I really liked the visualization activity presented by the final group. I like how in the introduction they pointed out that not every word causes you to see pictures or visualizations in your mind. I thought the imagining the playground activity was very interesting. I think it would be a great way to get students to more imaginative in their writing. Having students visualize before writing can help them to add more detail. Finally, I loved the folding paper experiment. It really expressed that although we are all hearing the same thing our interpretation is very different.
Leah Pells July 14th-2009 Lesson #5: Visualization. I loved this lesson as visualization is an excellent way to prepare for any task. As an athlete we used this strategy to ready ourselves for sport, but I can see the usefulness in teaching. To prepare the student and to let the creative ideas flow. Often when you can see an idea in your mind it is much easier to make it happen on the paper. I relay enjoyed this lesson and felt the group did an excellent job. Thank you, Cheers, Leah
I enjoyed this lesson because there were many different ways it could go. When Ashok asked us to close our eyes for visualizing, it really can lead to children opening up their minds and letting them wander. You gave just enough direction to keep us on task, and that was great. I thought it was very smart of you to allow us to share our visualization with a partner first before asking for volunteers within the class. If a student tells their story or visualization and receives a response that perhaps they weren’t expecting, they will feel better knowing that only one person was unsure of their story, rather than feel that the whole class was. It’s always a great idea to partner share before sharing with the class.
I also really enjoyed the paper folding activity. It’s a great hands on way for students to see that everyone interprets things differently, and that even when given the same instructions, not everyone’s finished product will look the same. You could even tie that into other areas of education within the classroom: social issues (how people see things differently) etc. Great job guys!
I have done some lessons with Adrienne Gear’s Reading Power but I haven’t done any visualization activities so this lesson was really interesting for me. I really liked the story that was told in the introduction about the little boy who listened to the book on tape and thought of it as a movie – I thought this was a great way to describe what visualization is all about. The lesson was really well structured and the topic that you chose for the activity (imagining ourselves on the playground) was a really relatable one for students. Having the questions on the board was also nice because it would give students something to refer back to, just in case they missed some of the information when it was being told verbally. Finally, students love to share their thoughts and having the think/pair/share as well as the whole class discussion was a good way to make sure all the students had a chance to share their visualizations.
Your visualization activity was excellent and I enjoyed the part where closed our eyes and you told us a story that we had to visualize. This shows that we all think differently about things and that is what makes reading so special. We all have different ideas in our minds and they are not the same which is ok. I also liked how you had the 5 questions on the board which we discussed once our eyes were open. Also, your paper activity was a good example that showed how visualization is interpreted by everyone differently. Great lesson for different types of learners. Another lesson that I would definitely use one day. Thank you for an engaging lesson.
Part 1 (Copy and paste parts 1 and 2 into word and you will have lesson to teach). We had to cut it into parts 1 and 2 because there is limit to how many characters can be posted into posts.
Tania Symons, Ashok K. Sharma, Brandt Anderson Lesson Plan: Visualizing (Reading Power)
SUBJECT: LA (The stragegy taught here can be integrated into other subjects) GRADE: 6/ 7 (Lesson can be adapted for primary level) DURATION: 30-45 mins (in actual class setting)
Topic/Theme/Big Idea - Brief description of Lesson Good Readers use Visualization, (Introducing a Reading Power) Create an awareness of the “movie in our mind” when we are reading and how this is unique to each person and enhances and brings meaning to the books we read.
Visualization is one of the strategies (Reading Powers) which help teaching students to think while they read. (Connections, Inference, and Transformation are the other strategies)
Prescribed Learning Outcomes (PLO’s) – from the IRP A1 use speaking and listening to interact with others for the purposes of – improving and deepening comprehension
Specific Learning Objectives (SLO’s) – describe what the students will be able to do • build on a repertoire of strategies to construct and confirm meaning and ideas relevant to the topic
• present ideas, information, and feelings orally in informal and formal situations
Materials and Resources – what does the teacher need and what do the students need LA notebook, Adrienne Gear’s Reading Power (Must have and a valuable resource) Pencil Scrap piece of paper
INTRODUCTION: How will you start the lesson? How will you connect to the students’ prior knowledge?
Visualizing is a strategy that good readers use while they are reading. What do you think visualizing is? Visualizing is the image(s) that appear in our mind while we are reading, especially texts without pictures.
