Title – Good Readers Visualize

By – Donna Misrok

Primary Subject – Language Arts

Grade Level – 1-2

Aim/Objective:

Students will use the strategy of visualizing to better comprehend text.

Prior Knowledge:

Students should be able to make text-to-self connections; and they should be able to make guesses and predictions related to a story.

Materials:

• Picture book –
  
  The Vegetables Go To Bed
  
  by Christopher King
  
• Poem –
  
  One Inch Tall
  
  by Shel Silverstein
  
• Paper and crayons/colored pencils
  
• White board and markers

Procedure:

Whole Group:
1. Prepare white board:
   
   Good Readers Visualize
   
   .
   
2. 
   What does visualize mean?
   
   • Making pictures in your head
     
   • Taking snapshots
3. 
   How do we visualize?
   
   • By making connections
     
   • Using what we already know; drawing upon our background knowledge and experiences
4. 
   Are everyone’s pictures the same?
   
   • No — because we all have different background knowledge and experiences
5. Demonstrate this point — give students a word (i.e., flower) and have 2 students come up to the white board and draw what they picture in their head. Point out that each student’s drawing was different. Repeat this with a few different words — bed, ice cream, tree, home
   
6. Ask students to close their eyes and visualize while you read
   
   The Vegetables Go To Bed
   
   , by Christopher King Do not show the pictures.

Practice:

• Individual Activity:
  Give each student a piece of white paper to draw on. Students will use colored pencils or crayons. Ask them to draw something they visualized from the book.
• Whole Group Share:
  Regroup in a circle on the rug and have each student present their visualization illustration. Point out how each is different from another because how/what we visualize is based not just on what we all heard together, but also on our previous knowledge and past experiences. For example, one student might draw a bunkbed while another student might draw a regular bed.

Wrap-up:

Review what visualizing means and how it helps us to better understand/comprehend a story.

Follow-up:

• Reread
  
  The Vegetables Go To Bed
  
  and share the illustrator’s illustrations. Compare with what students drew.
  
• Reinforce visualization strategy by doing similar lesson with a different genre (poetry). Read Shel Silverstein’s Poem –
  
  One Inch Tall
  
  . Ask students to illustrate what they visualize and share.

E-Mail

Donna Misrok

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