Picture It!
By Jeanine Grimes
Rationale: The overall goal of reading is to comprehend the text. Some students can read the words but learn or relate to anything as they read. For comprehension it is important for a reader to use what they already know and connect it with the new text to create new ideas in their mind. In this lesson, students will make connections between the text and their background knowledge by visualizing what they understood while reading. They will express their visualization by drawing pictures.
Procedure:1. “All of you are awesome readers. Sometimes when we focus a lot on just reading the words we do not understand the words we just read. Have you ever read something and had to go back and read it again because you did not understand what you read? Remember when we worked on reading silently, reading in our heads without moving our mouths. This was a way for us to use only our minds to figure out the words in the text. Another way our minds can help us understand what an author is trying to tell us is to create a picture of what is going on as we read. The farther we read in to that text the more we can add to our mental picture. For example, I am going to read this sentence in my mind. (Read sentence silently written on board.) Mom and Dad sat together under the tree while the fish leaped in the pond next to them. Now this time as I read I am going to show you the picture my mind is drawing. (As teacher reads she begins to draw all the elements of the sentence until she has drawn a man and woman next to a tree and a pond with fish close by. Try to read at as normal pace as possible.) This picture will help me remember what happened in the sentence I read. Though I don’t always draw it out on a board or paper, I always create a picture in my mind. Let’s practice this together.”
2. Every student will have a copy of the poem, My Snowman by Neal Levin and a blank
piece of paper to draw on. “This poem is about how the author would
make a
special snowman.”The teacher instructs the students to read the first
stanza of
the poem to themselves silently. She then chooses a student to read it
aloud to
the class. “Now class we are going to draw the picture our mind
created.” Allow
time to draw picture. Encourage students to draw the picture created in
their
own mind not their neighbor’s. Then show students the picture you
created in
your mind when you first read this poem. Allow students to raise their
hands
and compare and contrast their drawings with yours. Then instruct
students to
read the rest of the poem silently. “I want you all to take time after
you have
finished the poem to add to your first mental picture.” Choose student
to read
the rest of the poem aloud to class. Show and describe what teacher
added to
her picture. Allow various students to share their picture and what
they
changed.
3. “Now I want you all
to read the
first chapter of Say What? By Margaret Peterson
Haddix. In this book Suki thinks she is hearing her parents say
some really
weird things. What really is going on? To find out you have to read.”
Then I
want you all to draw the picture that you created in your mind while
reading
using the other blank piece of paper. Your picture should be of one of
those
funny moments when Suki’s parents said something weird.” The picture
will be
used as an assessment of the student’s comprehension of this beginning
chapter
book. The picture should depict an event in the book when the parents
where
saying something to Suki when she was misbehaving.It is important to
continue
to emphasize to students that they illustrate their own ideas not those
of a
classmate.
Reference:
DiCamillo, Kate. KidsReads.com. http://www.kidsreads.com/reviews/0689862555.asp