Draw the diagram of the rectangle representing a book, a triangle within as the words the author writes and the other half what we bring through; connections, questions, and visualization.
Share a story about a young child who was listening to a book on tape but told his mom he wanted to finish the “movie”, explain that the images in that child’s mind were so strong he felt as if he were watching a movie.
Part 2 (please look at part 1 above and copy paste it first)
DEVELOPMENT: What will you do and what will the students do? Remember to incorporate your Assessment FOR Learning within the development.
Put some words on the board and ask the students to share the image that popped into their head. Connect that most of our images are different. Put some words up that do not create an image in our brain; connect that not all words are picture words.
Tell a story (p. 67) Reading Power, have students close their eyes and pay attention to the movie in their mind as I tell the story. When the story is over they answer some questions individually about the images in their mind and then share and compare with their neighbor (Think Pair Share). Ask anyone if they would like to share with the group. (Optional: Have questions for students to answer and share written on board i.e. Where were you on the playground?, What was the weather like, etc..).
Connect that everyone had different images, and in effect a different movie playing in their mind even though they all listened to the same story. Ask Why? Connect this to personal experiences, prior knowledge, and remind them that like when reading the text or story is only part of the story, the rest is what we bring to the table.
CLOSURE: How will you end the lesson in a meaningful way?
Pick up the scrap paper in front of you, look at your own paper, resist the urge to look at the person beside you until I say. Now fold your paper in half…..
Hold up your papers, you all listened to the same set of instructions so how come there is so much variation in the finished product? This is because even though you all heard the same thing the image that you created in your mind was a little bit different. In this way we all get something a little bit different from the books we read.
Can allow time for student questions and debriefing or have students recall the main points.
ASSESSMENT: How will you know that the students met/learned/understood the SLO’s?
Assessment FOR Learning (What will you do throughout the lesson to check student understanding?) Observe participation. (In Actual classroom you can have students draw and share their “movies.”)
Assessment OF Learning (How students show you their understanding of the concept in order for you to make a final judgment of their learning?) More so in sequential lessons. In this lesson we are introducing Reading Power and later we would assess students use of this Power and how it helps them understand the text they are reading either in Novel Study or Literature Circles.
Analysis/Reflection of Lesson: What worked well? What didn’t? Did the students get it? Why or why not?
(Will be done by the teacher after lesson implementation…)
- We are satisfied and happy you all enjoyed the visualization lesson. And Tessa you made a good point in that the exercises could also be used for helping students become more imaginative in their writing. - Leah we agree Visualization can also be a great crossover into sports and helping student athletes prepare for games and competitive activities. A lot of professional Coaches are starting to use these types of exercises often which is a good thing :) - Very good observation Jacqueline one of our goals was to show that its up to you as a teacher where you want to go and the different ways you can go with this lesson in your our classrooms. - Tania and I have used Adrienne Gears program a lot in our practicum. I personally feel stronger with the other Reading Powers such as Connection, Questioning, and Inferring. But thanks to Tania and her lead in this lesson plan we were able to come together and add our parts easily and effectively to our game plan. I think the best thing we had going for us was our team chemistry. Brandts closure activity is something he made and adapted for this visualization lesson and it effectively enhanced the whole lesson. - Thanks for the thoughts Deepa and for highlighting the small things that often get overlooked in lessons :) - Thank you Lejla and there are many more great lessons and sequential lessons that can be found in Adrienne Gears Reading Power. This was just an intro and to give you all a taste(lol). And in following lessons we would continue to build and use this Reading Power (Visualization). You know the name Lejla is actually a very popular name in the Indian Cinema.
This was a great lesson. Describing a scenario and having students visualize it is a great activity. I could see how this sort of lesson would really allow students to be more inventive and get their creative juices flowing. The last exercise on folding paper was a great way to show students that everyone visualizes things in different ways and that’s okay! Great lesson! It was structured very well and was very engaging. I could definitely see myself using something like this in my own classroom.
I really like this strategy; I used it a lot with Adrienne Gear’s book “Reading Power”. This strategy is very effective with different age groups. The imaging words, the and there was a good example to explain how some words can be visualize and some cannot. The main idea is that books need the reader to make it come alive. It was very fun sharing our mind movies, because we all had different senses. The experiment was an excellent example for students to see how we are all unique and different in our own ways.
