Sacha Muller and Laura Wolff
| Title: Taking different perspectives |
| Grade Level: 2nd & 3rd |
| Content Areas: History |
| Learning Objective: SWBAT understand and assume perspectives apart from their own, through a journal writing. |
| Learning Target: Reasoning Proficiency EALR’s Social Studies – History 1.3 Benchmark 1- describe the contributions of people of various cultural groups to the development of the local community and Washington State, for example, native peoples, colonists, pioneers, and immigrants |
Assumptions: Students are familiar with journal writing and buddy sharing.
Pre-assessment: On the previous day, have students respond in their journal to the following: What does it mean to have a different point of view than someone else? What does it mean to disagree?
Rationale: Before talking about social justice and how to make a change in our classroom, school or community we must be able to solve problems. Solving problems includes being able to take into consideration the perspectives of the people involved. Being able to understand social justice as it has occurred within history also involves the ability to see from different perspectives.
Materials: Chart paper with the following topics (along with pictures) written/drawn on it: bug on a leaf, bird in the sky, a door mat, a flea on a dog, etc. At the bottom write the words: Smell, Look, Feel, Sound (also with pictures)
Word Perspective is written on the board
Procedures
Introduction: Today we are going to learn about perspectives and point of view. We are going to start by count off by ones and twos. When I tell you to, the ones will stand in their chairs and the twos will sit on the floor. (Address safety issues and ways of getting up on the chairs and down safely)
Once students assume their assigned positions say, Imagine that you are the height that you are currently standing or sitting at. This is your so this is your new perspective, your view, of our classroom. I want you to sit/stand there for two minutes and look around you. How does the classroom feel? What does it look like? After you look around, I will call on you to tell me what you see and feel.
Have two columns on the board, one for sitting on the floor and the other for the chair standers. (Label the columns and use different colored chalk for the columns) Ask students: How did the classroom feel to you? What did it look like?
Take suggestions and comments from the students and record them on the board. Have them return to their seats. Point and circle with your finger one column and say This is one perspective of the classroom from those of you who were standing in your chairs, then point to the other column and circle it with your finger and say And this is another perspective of the classroom, for those of you who were sitting on the floor. Perspective is how you view things. How do these perspectives of the classroom differ? How are they the same?
*Make sure to emphasize this point: We are all seeing the same thing (our classroom), but from a different view or perspective.
Journal writing-
In a minute we are going to write in our journals. We will do an exercise in taking the perspective of something or someone other than our own. I have written up here some things that we might see in our own neighborhood that have a different perspective of life than we do. They are: a bug on a leaf, a bird in the sky, a door mat, and a flea on a dog. I want you to close your eyes and imagine you were a bug on a leaf. Without talking, but just thinking …What do you see? (Wait for 10 sec.) What do you hear? (Wait ten sec.) What do you smell? (Wait 10 sec.) Now I want you to open your eyes. In our journals I want you to write about one of the things on this chart paper. Pretend you are one of the things on this chart, just like we just did when we imagined we were a bug on a leaf. I want you to write for ten minutes about how the world looks to you as a flea on a dog, or as a door mat. What does it feel like, smell like, look like, and sound like? (Point to the hear, smell, feel, look words and pictures on the chart) Does anyone have any questions? Who can raise their hand and repeat for me what you are going to write about in your journals? Now I’d like you all to get out your journals and start writing for 10 min. (Use a visual timer for students to reference)
Closure: Students will partner share after they have finished writing and then will turn in their journals. Their journal entries will be assessed on students’ ability to create a view apart from their own.
Accommodations: Instructions written on the board. Provide students with mini-laptop devices for journal writing, if needed. Provide pictures for the writing prompts on the chart at the front of the room. Use of colored chalk to differentiate lists on the board. Use a visual timer for the 10 minute journal writing.