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Jennifer Hollander, LMSW shares about the power of
Jennifer Hollander, LMSW shares about the power of
The Step-Inside Thinking Routine on perpsective-taking.
The Step-Inside Thinking Routine on perpsective-taking.
Remember the internet buzz about what color is the dress?
Remember the internet buzz about what color is the dress?
Source: Daily Mail
Do you see an old woman or a young woman?
Do you see an old woman or a young woman?
Source: Optical Illusionist
Do you see white birds flying or black birds?
Do you see white birds flying or black birds?
Source: Susi Santiago
Perspective...
Perspective...
- our thoughts of how we view a situation. It starts world wars. It creates conflict. It divides people. Developing empathy through understanding others ends conflict and unites people.
Our perspective provides a framework for our thoughts and gives us the foundation for how we begin to form those thoughts and opinions. As we begin to build a culture of thinking in our social work practices, we want to ensure that we are that we are providing opportunities for student to take their thinking to a deeper level and to develop a greater empathic response. The thinking routine Step Inside is the perfect platform for our goal.
Step Inside is a digging deeper routine that elicits the thinkers to “get inside” an idea, person, or image and then visually express those thoughts either through words or drawings. This routine is flexible as it can be done with a whole class, small group, or individually with one student.
Here’s how it works:
Here’s how it works:
• Pick your topic. Are you looking to help students understand more about the ASD students in their classroom? Are you doing classroom lessons on bullying and you want students to have a deeper understanding of what it feels like to be a bully, a target, or a bystander? Are you working with a student with school anxiety and you want to help that student gain a greater understanding of his or her needs that will then give you more insight for how to help this student?
• Provide the background information and introduce the routine. For example, as part of my second grade friendship lessons, I read the book series Weird!, Dare! and Tough! (incredible elementary age books by Erin Frankel). As part of one of the lessons, I introduce the thinking routine Step Inside. We talk about how we do not really know someone by just looking at their outside behaviors, but we need to have more information about them and to get to know them better in order to understand their actions.
Show the image, read the book, set the scene
Source: theweirdseries.com
• Provide an opportunity for the students to draw or write about how it feels to be this person. What feelings does this person have? What does he think? What does he wonder? What would this person say if s/he was talking to you? The students can write this out, draw it out, or be as creative as you want. This can be done through a whole class discussion with you creating the visuals, it can be done individually or in small groups.
• Finally, don’t forget the conversations. The thinking routine provides a framework to help students begin to think deeper, but the real thinking happens during the conversations. Students need to share their thoughts with other students – whole group, pairs, small group – it doesn’t matter. What is important it the ideas that they are sharing and the reasoning behind their thinking. If we want students to think deeper then we need to challenge their thinking. “Wow! What made you think that?” “What part of the story gave you those ideas?” “How do you know that?” My favorite part of this activity is eavesdropping on the conversations of the students. Hearing them talk about their ideas of how the person felt and what prompted them to write or draw what they did, is fascinating and gives me a lot of insight into if my lesson “hit the target” or what else I want to stress when I close the activity/lesson.
Slow Down
Slow Down
One important thing that I have learned through doing many thinking routines is we need to slow down. If we want our students to really learn important skills and information during their time with us, then we need to slow down and give them the opportunity to truly absorb the information, process it, and have a chance to show what they know. This is really hard! Our time is short with students; a crisis comes up, a teacher knocks on your office door right in the middle of your lesson; it’s time again for district testing. I know – our job is crazy on many days, but I’ve made a conscious choice to dig deeper on fewer ideas then try to cover more ideas by just touching the surface. I’m seeing more students who are able to articulate their thoughts with me verbally or visually. They can explain what we learned and how they can apply it outside of my office, and they are remembering it. We can come back to a topic and look at their visual thinking from a routine and it strikes a memory with them.
Routines provide a structure to help students begin to think deeper. Step Inside guides students to take on the perspective of someone else in order to better understand that person and ultimately to better understand themselves.
Examples of Step Inside Thinking Routine Lessons:
Examples of Step Inside Thinking Routine Lessons:
Videos
Videos
Videos are great ways to begin a Step Inside lesson. This lesson was designed to help the students in a 2nd grade class understand that the students with Cognitively Impairments in their class just want to be treated like every other 2nd grade student. First, the class watched the following video about a girl named Phoebe who has a physical disability and uses an augmentative communication device to speak. The students were captivated by Phoebe. After the video we had a whole group Step Inside discussion. As a class we created a poster showing Phoebe’s likes and dislikes, her hopes and dreams, as well as her feelings and other things that we learned about her. The class realized what life is like from Phoebe’s perspective. Once that discussion was through, we talked about the students with special needs who are part of their classroom. We did a Step Inside for these students too. As the class was sharing their thoughts, the conversation turned to how the students who receive special education support want to be treated just like Phoebe. They are looking to build friendships with their classmates. This thinking routine provided the framework for a classroom conversation, and the poster of Phoebe is hanging in the classroom as a visual reminder of the ideas that we shared.
Peer Mediation Program
Peer Mediation Program
Many middle schools or high schools have peer mediation programs. These students are trained in how to engage in active listening, knowing the types of conflict, and the mediation process. You can use the Step Inside thinking routine to help the mediators have a better understanding of the disputants (the students coming to mediation). Decide the ideas that you want your mediators to explore (how a disputant feels when coming to mediation, what a disputant is thinking about during the mediation, why a disputant signs up for mediation, etc.) The next step can be done in two different ways. You can break your mediators up into small groups and have each group design a “Step Inside a Disputant” poster. Another way would be to take each of your ideas and put them on individual chart paper. The mediators can go around to the different papers and write down or draw out their thoughts. Finally, a whole group discussion is important to share the ideas and the rationale behind the thinking.
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