Reasoning with evidenceBuilding explanations
What is What Makes You Say That??
Reasoning-with-evidence routine. Often paired with another routine that produces a claim.
Setup: What statement or interpretation are we examining?.
The prompts
- 1What's your interpretation?
- 2What makes you say that?Cite what you saw, heard, read, or know.
Good moments for What Makes You Say That?
- 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