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Protocol Overview and Instructions: 
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The Empathy Map is a tool for emphatic target group analysis and helps users to perceive their own feelings better and to empathize with their own actions. The aim is to gain a deep insight into
potential users by answering as many open WH (who, what, where..)questions as possible. Each interview or each test can be documented individually with an Empathy Map, in order to be able to create a persona from the
findings.

Empathy Map Protocol Template


Empathy Map Protocol Directions

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Educator Thoughts:

I used Empathy Maps when beginning our historical fiction writing unit.  Students chosen various categories of people that would have been affected by WWII (Danish citizens, Jewish citizens, Germans, Nazi soldiers, the Japanese, adults, children, etc.)  They then worked in groups to create empathy maps.  After presenting their maps to the class, each child chose one of those as their main character to drive their story.  This protocol helped students really get inside the minds of the various groups and helped them build their stories around their unique perspective.  I will use these every year going forward.

"It was great to see students pushing their thinking and getting inside the minds of groups such as Nazi soldiers and really thinking through why they might have decided to do what they did.  It was eye opening for them, and a game changer for me as a teacher."

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Student Quotes:

"I never thought about how kids would have been affected by a war before.  I always just thought of soldiers and battles when I thought about war, but it really affects everyone."

Meet the Educator:

My name is Amanda Hawks and I am a 4th grade teacher at Alward Elementary in Hudsonville.  This is my 13th year of teaching.  I taught 7 years out in Baltimore, MD.  I started my teaching career at the middle school level, teaching 6th grade math.  I then was a math resource teacher for 2 years at the elementary level.  I then taught 4th grade one year before teaching 3rd grade for the next 3 years.  I moved to Michigan in 2016 and have been teaching 4th grade at Alward for the past 6 years.  I love the idea of Project Based Learning and am excited to find more ways to incorporate these protocols and projects into my classroom.

    "Project Based Learning allows students to learn material in more meaningful, hands-on ways, and opens up their creativity when demonstrating that learning."