This was a great lesson! I’ve seen my SA use something similar at the end of gym class, where she described a similar story while the kids were lying on the ground in the middle of the gym. The kids really responded to it. What I especially liked was that at the end during the paper folding exercise, there was no “right” way of doing it. At first I found myself wanting to know what we were trying to make, to see whether or not I did it correctly, but then I realized that it was probably better this way with the point you were trying to make – everyone visualizes differently, and no one way is better than another. Thank you for another good idea!
As many of my classmates have already mentioned I also tried to use the strategy of visualization a lot when using Adrienne Gears Reading Power, but your lesson really showed that visualization is just a great strategy on its own- and that is by far the most impressive thing that I will take away. The story about the little boy who tells his mom that he wants to finish the movie from in the car was a great way to introduce your lesson. Personally, it acted as an eye opener, reminding me that small children visualize all the time, without prompts or guidance, and yet as children get older, visualization seems to take a back seat, and while I don’t know the reason for this students seem to do it less. It was interesting to do the visualization activity and then discuss our “movies” or “pictures” with our peers because they were all so different. I also thought that it was interesting to close our eyes and attempt to follow verbal (paper folding) instructions, because, again, we each of us participating, ended up with a piece of paper folded in a totally different way. I thought that your instructions during the lesson were very clear, I liked that you wrote the question prompts on the board to give students something to refer back to, and I thought that you provided activities that children would really engage with and enjoy! Thanks for the lesson!
I was surprised to see how vivid my visualization was of the scene that Ashok set for us. This was a great example of what visualization can be when done properly. I think this would most definitely strengthen comprehension of a story if done before reading. If students can imagine themselves in the setting/situation of the story they would be much more likely to be engaged and interested. This lesson was very clear, well thought out and helpful. thanks a bunch!
Short and sweet. You did in a few minutes what the rest of us had tons of time to do, and it was great! I loved how you made us aware and reminded us of how our memories are not just visual but also contain smells, sounds, tastes and feelings. I had never heard the quote about the words only bringing in part of the book… but I couldn’t agree more. No wonder a book means different things to each person who reads it. This is one reason why book clubs are so interesting both for adults and children… it is fascinating to hear what someone else brought to the plate. Thanks
We agree, the paper exercise is a great way of showing concretely (gives students evidence) of how everyone visualizes differently and that it’s okay.
Thanks Mable,
You are correct that “The main idea is that books need the reader to make it come alive.” It is important for students to be able to visualize novels and use text in novels that do not have a lot or any pictures. Visualization is a very good Reading Power and one of the most enjoyable for students to develop.
Just make sure when you are using Visualization in reading that the students are relating their visualizations back to the text. In their journals or activity sheets their “movies” should show an understanding of the text as well. Not so much with Visualizations but with the Reading Power connections sometimes students make so many connections that they forget to bring it back to text and show how it helped them with their respective reading.
Thanks Ashlea,
Thanks for your comments. There seems to be a lot of positive feedback towards our lesson and that is a good feeling. We are glad you and others enjoyed the lesson and that you will use it in your own classes. Yes, the lesson and strategy can be used for different and multiple purposes. We used it for specific purposes to support Reading Power but thanks to all of your great ideas and comments we also have found many more uses for it. Very exciting receiving all of your peoples thoughts and ideas.
Our goal was to make it short and sweet. Thank you for your comments and everyone has in fact provided us with a lot of ideas and information to reflect on. It is deeply appreciated.
We think our lesson worked well because of our team chemistry and the strategy we chose was very good and created a relaxed atmosphere considering everyone was tired and anxious to have the presentations over and done. Keeping that in mind and the fact we have now completed our long practicum and taught in very hostile(lol) environments we had no fear and were confident we would delivery the lesson well.
p.s. Another reason the lesson worked well was that we genuinely have a great deal of respect and trust for one another. We knew our reading strategy well and we knew each of our strengths. You can give us any lesson and strategy and we as a team would be able to execute it with the same effectiveness. :)
I really liked the quote that Tania used, “Half of the story is the text, the other half is the video/picture you create in your mind.” This lesson was great and I think visualization is really important for students to make connections to what they are reading and through visualization, they are capable of understanding it better. During my practicum, I was teaching a unit on weather and used a visualization passage with the students for them to really understand a thunderstorm from the point of view of animals.
