READ IT!      SEE IT!

                                                                 

                                                     Sammie Patton                                          

 

 

Rationale: The ultimate goal of reading is to comprehend text and understand the information that is gathered. Visualization is one of the comprehension strategies used to help students “picture� what they are reading and better interpret the information. This lesson will help students learn to visualize what they are reading through a poem, reading a descriptive book, and drawing their interpretations of what they read.

 

Materials:

"Messy Room"� by Shel Silverstein

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (One for each student)

Dry Erase Board and Markers

Crayons, Pencils, Paper

 

Procedure:

1. To begin the lesson, I will discuss with students what it means to read silently. “When we read silently, it means that we are reading to ourselves and not making any noise that would bother our neighbors.� I will model reading silently to myself by moving my lips, but not making any sounds. This will help students understand what reading silently means.

 

2. Next, we will talk about visualization. “Visualization is when we imagine what we are reading. This helps us to get a picture of what we are reading and better understand it. Have you ever read something and saw that image in your head? That is visualization. We are going to practice visualizing right now.

 

3. For instance, if I am reading about a trip to the beach, I may close my eyes to think about the words. Let’s practice with a few sentences that I am going to read and I want some of you to raise your hand after and tell me what you pictured in your mind.“When I went to the beach I saw sand everywhere, the waves were crashing on the shore and the sun was shining bright without a cloud in the sky. There were people playing in the water with a big beach ball that bounced right to me!� Now everyone will tell me what they visualized. “Great job everybody!�

 

4. “Now let’s try to draw what we have seen. This is another way we can picture what we’re reading.� I will use the dry erase board and markers to draw the picture of the beach that I just described. This will help students understand how to create the image they read, then pictured into an actual drawing.

 

5. I will now hand out the poem, “Messy Room� by Shel Silverstein. I will introduce the poem and tell children to read it silently to themselves. “Remember to read to yourself so that you do not bother your neighbor. Also, as you read, I want you to really concentrate and picture this person’s messy room.� After everyone has read, we will discuss what they “saw�. “Isn’t it neat that even though we all read the same poem, we all pictured different items from the messy room? Visualization helps us to all create our own images and understandings from what we read.�

 

6.  Now I will pass out a copy of Sarah, Plain and Tall and give a book talk. “This book is about a woman named Sarah who comes to live on a farm with a father and his two children Caleb and Anna. Jacob is the father who places an ad in the paper looking for a new wife. Caleb and Anna’s mother died many years ago and Jacob knows that his children need a mother. Sarah answers the ad and comes to the farm from Maine. She tells the children all about her home by the sea. She misses Maine very much and doesn’t know if she likes it on the farm. Do you think Sarah will stay with this family and learn to like living on a farm? Or do you think she will leave the family and go back to Maine? You will have to read the book to find out!

 

7. Tell students to read the first chapter and look for these descriptive words that will help them create an image of where Sarah lives and the other things they read.This book does have great descriptive words that help us create images as we read. Descriptive words are words that tell us about something, somewhere, or someone. Just as if I told you about a tall man that held a small red ball. Who knows what the descriptive words would be to help us visualize what we heard? Good job! The man is tall and holds a small, red  ball. So begin reading the book silently to yourself.â€�

Tell students to remember something from the chapter to draw, color, and share. We will discuss the picture when we everyone is finished to see how we all visualized what we read.

 

Assessment:

To assess students, I will look at the pictures they drew from the reading. I will make sure that they have paid close attention to the details that are in chapter one and given a clear statement during our discussion of what they imagined while reading. This will let me know if they comprehended the text well through visualization.

 

References:

 

Silverstein, Shel. “Messy Roomâ€�. Where the Sidewalk Ends: 30th Anniversary Special Edition.  Harper Collins, 2004.

MacLachlan, Patricia. Sarah, Plain and Tall. New York� Harper Trophy, 1985.

Lewis, Amy. “Read It! Picture It!�

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/odysseys/lewisrl.html


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