“Overview, Parts, Think, Illustrate, Question OPTIQ” Gallery Walk

Routines shown in classrooms and professional learning workshops.

These routines provide teachers with opportunities to observe and build off students' low-stakes reactions, thoughts and feelings, which in turn grows curiosity, independence and engagement into content.

Over repeated use, students will learn to not get frustrated by reading or writing in any content area, to value peer ideas and to get excited about deep engagement. The writing routines also instill pre-writing processes by helping students synthesize their ideas on paper, even when they can't readily explain or speak about them.

While some of the routines strictly focus on developing discourse habits, all of the routines rely on some element of Discourse. Discourse is the major bridge between the consumption of content and the production of one’s own ideas. It is the true test of students’ thoughts (from when they are initially formulated to a shared verbal revision with peers), which can then lead to a formalized written analysis. At the heart of a discourse aim is the value of listening, which is a practice that students only can understand by experiencing routinized equity.

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