As humans, when there are thunderstorms, we have houses to protect us and we are aware of what is happening. However, for animals, the storm becomes something that they must get away from. I had students hiding in caves, swimming deeper into the sea and domestic animals running to their owners or hiding under the beds. The students really gained from the lesson and quite enjoyed having the lights turned off and getting to close their eyes and put their heads down :)
Great job on the lesson and as Brandt said, though he told everyone the same instructions, everyone had folded the piece of paper in a different way. I think this is good to highlight that there are different perspectives and that visualization is something that helps the individual make sense of the situation for themselves.
Very good points Tracy. We agree, visualization is a great way to make connections. Reading Power actually recommends Teachers teach connections and visualizations one after the other because there is a lot of linkages between the two. And the other Reading Powers such as Questions and Inferences would work best being taught one after the other. Because naturally when students wonder or have questions about the text the next step is for them to infer some answers.
Visualization is a powerful tool to get the juices of imagination and creativity flowing. It is also an essential part of metacognitive growth. I was working with a group of Grade 6 boys who had learning issues this past year. I used Adrienne Gear’s book Reading Power to do some visualization to teach them how to engage with the material on a deeper level, to develop their understanding and to increase the movie of the mind. It was wonderful to see these boys completely engaged in the story called “My Dad is a Superhero”. They were read the story but they did not know the title nor could they see the pictures. The movie of their minds took off! Thanks for some great demonstrations on how verbal instructions are all visualized and interpreted differently. We need to remember that when we are teaching!
If anyone has the opportunity in their practicum to see Adrienne Gear’s workshops they should go because she does a wonderful job in role modelling how she teaches reading. I think it is important to remember that children think and learn differently in general. It is the responsibility of the teacher to facilitate the most optimal learning environment for his or her students. It’s up to the teachers to find ways to motivate and encourage students.
Well I have enough to write my reflection easily. However, it would be nice if everyone who hasn’t had time to give their comments would do so as soon as they can, this would allow me to think and add any changes I need to make to my reflection before handing it in.
p.s. The quality of my reflection depends on your comments and/or questions friends...
The lesson about visualization by Tania, Ashok, and Brandt was an excellent end to the presentations. Visualization is a key part of how students read and understand what happens in stories. As Tania said, it is how they experience stories and get more out of the story. Stories are more than just black ink on a white page, but worlds that stretch our imagination. I really enjoyed the visualization activity that Ashok had us do. It was great to hear the enthusiasm that he put into this part of the presentation – it was a playground and we were visualizing how we would have acted as Elementary School students. It was nice to hear how for some students it brought back memories of the past, for some it brought memories of the present, and for some it was an imagined past. This illustrated the difference in conceptualization for each student that makes the classroom such a colorful, unique, and interesting community.
As Jacqueline said, the paper folding activity was great. I really enjoyed attempting to follow the instructions but getting a different result from other people in the classroom. This illustrates how clear a teacher needs to be in giving instructions because the way each student interprets them may be different. After completing this activity, would you show the students the actual paper folding product or would you hold a class discussion that connected individual interpretation with visualization?
That’s a very good question. For the purpose of our activity in this particular lesson I would choose to hold a class discussion that connected individual interpretation with visualization. I don’t think there is an actual way to have folded the paper however I will ask Brandt when I get the chance and see what he has to say. It was his invention :)
Lisa thanks, your comments were refreshingly different :)
I really enjoyed this concise and engaging presentation. Visualization is the key aspect of guided imagery and music (a music therapy technique) that I have experienced, but I haven’t really thought too much about teaching visualization and reading. I have always thought that I am not a very creative visualizer (not a word?!) and is that because I am more of an auditory learner? (In the paper folding exercise I didn’t even fold my paper-I just made creases! However, the atmosphere that was created was very non- judgmental so it didn’t matter). What ever the case, visualizing gives the student another tool to improve comprehension, and perhaps those students that are more visual than auditory will benefit even more from this strategy. The other thing that comes to mind after this presentation is that I definitely need to get my hands on some Reading Power books. Thank you for the inspiration. Cheers Sharon
Short and sweet! I thought that you guys got your point across in an engaging and efficient manner. The creative activities are great because they are useful for any age, I had fun participating.
I enjoy using visualization during many of my lessons. When teaching an art lesson on the Pacific Ocean Garbage dump, I asked all of the students to close there eyes and visualize a clean ocean and the types of animal and plant life. We discussed what everyone visualized then I read an article about the Pacific Ocean Garbage dump. The class then had to draw a picture of the ocean before and after then answer a few questions about their thinking on the topic. Essentially, I think that visualization can be extremely powerful and helpful for individuals, especially those who are visual learners. Great lesson and I can definitely see myself continuing on with this learning strategy.
