USE YOUR IMAGINATION
Rationale: A way
for children
to learn while reading is to visualize. Children who don’t visualize
tend not
to enjoy the story is because they’re not comprehending as much. This
lesson
will help students learn how to comprehend while visualizing.
Materials: paper,
markers,
crayons, pencils, evaluation criteria checklist with questions from the
story, Junie B. Jones (has a monster under her bed)
Procedure:
1.
Have
children sit
down, close their eyes, and imagine their favorite thing to do. Have
the
children open their eyes and discuss what they imagined.
2.
Next,
read a
chapter of Junie B. Jones… Say: “Listen
carefully to what I read and imagine you are Junie B. Jones.”
After the chapter is read have the children
discuss. Ask: “What did you see? [wait for response] What did the place
look
like? [wait for response] What else did you imagine?” [wait for
response]
3.
Say:
“What we did
before with our eyes closed and what we just did is called
visualization and is
important especially when reading books with no pictures.”
4.
Say:
“Now I want
you to take out your copy of Junie B.
Jones… and read Chapter 4. While you are reading visualize what is
going
on. When you are done draw a picture of what you visualized and write
two
sentences summarizing your picture. If you weren’t able to visualize
the first
time, read the chapter again.”
5.
Let
the children
show the class their picture and read their summaries. Teacher can
evaluate the
children using their own checklist.
Reference: Junie B. Jones (has a monster under her bed)
by Barbara Park, Random House (1997).
Pressley, M.,
Johnson, C.J.,
Symons, S., McGoldrick, J.A., and Kurity, J.A. (1989). Strategies that
improve
children’s memory and comprehension of text. The Elementary School
Journal, 90,
3-32.
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