Images Draw You In is a durable learning routine that invites students into a topic by making a personal connection to an image, exploring the image through a question, and connecting the image to a big idea, central to the topic under study.
During Images Draw You In students select an image that connects to their experiences, they know something about, or that leaves them with questions. Then students select a question that would invite an interesting discussion of the image. Finally, students stand under a posted big idea or understanding goal and consider how their discussion might change given the new context. Depending on the image collection, the activity may be used to introduce curriculum units or to invite analysis of documents, quotes from readings, data tables and figures, and student work examples.
Use questions and big ideas to develop curiosity and understanding of an image or topic.
Consider the parts of all learning experiences, content (topic under study), process (questions that drive learning), understanding goals, and product (student responses or outcomes of the learning experience).
Click on any of the documents below to view them in a new tab. Feel free to download or print them so you could add them to your lesson plans.
- Images Draw You In – Directions & Lesson Plan
- Create Your Own Images Draw You In Activity
- Images Draw You In – Examples
- Images Draw You In – Activity Slides
- Understanding Statement Signs
- Sample questions for image bubbles (English) / (español)
- Bloom’s Taxonomy Question Guide
- Question Bubble Classroom Sets Set 1 / Set 2 / Set 3 / Set 4 / Set 5
Practice the Deeper Learning Thinking Routine to make meaning with students through Teaching with Grace – Project Freedom: Sojourner Truth and make a Crop It activity for your students to play. Crop It is the opposite of Zoom In. Crop-It asks students to deconstruct an image, while Zoom In invites students to build understanding. However, both routines use images and questions to gain deeper learning.
Create Crop-It activities with the digital Crop-It tool or paper-based printouts.
Image Citations
Keystone View Company. (1898) Noon hour, going to the Klondyke, North Pacific R.R. car. Alaska, 1898. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/99614011/.