Thought Tracking // Le repérage des pensées

Definition 

A strategy in which the teacher circulates, tapping students on the shoulder to prompt them to focus on their inner thoughts and feelings. Thought tracking helps students in role to tap into thoughts and emotions that lie beneath the surface, enabling them to deepen their response and/or contrast outer appearance with inner experience. The strategy can be used effectively with students in tableaux. (Ontario Arts Curriculum, 2009)

Instructional strategies

Whole class discussion

• Under what circumstances might there be a difference between what we think and what we say? (consider motivations, context, intentions, etc..). Role on the Wall is an effective strategy for this exploration.

Using a photograph as a source

• Show students a photo containing two subject characters in it (from newspaper, children's book, historical artifact, cartoon, advertisement, painting, etc...). The teacher names the subjects A and B. Students work in pairs. They select A or B as their character to focus upon. Students discuss what the two subjects in the photo are thinking, and what their perspective is on the events depicted in the image. Each student prepares to speak the character's thoughts. They may share with their partner.
• Next, all the A's stand in a line and share, one at a time, the thoughts of subject A, all speaking in the first person. Then, all B's stand in a line and speak the thoughts of subject B.
• Teacher and/or peers provide feedback on the thoughts shared. Pairs of students now create a tableau depicting the photo. During the presentation of the tableau, the teacher or an audience member, taps the shoulder of A and B, in turn, to hear their thoughts.

Variations

• Supply students with a bank of words or emotions that they could use to express how their character is feeling at the time.
• Discuss as a class the perspective of the characters and brainstorm some thoughts the characters may have.
• Students use only one word to express their character's feelings/thoughts.
• Give the students a sentence starter they use to help them express the character's thoughts ( I feel... , What I want right now is... , I am upset about... , )
• Students write the thoughts of the subject.Adapt source material according grade level i.e., secondary students could become the models in an advertisement.

Extensions

• Students do not wait until they are tapped to express their thoughts. They choose when to break out of position to speak their thoughts.
• Students create a sequence of three tableaux, with transitions, of the events before, during and after the central moment captured in the stimulus image.
• Students create a sixty second scene, beginning and/or ending in a tableau, that takes place before or after the original tableau.

Cross Curricular Uses