Open Minded Portraits
An open minded portrait is a great way to get students to challenge themselves and think from the point of view of the character. Students are required to put themselves into the character shoes and write from their perspective.
Different teachers use this in slightly different ways while on placement I was introduced to a great way to do this with students of all ages. Students were required to do an "I think, I see, I wonder" from a characters point of view and then on the reverse side from the readers point of view. For lower primary students they can be given the picture of the character, for middle primary students they might draw the character but are told which character to base their work on, upper primary students can be encouraged to choose their own character and do an open minded portrait at different points of the story.
Other teachers have discussed online how they have students fold a piece of paper in half and then on the front draw the character's face, on the back draw the back of the characters head and then in the middle write what the character is thinking, which is a great way for middle / upper primary.
Click here to view example 1.
Click here to view example 2.