Design Thinking, Literature & First Grade Part 1

I have tried to incorporate the design thinking process into my work in the library with my students as a vehicle for them to dive deeper into literature as well as embark on a collaborative design process. This year with my first grade students each of my three class tackled a different fairy tale to explore. One class looked at Goldilocks and the Three Bears, another explored The Three Little Pigs and the final group looked at Little Red Riding Hood.

We started the design thinking step of empathy by exploring different versions of the stories to help students better understanding the elements of the story and the issues that the characters were dealing with. Students spent time reading different versions of the books and talking about what were the main elements of the book including characters, setting, problem and solution. We compared and contrasted the different stories, each week students recalled and retold the version of the story they had heard the week before and then compared and contrasted and tracked the different elements of the stories.

As a continuation of the empathy stage, students focused on the setting and how that affects the elements of the story and the lives of the characters. Students worked in small groups to thinking deeper about how changing the setting would change the characters, materials, problem and solution in the stories. Groups were assigned different settings including space, a desert, mountains and a city. Students drew pictures and mapped out the new stories based on the change in setting. In addition to helping students develop a deeper empathy for the characters so they could better define their challenges this step helped them develop a deeper understanding of the elements of the story and how they are all connected.

For the final step in the empathy and understanding stage we focused on reading version of the story that highlighted the personality traits of the characters. This was a way to not only better understand and empathize with the characters so students could define and design a solution but to also highlight the elements of characterization in the books. After the reading students brainstormed and shared words that would describe the personalities of the main characters and how that helped or hindered their ability to solve the problem in the story.

Throughout this first process all of our notes, brainstorming and illustrations were documented on our share out board so that students could revisit, reference and recall important elements from different stories, brainstorming sessions and discussions.

Next: Define and Ideate!