Make a Movie in Your Head
Reading to Learn: Visualization
Rationale:
Fluent readers need to learn the skill of visualization to help
build comprehension and it also helps the reader to stay engaged
in the story. Students who are actively engage in the text will
learn and grasp the meaning better those who are not. Children
need to learn the how to create a visualization of what is going
on in reading. By drawing pictures of what they read will help
children to remember to visualize. This lesson will help student
learn to visualize while reading so they can comprehend and stay
involved with the story like expert readers.
Materials:
Pencils
Paper
Copies of “A Pizza the Size of the Sun” by Jack Prelutsky
Copies for each
child: Esperanza Rising by Pam Munez Ryan
Crayons
Dry erase markers/board
Assessment Worksheet
Procedure:
1. Vocabulary Review before beginning activity: today we a
going to start reading a story about a little girl named
Esperanza. It is call Esperanza Rising .
Some new words that you will see as you read this book are:
Fiesta, immigration, mesmerized, and crochet. Example Lesson:
1.
Define: fiesta is a Spanish word used for party, used to
describe a religious, holiday, or birthday party.
2. Give sentence:
People in Spain or Mexico call parties, fiestas. Most Americans
call gatherings for an event parties. 3. Questions about fiesta: which is more
like a fiesta- work or friend gathering to watch a movie, Monday
morning or Friday night?
3. Finish the sentence: On the Mexican holiday Cinco de
Mayo (have creative response).
2.
Say: Today,
we are going to be working on something that is a very important
part of becoming a skillful reader. Skillful readers need to be
able to comprehend or understand what they have read. Today we are going to
learn about a comprehension strategy that will help us to be
better reader and grasp the meaning of the text or book we are
reading. This strategy is called visualization.
3. Say: Visualization is creating a movie inside your head
while you read a text. When you read a story you want to be able
to see the images inside your head so that you understand what
is going on.
4.
Model: Say: I am going to read a sentence and while I
read the sentence I am going to picture in my head what is going
on so that I can understand the sentence. I want everyone to try
this with me and close your eyes to picture this. “Sally is wearing a red
dress and ran outside to jump rope with her friends.” After
reading this I pictured in my head (Close your eyes to
emphasize) a girl wearing a red dress and she was outside jump
roping with her friends. Did you picture something similar? I am
now going to draw this up on the board to represent what I was
picturing while I read that sentence. Now it’s your turn.
5. Give students a copy of the poem A Pizza the Size of
the Sun. Say: We are going to read this poem together while we
read it I want you all to try and visualize what the author is
describing in this poem.
6. Read poem to the class. Say: Okay so we just read that
poem, I want you to share some of you visualizations with the
class. What are some things you pictured inside your head while
you read this story? What was on the pizza? Allow students to
share what the pizza looked like to them. Say: Everyone is doing
a great job comprehending this poem using the strategy of
visualization. Now we are going to start a chapter and using our
new strategy of visualization we are going to practice that so
that we can be expert readers.
7. Pass out the book Esperanza Rising and give book talk.
This is a story about a girl from Mexico named Esperanza who
after tragedy strikes her family her whole world is turned
upside down. Her family then moves to America were things are
very different from where she was from. She has to learn new
things and find a way to survive and help her family. Let’s read
and find out more about Esperanza.
8.
Say: We are
going to use the skill visualizing like we have been practicing
while we read the first chapter of this book. We are going to
read chapter one quietly to ourselves focusing on visualizing
what is happening in the story. When you finish reading I want
you to come up and get a piece of white paper (have paper for
students) from my desk and draw a picture of your favorite scene
in chapter one or character. Remember what you visualized while
you were reading the story. You may use crayons to draw your
pictures. After you complete your drawing, write one paragraph
describing what you drew and how it represents what you read
from the story. Great reader visualize while they are reading
and I want you all to become expert readers.
9. Use the assessment chart to assess the student’s
drawings.
Assessment:
|
Criteria |
Yes |
No |
|
Student’s illustration
accurately reflects a passage/character from the
chapter. |
|
|
|
Student pays attention to
detail. |
|
|
|
Student statement has a
clear correlation between the statement and the
illustration that pertain to a passage within the
chapter. |
|
|
|
Student includes a
character or scene from the 1st chapter of
the story. |
|
|
References
Jacobs, Ashley. (2007). “I See a Bed Head”.
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/encounters/jacobsrl.html.
Smith, Leah. (2007). “Picture This”
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/encounters/smithrl.html.
Prelutsky, Jack. A Pizza the Size on the Sun.
http://lifeinaskillet.com/2011/04/a-pizza-the-size-of-the-sun/.
Ryan, Pam Munoz. (2000), Esperanza Rising, New
York: Scholastic Inc.