Multiple Perspectives

Multiple Perspectives is one of my favorite concepts from Kaplan's Depth and Complexity to do with my Kinder students. In the beginning, this is very difficult for them. The world revolves around them and they have trouble putting themselves in someone else's shoes.

But the more we do these activities regularly, the better they get at it. I see them not only being able to think more deeply but also developing empathy through these activities.

We read the poem:

Mirror by Silvia Plath

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever you see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful---
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

I only use the first stanza because the 2nd one gets a little kooky (it is Sylvia Plath after all). But we discuss how the mirror feels and what it sees. Then the students chose an object and wrote from its perspective. How would it feel? What would it see? What would it wish for?

I am so proud of their results! They are all creative ideas and they really showed how well they can put themselves in another's shoes.