Helping students understand the difference between I think and I know.

Reflecting on my years of teaching, one memorable week in my grade 1 class stands out, where a delightful surprise turned into a valuable teaching tool. We had a special guest visit us to talk about our feelings, thoughts, and the words we use. She introduced us to thought bubbles and speech bubbles to help differentiate between what we think and what we say.

Later that day, during our science lesson on predicting, I asked the students to pick three items from the classroom and predict if they would roll, slide, or do both. After making their predictions, they tested the items and recorded their predictions and the actual outcomes in their science journals.

One of my bright stars had a brilliant suggestion: "We could use thought bubbles for what we think will happen and speech bubbles to show what actually happened!" The students loved this idea. It made it very clear for everyone what their guesses were and what their actual observations turned out to be.

Using Bubbles to Show Thinking

Predicting can be a tricky concept to teach in grade 1. Understanding the difference between I think and I know is tricky. Students often struggle to distinguish between "I think" and "I know." My little perfectionists frequently hunted for erasers to change their predictions to the correct answers. However, using thought bubbles and speech bubbles seemed to resolve this issue. Students became more comfortable with thinking the wrong thing—after all, it was just a thought, not yet voiced. The important part, the accurate observation, went into the speech bubble.

Expanding the Idea: Using Venn Diagrams

Seeing how effective the bubbles were, I realized this approach could be used in other subjects, such as math and reading. It could help students clearly separate their initial thoughts from their final answers, fostering a growth mindset.

What Did I Learn at School Today?

My students never cease to amaze me with their ideas and suggestions. I love the concept of using thought bubbles for predictions and speech bubbles for findings. How about you? How do you teach predicting? Have your students ever taught you a better way to explain something? Do you already use thought bubbles and speech.

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