Visualization The lesson was very useful because I have not observed or taught a visualization lesson before. The six questions that your group asked were interesting to students and it was easy for them to connect with that situation. Also, it was great to see how people came up with different movies when we shared our ideas in class. I could see how visualization can be beneficial to improve students’ imagination and five senses such as feeling, taste, hearing, seeing and smell. I liked the idea that there was no right or wrong answer to these questions. All students including ESL and struggling learners would be comfortable with imaging movies using this strategy of visualization. I could use this lesson for any grade level with a little modification and it would be easy to prepare the lesson like this as a teacher. It was a great lesson. Thanks.
Sharon, I noticed that you only made creases in your paper, I am wondering why, I did make some assumptions such as you didn’t want to commit in case you were “wrong” which I found intriguing. Please share your thoughts. Tania.
I was introduced to the Adrienne Gear ideas in 401/2 and think they're wonderful- I really need to get her Reading Power book for my 405! I have used minor visualization in my lessons, but never like this, I really liked your presentation. It was short, well presented and effective. I really liked that you had us close our eyes and create a story in our head-- I actually felt as though I was there, hearing the sounds, smelling the smells; I found myself reconfiguring as each new "part" was introduced and a new connection was made. Great job! Talking with a A/B partner to hear how each other's story turned out (instead of turning and sharing with the whole class) was a very safe environment, and I was excited to share! The results were interesting-- it was neat how, given the exact same verbal cues, our stories came out so differently - likely because of differing personal experiences, interpretations and thought processes. During your presentation I wrote down the quote "the books need YOU". I love that! It's so true - without the reader's imagination, books are just words on a page! It reminded me of the first Harry Potter book I read... I felt like I was going into imagination overload! The folding task solidified the fact that we all conceptualize tasks in a different way... at the end, I looked around the room to see if ONE person folded it the way I did... and no one had! For me, I guess there are a couple things that come out of that activity- one: be sensitive to the fact that each student has different needs, and two: as I teacher I need to make sure my directions are clear! I guess that's why we always use demos!! I enjoyed your presentation, it brought the idea home. It was well presented, organized and your groups showed great cooperation. It was a little more low key, and a great way to end the class. Thank you for your ideas, and if I ever get the chance I will go to an Adrienne Gear workshop!
Hi Tania I was wondering if anyone noticed! No I don't think I was worrying about being wrong. I recently did a paper folding activity where we were directed to fold and then unfold to make lines to follow, to eventually fold and make a box.I think I just automatically assumed Brandt meant unfold after folding even though he clearly didn't say that! Its a good example of how sometimes we can make incorrect assumptions based on previous experiences Cheers Sharon
Group 5: Visualization is a method that I am very familiar with through my career in swimming, and now as a coach. What an excellent idea to bring into the classroom. God readers can create a picture in their heads, and this provides a wonderful exercise on making a “mind movie” of the story as they go to make it richer. I liked the cure paper folding to demo the learning styles too – really creative!
I was fortunate enough to see the district literacy teacher for SD43 do a fantastic visualizing exercise with the class I volunteered with and it really imparted the value of visualizing to me. In one exercise, the students sat and listened to the story and visualized what they heard. In another, the students stopped at every paragraph and added new details they had learned to a picture of what was being described to us. After the students were done, they shared their pictures and everyone commented on what was different between them all. Some were very close to the action, some were looking at it from far away, etc. It was so interesting to see how student’s personalities changed how they interpreted the stories.
I really liked the visualization activity presented by the final group. I like how in the introduction they pointed out that not every word causes you to see pictures or visualizations in your mind. I thought the imagining the playground activity was very interesting. I think it would be a great way to get students to more imaginative in their writing. Having students visualize before writing can help them to add more detail. Finally, I loved the folding paper experiment. It really expressed that although we are all hearing the same thing our interpretation is very different.
ReplyDeleteLeah Pells
ReplyDeleteJuly 14th-2009
Lesson #5: Visualization.
I loved this lesson as visualization is an excellent way to prepare for any task. As an athlete we used this strategy to ready ourselves for sport, but I can see the usefulness in teaching. To prepare the student and to let the creative ideas flow. Often when you can see an idea in your mind it is much easier to make it happen on the paper.
