Gathering Data through all your senses

What does it mean?

Gathering information form all your senses and using it to make sense of the world. Not relying on just what you see. Including information from all your senses in your responses. Deliberately observing what is around you in many ways.

Why does it matter?

By opening up all of your natural pathways for gathering information you gain a clearer idea of what something is like. By describing something with information for all the senses your audience better understands what you are telling them. 

When should you use it?

Always and sometimes. You should always take in information with all your senses but sometimes you should use one at a time. By deciding to isolate a sense you will find the others become more aware. Close your eyes to listen deeply or to feel just the texture of an object without visual interference.

An example:

5 Top Strategies:

1. Be deliberate in gathering data from all your senses; keep a mental checklist so that you leave a place with information from all five.
2. Our eyesight can swamp the other senses; approximately 90% of our information comes through that one sense. Now and then close your eyes to let the others take over.
3. When thinking and imagining ask questions to include information from all your senses; What does it look like, taste like, sound like, smell like, feel like?
4. Look for examples of writing that includes well-developed sensory information. Use such examples as models for your writing.
5. Use the Artful Thinking Palette and connected routines to gather information from artworks, images, artefacts, objects and the environment

5 Questions to ask about your thinking:

1. Which sense are you using most? Why? What information might you be missing?
2. What does it look like, taste like, sound like, smell like, feel like?
3. When you close your eyes what else do you notice?
4. How is sensory perception connected to your emotions? Do you have an emotional response to certain colours, smells, textures, tastes or sounds?
5. Look inwards at yourself and connect ask how do you feel? What connections do you make with your bodies movements and inner rhythms?

Thinking Routines for Taking Responsible Risks 

1. Artful Thinking Palette - Use the palette below to guide you as you engage with artworks, images, artefacts, objects and the environment. It provides you with a framework to consider differing aspects and thinking modes while gathering data from your senses.
2. I see (hear, feel, touch, taste), I think, I wonder - Open your senses to the experience and describe it, give voice to your thoughts as you explore with your senses, finish by asking questions that share what you have sensed and discuss how each sense added to your understanding
3. SENSING: Ten Times Two: Begin by absorbing information and listing 10 words or phrases to describe what you sense. Include information from each sense. Repeat the process and then explore the results, share them with a friend or as a group.
4. Perceive, Know, Care About - Use for exploring the perception of a character or a person in an image or video. Begin with 'What can the person perceive?' Think about all their senses. Then ask 'What might the person know about or believe?'. Finish with 'What might the person care about?'. Share your ideas and explain what it is about the person and their situation that makes you say that.

Thinking Routines adapted from Harvard's 'Visible Thinking Resource Book'