A Picture is worth a Thousand Words,
But a Word Can be worth a Thousand Pictures!
Rationale: As students become better readers, they are able to picture what they have read inside their minds. We call this reading strategy visualization. Visualization allows readers to see what they read, which gives the reader visual devices for comprehending the text. Because the reader must understand what is read to be able to picture it, the reader must pay close attention to detail in the text. In this lesson, students will visualize images to correspond with text and then transfer these thoughts onto paper for explanation.
Materials:
-picture of the beach,
-copy paper,
-pencil,
-Elephant Observations (One man touched the elephant’s side
and said, An elephant is like a wall.
Another man touched the trunk and said, An elephant is like a
snake. Another man touched a tusk and
said, An elephant is like a spear. Another man touched a leg and said, An
elephant is like a tree. Another man
touched an ear and said, An elephant is like a fan.
The last man touched the tail and said, An
elephant is like a rope.),
-Winter Wonderland Handout (Winter Wonderland written at the
top, a line to separate the top half from the bottom half of the paper,
Beach
Winter written in the top half, and Forest Winter written in the
bottom),
-rubric (Did student illustrate visualization? Did
student include details? Did student
explain where the ideas for the
visualization came from? Did student
stay on task during assignment?)
1. When we use our vision, we
see things. Similarly, when we use
visualization we see
things. When we use visualization we
create the pictures that we see, in our minds.
Look at this picture of the beach:
you see the water, the sand, and the towel on the beach. Now close your eyes: picture
the beach. You may see the same scene that
I just showed
you, or you might see other things that you might find at the beach. When you think of the beach, you will think
of things that you have seen at the beach or near the beach, like on tv
or in a
picture like this one. If I tell you
that a ball is pink, you might think of a pink ball that you have seen,
even
though I haven’t told you what size or what kind of ball.
We use our prior knowledge and details to
create images in our minds, or in other words, visualize.
2. As you
begin to read more difficult books,
there seem to be fewer and fewer pictures.
Do you know why? As you advance
in your reading your are also getting older and having more
experiences, so you
have seen more things and heard about more things, so you know what is
being
described without having to see it. As
if you had never seen some object before, you would use other clues,
like
details or what it is like, to visualize it.
Today we are going to practice visualization by reading a
variety of
texts and creating images that correspond.
3. Teacher
will pass out white copy paper to
each student. As I read Elephant
Observations, I
want you visualize exactly what the text tells you, so pay attention to
the
details. You will need a pencil, and
when I give you permission to pick up your pencil, you will illustrate
what I read. Let’s begin. Six blind men
live together, but
none of them had ever seen an elephant.
When they heard that an elephant was being kept nearby, they
went to go
feel it. But each of the men touched a
different part of the elephant, so they all thought an elephant was
different
from what the next man felt. Let’s see
what they found out. Teacher will
read Elephant Observations. After
reading each man’s description, students will add to their
illustration, to
reveal an image that only slightly depicts an elephant.
Now
look at your illustration: as you
pictured what each man said, you visualized something totally different
and
then drew it, first a wall, then a snake, and so on.
Just as you thought of a picture in your mind
when you heard the story, the blind men made a mental picture based on
what
they felt. How did you know what a wall
looked like as I read the text?
(background knowledge) In the
same manner, the first blind man must have known what a wall was in
order to
compare it to the elephant. Both you and
the blind men used their prior knowledge to visualize the elephant.
4. Now I
would like you to take this Winter
Wonderland Handout. For the top half,
visualize: beach
winter.
For the bottom half, visualize:
forest winter. Take your
time: really picture your own original
details. Pick either the beach or the
forest to visualize first. Whichever you
choose to do first, make sure that you think about the two descriptive
words,
beach winter, and what winter would be like there, and then draw it out
on the
appropriate half of the paper. The beach
is on the top, and the forest is on the bottom half.
After you complete one, then complete the
other.
5. Assessment: Each student will explain one of his or her illustrations. Students need to explain what they thought of and drew for that particular picture and why they think that picture formed in their minds for that description (what prior experiences conjured up these ideas?). Students will display their visualizations on the class bulletin board. Visualizations are individual, so none are incorrect unless student copied neighbor, illustrated inappropriately, or either cannot or will not provide explanation for visualization.
6. Follow Up: With
just two words you have associated a phrase with objects and places
that you
have heard of, or seen, or experienced. Books
are filled with details and descriptions, and by engaging your
background
knowledge, you can create a whole movie by visualization.
Your visualization will help you to
understand situations and characters, and in such a manner your
visualization
will expand your comprehension ability.
Reference:
Roehm, Sara. Do You See What I
See? http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/insp/roehmrl.html