Do you see What I see?
Rationale:
Visualization is
using mental imagery to understand text. In order to enhance
comprehension, children must put images together (visualize) in order
to picture what the text is portraying. One strategy that readers can
use to increase this comprehension is representational imagery (also
known as visualization). In this lesson, I will demonstrate instruction
for teaching visualization. My techniques for teaching
visualization will be through student drawings of what they read.
Materials:
Descriptive
sentences (written on board, or displayed somewhere for class to see)
'I love red, glue
and yellow jellybeans.'
'I have a gray cat
with green eyes'
'My mom reads my
favorite book to me in her old brown chair.'
A copy of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' abridged poem,
Clement Clarke Moore, for each student
Small teacher made
booklet with one line of the poem on each page. This can be made by
folding 3 sheets of paper in half and stapling or binding on side.
Crayons
Procedure:
1. 'Today we are
going to practice visualizing what we read. What do we think
visualize means? Can we turn on our picture minds right
now? 'Click' Now what if I asked you to think about an orange balloon?
Then what do you see in your mind? Really? You see an orange balloon?
Well, how about that? Now, do you think this happens when we read
something? Well, lets see. I am going to try to
visualize first. You all watch and see how it goes.
Hmmm, this sentence says, 'I love red, blue, and yellow jellybeans.' I
need to close my eyes and think hard about what that sentence told my
brain. Let me see if I can draw a picture of what I see in my mind.
'draw red, blue, and yellow jellybeans plus stick figure smiling' When
I read this sentence 'I love red, blue, and yellow jellybeans' my brain
immediately made this picture! How neat! Now you guys try with me.
Let's look at this sentence.'
2. Remind students
of important tools during reading. While reading to yourself, accuracy
is important. Students must self check their reading should they
misread a word in a sentence. Review cross checking skills and how they
keep the meaning of our reading on track. Reread the model sentence
again, while performing a cross check. 'I love red, glue and yellow
jellybeans. Hmmmm, red, glue, and yellow. That can't be right--red, blue and yellow.. ahh, yes, its blue.'
3. Now pass out the
short copy of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' poem 'Now, lets pull out our favorite poem. Yes! That's
right! The one that tells all about all of the excitement the night
before Santa lands his sleigh on the roof. It tells us about sweet
children tuck in their bed, waiting for the sound of Rudolph to
clanking on their roof. But, there's a twist! While you read the poem,
you are going to make our own book! I want my book to be a surprise for
you, and I want you to surprise me with your book, so you can't tell me
what you're thinking--you must draw it! So just like we did at the
board, when you read the sentence, you draw what you see after reading
it. I'm going to make one, too!'
4.) Allow the children time to read through and illustrate 'visualize' each line of the poem. Afterwards, allow children to share their 'books'.
5.) After the
children have shared, meet with each one on one to have the children
personally display their book.
Assessment:
Here, one to one,
you may assess whether the children comprehend the story through
visualization. Example,
The children were nestled all snug in their
beds, a picture of a child sleeping, or a
bed, pajamas, or zzzzzz would be an acceptable translation of this
passage. A picture of a monkey would not. Approach this assessment
through observation and conversation so that you may not deny the
meaning of the child's art.
References:
Reading Genie Website
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/constr/freemanrl.html
'Twas the Night before Christmas'
http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/twas_the_night_before_christmas.html
Santa
image
http://www1.sulekha.com/mstore/santosh-samuel/albums/default/santa-reading.gif
