Checking Perspectives

We’re going to examine how characters from TV shows or movies respond to one another when challenges arise. This will help us practice our perspective-taking skills - which is considering what someone else is thinking and feeling in a particular situation. We can make predictions about others’ perspectives by thinking about how others are feeling and how we might feel in a certain situation.

1. Select a short clip from a TV show or movie that shows characters using and/or struggling to use perspective-taking skills. Examples of video clips include:

• From “Friends”: Friends - Ross’s Sandwich https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2xi7B3mkr0
• From “Frozen”: Do You Want to Build a Snowman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRsBMPnQYbQ

2. Pause the clip after one character expresses a certain opinion or behaves a certain way. Ask students to describe the character’s perspective. Students can share how they think a character is feeling or what the character is thinking about based on the situation.
3. Then, play the clip to watch the other character react. Ask students to describe the second character’s perspective based on their behavior.
4. Finally, facilitate a discussion in small groups or as a class. Example questions include:

• How were the characters’ perspectives different or similar?
• If you were in their shoes, how would you have handled it?
• Have you ever had a similar experience? How was it similar or different?

• Why is perspective-taking difficult sometimes?
• What strategies do you use to help yourself consider others’ perspectives?
• What are specific times we need to use our perspective-taking skills?

For primary school students:

• Ask students to think about situations where they and their friends have different points of view and suggest ways to resolve disputes based on them.

For students in grades 5-6:

• Replace the video or cartoon excerpt with a story, fairy tale, or novel, or look at historical events from a different perspective. The teacher should facilitate a discussion on what could have been the reasons for the behavior of certain figures or characters, how they felt in the respective situations, etc.