ABSTRACT
Perspective taking, or experimenting with different points of view in the English language arts classroom, occurs through literary studies and composition instruction. Both teachers and students, however, experience the intellectual and emotional phenomena of perspective taking in the classroom. Consider the challenges and demands that must occur when attempting to see as the “other” in the following scenario:
A first-year English language arts teacher, let us call her Ms. Smith, skipping lunch, tackled 5th-period freshman English with all the verve her coffee could induce. Both Ms. Smith and the students were attempting to enact at least two identities. The day’s lesson called for students to create dialogue. Students were asked to “become” a character from Romeo and Juliet and “speak” with their counterparts. Although they were novice writers, they attempted to enter Shakespeare’s world, using contemporary language but projecting character traits they discerned. Ms. Smith was also adopting perspectives, those of her students and that of an imagined, composite ideal teacher. Perhaps Erin Gruwell comes to mind, although The Freedom Writers Diary as a text did not exist when this teacher was trained. Frankly, if Ms. Smith had had the energy at the end of the day, she [I] might even have patted herself on the back for her ingenuity and that of her student writers.