I relay enjoyed this lesson and felt the group did an excellent job.
Thank you,
Cheers, Leah
I enjoyed this lesson because there were many different ways it could go. When Ashok asked us to close our eyes for visualizing, it really can lead to children opening up their minds and letting them wander. You gave just enough direction to keep us on task, and that was great. I thought it was very smart of you to allow us to share our visualization with a partner first before asking for volunteers within the class. If a student tells their story or visualization and receives a response that perhaps they weren’t expecting, they will feel better knowing that only one person was unsure of their story, rather than feel that the whole class was. It’s always a great idea to partner share before sharing with the class.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed the paper folding activity. It’s a great hands on way for students to see that everyone interprets things differently, and that even when given the same instructions, not everyone’s finished product will look the same. You could even tie that into other areas of education within the classroom: social issues (how people see things differently) etc. Great job guys!
I have done some lessons with Adrienne Gear’s Reading Power but I haven’t done any visualization activities so this lesson was really interesting for me. I really liked the story that was told in the introduction about the little boy who listened to the book on tape and thought of it as a movie – I thought this was a great way to describe what visualization is all about. The lesson was really well structured and the topic that you chose for the activity (imagining ourselves on the playground) was a really relatable one for students. Having the questions on the board was also nice because it would give students something to refer back to, just in case they missed some of the information when it was being told verbally. Finally, students love to share their thoughts and having the think/pair/share as well as the whole class discussion was a good way to make sure all the students had a chance to share their visualizations.
ReplyDeleteYour visualization activity was excellent and I enjoyed the part where closed our eyes and you told us a story that we had to visualize. This shows that we all think differently about things and that is what makes reading so special. We all have different ideas in our minds and they are not the same which is ok. I also liked how you had the 5 questions on the board which we discussed once our eyes were open. Also, your paper activity was a good example that showed how visualization is interpreted by everyone differently. Great lesson for different types of learners. Another lesson that I would definitely use one day. Thank you for an engaging lesson.
ReplyDeletePart 1 (Copy and paste parts 1 and 2 into word and you will have lesson to teach). We had to cut it into parts 1 and 2 because there is limit to how many characters can be posted into posts.
ReplyDeleteTania Symons, Ashok K. Sharma, Brandt Anderson
Lesson Plan: Visualizing (Reading Power)
SUBJECT: LA (The stragegy taught here can be integrated into other subjects)
GRADE: 6/ 7 (Lesson can be adapted for primary level)
DURATION: 30-45 mins (in actual class setting)
Topic/Theme/Big Idea - Brief description of Lesson
Good Readers use Visualization, (Introducing a Reading Power)
Create an awareness of the “movie in our mind” when we are reading and how this is unique to each person and enhances and brings meaning to the books we read.
Visualization is one of the strategies (Reading Powers) which help teaching students to think while they read. (Connections, Inference, and Transformation are the other strategies)
Prescribed Learning Outcomes (PLO’s) – from the IRP
A1 use speaking and listening to interact with others for the purposes of
– improving and deepening comprehension
Specific Learning Objectives (SLO’s) – describe what the students will be able to do
• build on a repertoire of strategies to construct and confirm meaning and ideas relevant to the topic
• present ideas, information, and feelings orally in informal and formal situations
Materials and Resources – what does the teacher need and what do the students need
LA notebook,
Adrienne Gear’s Reading Power (Must have and a valuable resource)
Pencil
Scrap piece of paper
INTRODUCTION: How will you start the lesson? How will you connect to the students’ prior knowledge?
Visualizing is a strategy that good readers use while they are reading. What do you think visualizing is? Visualizing is the image(s) that appear in our mind while we are reading, especially texts without pictures.
Draw the diagram of the rectangle representing a book, a triangle within as the words the author writes and the other half what we bring through; connections, questions, and visualization.
Share a story about a young child who was listening to a book on tape but told his mom he wanted to finish the “movie”, explain that the images in that child’s mind were so strong he felt as if he were watching a movie.
Part 2 (please look at part 1 above and copy paste it first)
ReplyDeleteDEVELOPMENT: What will you do and what will the students do? Remember to incorporate your
Assessment FOR Learning within the development.
Put some words on the board and ask the students to share the image that popped into their head. Connect that most of our images are different. Put some words up that do not create an image in our brain; connect that not all words are picture words.
