Picture
This!
Rationale: Comprehension
is an essential component of reading.
In order to be efficient and fluent readers, students must be
able to
understand what they are reading. One
strategy is representational imagery, or visualization.
This strategy requires students to visualize
each event in the story. This lesson
will introduce students to the idea of visualizing images as they read
text in
hopes of improving their comprehension skills.
Students will practice this strategy by visualizing what is
going on in
poems and other texts and draw their visualizations.
Materials:
Crayons and
markers
Copies of Sideways
Stories from Wayside School
for each student
Copies of the
poem Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would Not Take the Garbage Out for each student
Copies of Sarah,
Plain and Tall for each
student
Copies of Slightly
Rainy Day for each student
Procedure:
1.
First review and
practice silent reading with
students. Before we get started I
want everyone to practice silent reading as you read Sideways Stories
from
Wayside School. Quietly whisper then
stop moving our lips and read to yourself.
Great! It is important that we
remember the rules of silent reading! Give
students time to read silently.
2.
Okay now I would
like everyone to get
comfortable at your desk, close your eyes, and relax.
I need everyone to stay very quiet so please no talking. I want you to picture in your minds that you
are at the beach. It is very warm
outside and you are getting very hot.
You decide to go swimming in the water to cool off.
I want you to picture what is going on
around you. Whoa re you with?
What are you feeling? What do you
smell, see, and hear? Teacher allows
time for
students to form pictures in their minds.
Now I want you to open your eyes.
Did everyone form pictures of the beach in their heads? (Students Respond) The
teacher can model visualization by
telling the students what she pictured about the beach.
She may also draw her visualizations on the
board. When I closed my eyes I saw
huge blue waves and a white sandy beach covered in bright colored beach
towels. I pictured the hot sun and the
smell of salt water, the sound of the crashing waves, and the loud sea
gulls. When you see things in your mind it
is
called visualization. It is important
that as we read we use visualization to think about what is going on in
the
story.
3.
Now I am going to
read a poem to you. I want you to use your
visualization skills
as I read the story to picture what is going on. Think
about how the character must look or be acting like as I
read the poem. I will be reading Sarah
Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out by Shel
Silverstein. Okay everyone close your
eyes and listen as I read. Teacher
will read poem aloud as students listen quietly with their eyes closed.
4.
Ask students to
respond to the poem by asking to
explain what they were thinking the trash pile looked like, how tall it
as, did
it have bugs swarming around it, and what was poor Sylvia doing. Teacher explains: It
is okay that as we visualize different parts of stories or
poems that we4 think about things differently.
Everyone visualizes things differently and that is absolutely
okay! That is one of the things that makes
reading
fun for everyone! Visualization is a
wonderful tool because it allows us to imaging the illustrations of a
story in
any way that we desire. We can create a
movie in our minds! Because we are
older now and read many books that do not have illustrations
visualizations
helps us to better understand a story!
5.
Give each child a
copy of the book Sarah, Plain
and Tall. This is a new book we
will be reading in class. It is about
two children, Caleb and Anna, that live with their father, Jacob, on a
farm. Their mother died years ago, so
for many years it has just been the children and their father. Well, now their father wants to find a wife,
so he sends an ad out seeking a wife.
Sarah replies to his ad and comes to live with the family for as
short
while to see how things work out. Will
Sarah stay for good or will she go back home?
We will have to read the book to find out. Give
each child a piece of drawing paper, markers, and
crayons. Now I would like for you to
read the first chapter of the book silently and then draw a picture of
what you
visualized while you were reading.
6.
Allow ample time
for the students to read and
illustrate the passage from the book. Great
Job! Now I am going to divide you all
into small groups and share your pictures.
Please notice how your pictures are alike and how they are
different.
7.
Have the students
read the second chapter of Sarah,
Plain and Tall over the next week. They
will practice using visualization by drawing what they visualized and
write a
short paragraph about their picture.
Assessment:
Have students to silently read a short poem,
Slightly Rainy Day by Kenn Nesbitt, and then draw their visualizations. Teacher will use these drawings to assess
students’ progress with the visualization strategy for a clear
comprehension of
the text. Teacher will look for
understanding of the text not artistic ability. Does
student have know the characters, setting, what is going on
in the text?
Slightly Rainy Day
And rainy and
gray,
But, still, I
won’t need
My galoshes today.
I’ll need no
umbrella,
No jacket or
mittens.
It’s not raining
hard;
Only puppies and
kittens.
-Kenn Nesbitt
References:
Ritter, Shannon. A-B-“See” is Easy as 123.
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/insp/ritterrl.html