Step Inside
Take on the viewpoint of a person or object inside the situation.
Considering perspectivesBuilding explanations
What is Step Inside?
Each participant picks (or is assigned) a person/object connected to the situation and answers from their viewpoint.
Setup: Describe the event or situation.
The prompts
- 1Whose viewpoint are you taking?
- 2What can this person or thing see, observe, or notice?
- 3What might they know, understand, or believe?
- 4What might they care deeply about?
- 5What might they wonder about or question?
Good moments for Step Inside
- Classroom warm-upSurface what students bring before introducing new content.
- After a reading or videoConsolidate big ideas without testing recall.
- Discussion starterResponses become the seed material for the room conversation.
- End-of-session reflectionCapture how thinking changed.
About Visible Thinking
Visible Thinking Routines were developed by Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (Ron Ritchhart, David Perkins). They are short structured protocols for surfacing thinking, not assessments.
Project Zero website