Spatial Requirements: Regular classroom setup; little or no space required
Activity Type: Group
Grades: 3-12
Group Size: 2 or more
Time: 10 minutes

Introduction: In this activity, you will show students several zoomed-in images and have them guess what they are looking at before revealing the “big picture” – the zoomed-out image. 

Materials:

• “Zoomed In” images – placed on PowerPoint slides or printed out

Activity:

Students will complete this activity individually. Each time you show a zoomed-in image, they are to write down on their own what they think the image is a picture of.  Then show the zoomed-out picture and see how many students got it right. Continue this process for all eight images.  

When you have gone through all eight images, have students raise their hand if they got more than one right. Have them keep their hands raised if they got more than two, etc. Applaud the student(s) who guessed the most images correctly, then discuss.

Processing the Experience: 

• What was difficult about this activity?
• How does this activity relate to the Wall?
• How can we escape from the limited view?  
• Why is it important to take our focus off immediate challenges and look to the future?
• Why do some people fail to see the big picture?

To end this activity, you might share and briefly discuss the following quote with students: 

“What I need is perspective… Perspective is necessary.  Otherwise there are only two dimensions.  Otherwise you live with your face squashed against a wall, everything a huge foreground, of details, close-ups, hairs, the weave of the bedsheet, the molecules of the face… Otherwise you live in the moment. Which is not where I want to be.” –Margaret Atwood