Newsletter #20: Slow Looking

“Life comes at you pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller 

While that movie quote may date me (proud Gen Xer here), the thought is important. We miss things. We may be missing important things. Maybe we should take a minute and slow down. It might be time for some Slow Looking.

Slow Looking is a thinking routine from Harvard’s Project Zero. Slow Looking gives us additional information and insight, might help us notice things we’ve overlooked, and places things in context. Slow Looking, and other thinking routines like See, Think, Wonder, are part of Project Zero (PZ), a Harvard Graduate School of Education initiative. Thinking routines help us and our students build meaning through observation.

Steps: 

1. Select a subject for Slow Looking — this can be an object, a person, or a physical aspect of the environment.
2. Look closely at the subject for at least five minutes. Note as much information, as many features, as you can. You may include what you see in the background, what you hear, what is familiar to you, as well as anything surprising.
3. Record your wonders. What questions do you have about the subject?
4. Make connections to the bigger picture. Where does the subject fit into the world? 
5. Visualize the system — make a sketch of the system where the subject lives. Include the parts of the system.
6. Reflect. By yourself or with a neighbor, discuss what new information was discovered. 

This thinking routine is a slowed down version of See, Think, Wonder. It gives more opportunity for seeing and noticing, observing and building a context for that information. Use this routine whenever students need time to process, make careful connections, and reflect. This would be an excellent routine to extend into Slow Listening — repeating a section of music several times and wondering where it fits into a whole movement.