Reading to Learn

Reading in the Wilderness

By Noie Yancey

Rationale: It is very important for students to understand what they are looking at when given a picture. Then it becomes important for them to create an image when given only words.  Visualization is a very important and can become very helpful when reading. When students learn to visualize when reading, it will make their overall comprehension better. Comprehension is our goal when reading. I try to create a mindset of what the story looks like as I read. "Today we will practice creating images in our head from what we have read."

Materials:  

Bass Lake (class set of decodable books for each student) White computer paper (regular size or long size), crayons and or markers or colored pencils.  Assessment checklist created by teacher.

Procedure: 1. “Good morning boys and girls, today we are going to learn how to create images in our mind when we only see words. We will use the words to draw our own personal pictures. "This is called visualizing. We have all visualized before, when we think of those things that we want, we see a picture of it in our heads." "For example, what is your favorite animal? Mine is a monkey! Now without saying anything, I want you to picture the animal in your head. What we are doing is visualizing. Now make your animal do something. My monkey is swinging in the tree."

2. "Now I want everyone to visualize what it would feel like if we were in the North Pole right now.  I began to blow in my hands to warm up and shake because I have no coat." I have visualized all the snow, ice, and wind so now I am trying to warm up" "Now, everyone show me what it would be like if we were in Florida in July."I start wiping my forehead of sweat See what we are doing is visualizing what we have heard, and created our own images."

3. Give each student a copy of Bass Lake, and have them create their own mental images of what events take place in the story. There are some events that take place in the story that would make an awesome visualization. A few good visualizations would be the fire behind the cabin, the boat in the lake with all three of the people, or maybe even the new cabin being built.

Assessment: I will ask the students to draw what they see from the book they read. Then I will bring out the actual pictures from the book for them to be assessed and compared. 

References: www.auburn.edu/rdggenie 

READING TO LEARN BY KEYLON CALLAWAY

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/sightings/callawayrl.html

Invitations