I can see it now!
Rationale:
Comprehension
is the most 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 events in the story. As students
become
more experienced readers the fewer pictures they find in the books they
are
reading. This lesson will introduce students to the idea of visualizing
images
as they read text in hopes of improving their comprehension
skills.
Materials:
Plumbery Pott’s Unpredictable Neice by Jack Prelutsky written on large paper
Dreams by Langston Hughes written on large paper
One
copy of Holes by Louis Sachar for
everyone
Checklist
per student for assessment
Procedures:
1. I will introduce the lesson by reviewing
with the
students what the point of reading is. “Can anyone tell me why we read?
Well,
we read for a lot of reasons. We read to learn things and sometimes
just for
fun, but if we don’t understand what we are reading then we won’t learn
anything or have fun. One way to understand what we are reading is to
picture
the scenes in our heads.”
2. Next I will read to the students Plumbery Pott’s Unpredictable Neice by
Jack Prelutsky. “I am now going to read you this poem about a silly
girl. I am
going to read it once to you all. After I read it aloud, I am going to
read it
to myself and show you how I visualize when I read.” I will read the
poem again
to myself and then close my eyes. “As I read that poem I saw a silly
little
girl swallowing all sorts of car parts and then looking guilty when her
uncle
came in.” I will place a picture of the girl and car parts on the
board. As I
was reading this poem to myself I was thinking about what I was reading
and
then put an image with the words in my head and that is how I use
visualization
in my reading. Now I want to see you all try.”
3. Next I will read the poem Dreams
by Langston Hughes aloud to the students and ask them to
visualize. “With Plumbery Pott’s
Unpredictable Neice I showed every one how I visualized the poem,
and I bet
most of you visualized it the same way. But, not all readings will be
so easy
to visualize, and that is okay. Sometimes you may visualize something
and your
neighbor may see it a different way, but they can both be right. I am
going to
read you this poem, Dreams, and as I
am reading it I want you to close your eyes and visualize the poem.” I
will
read the poem. “Now, I want you all to discuss with your neighbor what
you
visualized. By a raise of hands, who visualized the same thing as their
neighbor? So, you all visualized about different dreams and what your
idea of a
dream is, but not very many people had the same dreams.” Next I will
hold a
conversation with the students about how the words are guidelines for
the
visualizations and how half of the fun part of reading is to be able to
visualize things their own way.
4. Next I will explain to the students that
we are
going to start visualizing while we are reading our chapter book.
“Since we are
in the middle of reading Holes and
there is so much going on, I thought it would be a good idea if we
started
drawing some of the visualizations that we have while reading in our
reading
logs. I want everyone to take this time to read the next chapter they
are on in
Holes and then draw one or more of
the visualizations they have in the heads in their reading logs. Once
everyone
is done, since it is our first time doing this, I would like for
everyone to
share their visualizations. Remember, there is a lot going on in this
book so
not everyone should be visualizing the same scene in the book. We are
going to
be reading our book silently. Does everyone remember what it means to
read
silently? Read to yourself while visualizing. If you get to a hard part
you can
slow down and even reread so you understand what you are reading.”
5. I will use the
visualization/drawings that the students present in the class period.
These
will be a good way to assess because while the students are presenting
I will
be able to see if the students read, if they are portraying an accurate
scene
in the book and if they understand what they are reading.
Reference:
Hughes, Langston.
“Dreams.” The Random House Book of Poetry
for Children. Ed. Jack Prelutsky. NY: Random House, 1983. pg. 225
Kohtala, Mareena. How to see with your eyes closed.
http://www.auburn.edu/rdggenie/connect/kohtalarl.html
Prelutsky, Jack. “Plumberly Pott’s
Unpredictable
Niece.” The Random House Book of Poetry
for Children. Ed. Jack Prelutsky. NY: Random House, 1983. pg. 186.
Sachar,
Louis. Holes. Dell Yearling, c1998, 2003. 233 pages.
Newberry Award.