What Can You See? Point Of View Books

Angie Harrison, a Full Day Kindergarten teacher in York Region, started this “We Can See” Project with her Kindergarten students. From there, students of all grade levels connected from around the world. What did they discuss? They shared what they saw outside of their classroom windows.

Your Challenge

The participants in this project are looking for more “We Can See” books that show what schoolyards looks like in the spring. You will get into small groups (2-3 students), and each small group will receive a device to take digital photographs of the schoolyard in the springtime. You must take 8-12 photographs that show key areas outside and what they look like in the spring.

After you have taken your photographs, you need to create your own “We Can See” book. Go to this website to view a variety of different formats for books:

Possible formats could include:

  • An iMovie with captions.
  • A VoiceThread.
  • A PowerPoint Presentation.
  • A digital storybook, using a tool such as, SMART Notebook.
  • Haiku Deck.
  • Pic Collage.

Here is what you need to include in your book:

  • The digital photographs of the schoolyard.
  • The “We can see …” sentences that the primary students can read when we share your books with them.
  • A “point of view” component on each page, where you share what we can see, but from the point of view of someone or something that would see this area. You can write or orally recordthis point of view component in any form that you want including dialogue, poetry, or prose (paragraphs).

Possible points of view may include:

  • A teacher.
  • A student.
  • A parent.
  • A grandparent.
  • A daycare worker.
  • A caretaker.
  • A secretary.
  • The principal or vice principal.
  • A pet (e.g., dog or cat).
  • A bird.
  • A squirrel.

Be creative! You can choose to have the same person or animal’s point of view for the entire book or you can choose a different person or animal’s point of view for each page of the book. The choice is up to you! The one requirement is that you cannot tell anyone whose point of view you’re writing from in the book, so your word choice is going to be very important.

When your project is complete, you will need to share it with another group. The other group is going to choose a point of view that is “missing” from the book, and use one of your photographs to write from this person or animal’s point of view. The other group is also going to use your pictures and words to infer whose point of view is being shared on each page of the book along with the proof to support it. This project aligns with our TLCP, addressing our overall learning goal: We are learning to interpret clues from the text and evaluate different points of view to draw our own conclusions about what we “read.”

Timeline For This Project

  • One class period for planning (this can include deciding on what photographs to take and deciding on whose point(s) of view to include).
  • One class period to take the photographs.
  • Two class periods for writing and editing.
  • Two class periods to analyze another We Can See book and write the “missing” point of view piece. (This extra page does not need to be included in the original group’s final book.)
  • Two class periods for the Self-Reflection components: one period at the end of each part of the project.

Name: ______

Self-Reflection On Writing Of YourWhat Can You See? Book

While you can discuss your ideas aloud with your group members, each person needs to complete his/her own self-reflection.

Specific Expectation / How My Project Addressed This Expectation
My ideas are logical, reasonable, and organized in a sequence.
I write from a person or animal’s point of view, and consider word choice and voice to make this point of view clear to the reader.(You may be writing from more than one person or animal’s point of view, depending on how you choose to structure your story.)
I consider the different audiences for my writing, and choose the form, sentence fluency, and word choice accordingly.
I use the correct conventions for the text form that I choose (i.e., paragraphing/stanzas, dialogue, sentence fluency, and word choice).
I use my Editing Checklist to check my work for spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors.

Name: ______

Self-Reflection On Reading And Analyzing Of Another Group’sWhat Can You See? Story

While you can discuss your ideas aloud with your group members, each person needs to complete his/her own self-reflection.

Success Criteria From Our TLCP / How You Addressed This Success Criteria In Your Analysis Of The Other Group’s Book
K – I can gather useful information about what I have read(i.e., useful information to help with the inferring you need to do about this other group’s book).
K/T – I can determine and understand the points of view of the characters (people or animals) from the text.
K/T – I can determine and understand the points of view missing from the text.
T – I can find direct or hidden evidence in what I have read to support my ideas(i.e., ideas related to the point(s) of view addressed in the book, as per the assignment).
C – I can share my ideas and the evidence that supports them(i.e., sharing your inferences about the point(s) of view, as per the assignment).
C – I can use my editing checklist to check my work (for the additional page that you add to this other group’s book).
A – I can gather evidence to draw conclusions about topics(i.e., in connection to the inferences you made about this other group’s book, as per the assignment).

Name: ______

Self-ReflectionOn Achievement Of Previous Goals

While you can discuss your ideas aloud with your group members, each person needs to complete his/her own self-reflection.

What was one of your next steps from the Story Art Project that you decided to focus on for this project?

How did you improve your work in this area? Be specific.

What is your next step that you are going to focus on for your next project? Why? Be specific. Make sure that this next step connects to at least one of the pieces of Success Criteria for our current TLCP.