Supporting high school students as they navigate increasingly complex social environments is a vital part of fostering academic and personal success. The ability to interpret what others are thinking, based on both visual and contextual cues, underpins positive peer interactions, classroom engagement, and self-advocacy.

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Everyday Speech’s “What Are They Thinking About?” interactive tool offers a structured, engaging way to build these crucial perspective-taking skills through a digital, no-prep activity.

What Is Perspective Taking?

Perspective taking is the capacity to understand another person’s thoughts, feelings, and intentions in a given context. At the high school level, this skill is more nuanced, relying on both direct observation and synthesizing subtle social information. Students who are strong in perspective taking not only notice how others act, but also make educated guesses about why they act that way.

These students often solve conflicts more effectively, read social situations accurately, and show confidence communicating their own needs.

Perspective taking includes several essential components:

• Observing others’ behavior and body language
• Interpreting spoken and unspoken cues
• Drawing on situational context (what is happening, who is present, what just occurred)
• Making reasoned inferences about another’s thoughts or emotions
• Adjusting responses accordingly

In practical terms, perspective taking is not simply asking, “What is she looking at?” but “Why is she looking at that, and what might she be thinking as a result?” High schoolers benefit from direct opportunities to practice this skill as social situations become increasingly layered, and as expectations for independent problem solving grow.

Why Teach Perspective Taking?

Deliberate instruction in perspective taking sets students up for long-term success inside and outside the classroom. Here are key reasons it is an essential focus for high school learners:

• Supports self-awareness and self-advocacy
• Enhances social communication and conversation skills
• Prevents misunderstandings and peer conflict
• Strengthens relationships with teachers and classmates
• Promotes empathy and flexible thinking
• Improves group work and collaboration
• Helps students interpret hidden curriculum and social norms
• Increases confidence in academically and socially demanding settings
• Prepares students for life beyond high school, including employment

Direct instruction in these abilities benefits all learners, especially those with autism, ADHD, social anxiety, or other challenges impacting social reasoning.

Lesson Plan: Using What Are They Thinking About?

“What Are They Thinking About?” is a digital interactive worksheet designed to provide high school students with structured opportunities to practice perspective taking and situational awareness. The tool presents everyday scenarios, each featuring a character, their actions, and the objects or people they observe.

Students are prompted to use the available clues and infer what the character is likely thinking. This step-by-step lesson structure optimizes student engagement and maximizes learning.

Step 1: Introduce Perspective Taking and Situational Awareness

Begin the lesson by revisiting the idea of perspective taking. Discuss with students why it can be difficult to know what another person is thinking and introduce the notion that people do not always say what is on their mind.

Give examples from familiar school settings: At lunch, when someone is staring at the clock, what might they be thinking? In a group project, when a partner glances at their notes and then looks concerned, what could be behind that reaction?

Emphasize how both the situation and what people look at can give important clues about their thoughts. This primes students to consider both context and behaviors in the activity.

Step 2: Distribute and Preview the Interactive Tool

Access the “What Are They Thinking About?” interactive worksheet here: Download – What Are They Thinking About?. Each scenario is designed for high school students and features clear, relatable situations that mirror their everyday experiences.

Review the format together. Notice that every scenario includes three main elements:

• The character and what they are looking at
• Recent or ongoing actions
• Contextual hints (such as what happened earlier, or what the character wants)

Read one practice scenario as a group and model how to identify clues within the text. For example:

“Steve is looking outside at the heavy rain, then down at his new sneakers. What is he thinking?”

Discuss aloud what Steve sees and what is happening around him. Predict what his thoughts might be, based on the clues provided.

Step 3: Model Perspective Taking with Think-Alouds

Before students work independently, model the skill by “thinking aloud” through an example. Walk students through a scenario, pausing at each clue:

• What is the character doing?
• What are they looking at?
• What do we know about the situation?
• Given these facts, what might they be thinking?

Use the Sheila scenario from the tool as a demonstration:

“Sheila wants to go shopping after school, but she looks at her empty wallet.”

Point out that Sheila’s desire (to shop), paired with her empty wallet, suggests she’s likely thinking about what she cannot buy, or how she needs money first. This models the bridge between observation and inference.

Step 4: Student Independent or Small Group Work

Guide students to work through the scenarios on the worksheet, either individually or in pairs. Encourage them to underline clues and annotate what each tells them about the character’s possible thoughts. For each situation, students write down their inference using sentence starters if needed, such as:

• “I think _____ is thinking about ______ because ______.”

Motivate students to justify their answers by pointing to specific clues in the scenario. This strengthens evidence-based reasoning skills and discourages wild guessing.

Step 5: Class Discussion and Reflection

Bring the group back together to discuss responses. Invite volunteers to share their inferences and explain which clues were most helpful in reaching their conclusion. For each scenario, highlight possible alternative inferences as long as they are supported by the context, emphasizing that in real life, there is often more than one reasonable way to interpret another person’s behavior.

Facilitate reflection by asking:

• Which scenarios were easiest or hardest? Why?
• How did using visual and contextual clues help you figure out what someone was thinking?
• When might this skill be useful at school or outside of school?

This dialogue helps deepen learning and connects the activity to real-world applications.

Supporting Perspective Taking After the Activity

Reinforcement and generalization are essential for perspective taking to become a lasting skill. Support continued development in several ways:

• Incorporate a daily or weekly observation activity. For example, have students notice a situation in class or the hallway and jot down what someone might be thinking, based on context and visual cues.
• Practice role-playing common high school situations. Assign roles and have peers guess each character’s possible thoughts and feelings after a scenario.
• Connect perspective taking to conflict resolution and group work. When disagreements or misunderstandings arise, prompt students to reflect on each person’s point of view and possible reasons behind their words or behavior.
• Suggest students apply these strategies beyond the classroom. Encourage them to reflect on TV shows, movies, or news stories by asking, “What might this character be thinking given what is happening around them?”
• Communicate regularly with parents or caregivers about these skills so students receive consistent reinforcement at home and in the community.

Embedding these practices into classroom routines and therapy sessions ensures that the skills developed during the activity are used across contexts, making them functional and meaningful.

Wrapping Up: Building Perspective Taking Into Everyday Life

The “What Are They Thinking About?” interactive tool gives high school students a practical, engaging way to build core perspective taking and situational awareness skills. By integrating structured practice into the classroom and therapy setting, educators and clinicians foster a foundation of observation, analysis, and reasoning that students can apply independently.

When students can tune into what others might be thinking or feeling, they become more effective communicators, more empathetic peers, and better problem-solvers. Continuous, supported opportunities to infer thoughts from clues in context help make perspective taking second nature, empowering students as they navigate an increasingly social and dynamic world.