PERSPECTIVES, CONTROVERSIES & DILEMMAS

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage?

This routine helps students see and explore multiple perspectives. It helps them understand that different people can have different kinds of connections to the same thing, and that these different connections influence what people see and think.

Application: When and where can it be used? 

The routine works well with topics and artworks that deal with complex issues. It also works well when students are having a hard time seeing other perspectives or when things seem like there are only two sides to an issue. The routine can be used to open discussions about dilemmas and other controversial issues.

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? 

To help students more effectively flesh out and evaluate options, alternatives, and choices in a decision-making situation. 

Application: When and where can I use it? 

This routine is part of an overall decision-making process that begins with the generation of options, choices, or alternatives for solving the problem or satisfying the needs of a situation. Once options are identified, they need to be evaluated in order to make a choice. Use this routine whenever students need to make a thoughtful and reasoned decision. Examples could include: the choice of a final project; direction for an investigation; making a group or whole class decision on how to allocate time, money, or resources; electing a group leader or spokesman; choosing among possible classes, and so on.

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? 

Too often, information can be accepted at face value without any supporting evidence. This routine is designed to explore the complexity of the realm of truth. It encourages slow looking, perspective taking, seeking supporting evidence, and analysis to uncover the core and accuracy of information. Some questions that might emerge as students use the routine are: Is there supporting evidence? Are many facts and figures reported? Does it fit with what you have learned before? Never be afraid to ask questions.

Application: When and where can I use it? 

The routine can be helpful to show students that images or information presented are not always truthful accounts of events. One suggestion for doing this is to select an image showing that if only part of it was visible, different ‘truths’ could be interpreted. Cut the image into separate pieces, show only a part of it at a time as if each piece was a standalone complete picture, facilitate a discussion on what can be seen and thoughts/interpretations of what is happening, and then show the complete image and compare with initial thoughts. Alternately, show only one of a sequence of images or read only part of an article initially, discuss it and then complete the sequence.

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? 

Feelings and Options scaffolds perspective taking, empathic problem-solving, ethics spotting, and communication skills for social dilemmas of digital life. 

Application: When and where can I use it?

 Feelings and Options is a thinking routine for engaging with social and emotional dilemmas. It’s designed to support students to explore different perspectives and practice language for constructive and kind communication. By using this routine repeatedly, students can develop the sensitivity to recognize dilemmas and the dispositions to 1) explore and care about others’ perspectives, and 2) envision options and possible impacts before acting. 

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? 

The routine encourages students to consider past perspectives and develop a better understanding of how thinking changes over time and across cultures. It helps students acknowledge that we have strong stances regarding controversial issues, and that our stances are influenced by social and historical context. It is also helps to uncover stereotypical perceptions as well as ethnocentric and presentist judgments. 

Application: When and where can I use it? 

The routine works best when dealing with issues that at one point in time or in a different culture were considered controversial. It can be used with topics about which we have strong stances that are not necessarily shared by people from other cultures or people in the past. Examples of these topics might include: slavery, holocausts, genocide, human rights, women’s rights, child labor, war, and so on. This routine works well when students have had some experience with the topic and have at least a basic knowledge of its historical development.

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage? 

A key part of thinking is spotting situations that need more thought, and where more thought is worthwhile. This spotting routine asks learners to spot “thinking hotspots” about truth within a topic or situation that might be worth more attention. It thus helps them to be more alert to truth hotspots in the future. Also, asking “What makes this idea this way?” draws from learners characteristics that make an idea more or less uncertain and more or less important. This greater awareness helps them to spot truth hotspots in the future. 

Application: When and where can I use it? 

Spotting truth hotspots can be used on almost any topic or situation. It can be used to introduce a topic, to draw out students’ initial thoughts. It can be used to review a topic, to look back at something students have studied, in the middle of a topic to take stock. It can be used to get students started on identifying projects or identifying issues for discussion in small groups or to launch a whole-class discussion.

Purpose: What kind of socio-emotional learning and thinking does this routine encourage? 

This routine encourages students to make careful observations and thoughtful interpretations. It provides opportunity to connect and share motions and it helps stimulate curiosity and sets the stage for inquiry. Use this routine when you want students to think carefully about why something looks the way it does or is the way it is. Use the routine at the beginning of a new unit to motivate student interest or try it with an object that connects to a topic during the unit of study. Consider using the routine with an interesting object near the end of a unit to encourage students to further apply their knowledge and ideas. 

Application: When and where can I use it? 

Ask students to make an observations about an object—it could be an artwork, image, artifact, or topic—and follow up with what they think might be going on, what they think this observations might be and what feelings emerge when looking. Encourage students to back up their interpretation with reasons. Ask students to think about what this makes them wonder about the object or topic. The routine works well in a group discussion but in some cases you may want to ask students to try the routine individually on paper or in their heads before sharing out as a class. Student responses to the routine can be written down and recorded so that a class chart of observations, interpretations, and wonderings are listed for all to see and return to during the course of study.

Purpose: What kind of thinking does this routine encourage?

The routine provides learners with a structure for a text-based discussion built around making connections, asking questions, identifying key ideas, and considering application. 

Application: When and where can I use it? 

After reading a text, or even several different but related texts, small groups can use this rou-tine to discuss the text and explore the application of ideas. The individual questions for each of the C’s may be adjusted to fit the needs of the group and the text being read. Sometimes you may want to focus on a just 2 or 3 C’s rather than all 4.