UPDATE 9/29/2020: Here is a link to a post with a Google Slides Template for online learning using this routine. The post also includes a link to a post by Dr. Catlin Tucker with 5 other Thinking Routine Templates.
“Peel the Fruit” is a Visible Thinking Routine from Project Zero. I have mentioned some of the other thinking routines on this blog in the past (CSI, 3-2-1 Bridge) that have been very effective in my classroom for encouraging students to think deeper. More recently, I wrote about how the Smithsonian Learning Lab uses Thinking Routines to examine art. I have never used “Peel the Fruit” before, but it seems like it would be particularly useful for older students to use for examining news stories right now or for younger students to think more deeply about a picture book they are reading.
In the “Peel the Fruit” routine, students start by making observations about the “surface” of their subject, and go through six more steps to discover the implications beneath what appears to be obvious. You can see an example of this being used with a text on this page created by Alice Vigors. (There is also a template that you can download.)
Ron Ritchart, who has a book coming out in May 2020, and is one of Harvard’s Project Zero researchers, has included a different graphic by Paviter Singh that might be more appropriate for older students on his blog. Ron also offers a link to this document created by Carol Geneix and Jaime Chao-Mignano at Washington International School, that suggests online tools that can be used with each of the Project Zero Thinking Routines.
“Peel the Fruit” would be an excellent way to encourage curiosity and critical thinking about an image, Tweet, news article, headline, or literary work. If students have never done the routine before, it would be helpful to model the process before asking them to complete it independently.