Helping our students develop their critical thinking and inference skills is a key goal of Thinking Organized.
One tool that we use is the New York Times‘ “What’s Going On in This Picture?” feature, where students are presented with an image without context and have to determine what exactly they are looking at.
The Oct. 2 feature displayed this picture and posed the following questions for students:
1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:
• What is going on in this picture?
• What do you see that makes you say that?
• What more can you find?
2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
Note: Since Oct. 9 is a holiday for many school districts, the next “What’s Going On in This Picture?” will take place on Oct. 16.