Tell a story (p. 67) Reading Power, have students close their eyes and pay attention to the movie in their mind as I tell the story. When the story is over they answer some questions individually about the images in their mind and then share and compare with their neighbor (Think Pair Share). Ask anyone if they would like to share with the group. (Optional: Have questions for students to answer and share written on board i.e. Where were you on the playground?, What was the weather like, etc..).
Connect that everyone had different images, and in effect a different movie playing in their mind even though they all listened to the same story. Ask Why? Connect this to personal experiences, prior knowledge, and remind them that like when reading the text or story is only part of the story, the rest is what we bring to the table.
CLOSURE: How will you end the lesson in a meaningful way?
Pick up the scrap paper in front of you, look at your own paper, resist the urge to look at the person beside you until I say. Now fold your paper in half…..
Hold up your papers, you all listened to the same set of instructions so how come there is so much variation in the finished product? This is because even though you all heard the same thing the image that you created in your mind was a little bit different. In this way we all get something a little bit different from the books we read.
Can allow time for student questions and debriefing or have students recall the main points.
ASSESSMENT: How will you know that the students met/learned/understood the SLO’s?
Assessment FOR Learning (What will you do throughout the lesson to check student understanding?)
Observe participation.
(In Actual classroom you can have students draw and share their “movies.”)
Assessment OF Learning (How students show you their understanding of the concept in order for you to make a final judgment of their learning?)
More so in sequential lessons. In this lesson we are introducing Reading Power and later we would assess students use of this Power and how it helps them understand the text they are reading either in Novel Study or Literature Circles.
Analysis/Reflection of Lesson: What worked well? What didn’t? Did the students get it? Why or why not?
(Will be done by the teacher after lesson implementation…)
Brand Ashok K. Tania (BAT)
From all of us Brandt Ashok K. Tania aka BAT…
ReplyDeleteThanks Tessa, Leah, Jacqueline, Deepa, Lejla,
- We are satisfied and happy you all enjoyed the visualization lesson. And Tessa you made a good point in that the exercises could also be used for helping students become more imaginative in their writing.
- Leah we agree Visualization can also be a great crossover into sports and helping student athletes prepare for games and competitive activities. A lot of professional Coaches are starting to use these types of exercises often which is a good thing :)
- Very good observation Jacqueline one of our goals was to show that its up to you as a teacher where you want to go and the different ways you can go with this lesson in your our classrooms.
- Tania and I have used Adrienne Gears program a lot in our practicum. I personally feel stronger with the other Reading Powers such as Connection, Questioning, and Inferring. But thanks to Tania and her lead in this lesson plan we were able to come together and add our parts easily and effectively to our game plan. I think the best thing we had going for us was our team chemistry. Brandts closure activity is something he made and adapted for this visualization lesson and it effectively enhanced the whole lesson.
- Thanks for the thoughts Deepa and for highlighting the small things that often get overlooked in lessons :)
- Thank you Lejla and there are many more great lessons and sequential lessons that can be found in Adrienne Gears Reading Power. This was just an intro and to give you all a taste(lol). And in following lessons we would continue to build and use this Reading Power (Visualization). You know the name Lejla is actually a very popular name in the Indian Cinema.
BAT – Brandt Ashok K. Tania
This was a great lesson. Describing a scenario and having students visualize it is a great activity. I could see how this sort of lesson would really allow students to be more inventive and get their creative juices flowing. The last exercise on folding paper was a great way to show students that everyone visualizes things in different ways and that’s okay! Great lesson! It was structured very well and was very engaging. I could definitely see myself using something like this in my own classroom.
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ReplyDeleteI really like this strategy; I used it a lot with Adrienne Gear’s book “Reading Power”. This strategy is very effective with different age groups. The imaging words, the and there was a good example to explain how some words can be visualize and some cannot. The main idea is that books need the reader to make it come alive. It was very fun sharing our mind movies, because we all had different senses. The experiment was an excellent example for students to see how we are all unique and different in our own ways.
This was a great lesson! I’ve seen my SA use something similar at the end of gym class, where she described a similar story while the kids were lying on the ground in the middle of the gym. The kids really responded to it. What I especially liked was that at the end during the paper folding exercise, there was no “right” way of doing it. At first I found myself wanting to know what we were trying to make, to see whether or not I did it correctly, but then I realized that it was probably better this way with the point you were trying to make – everyone visualizes differently, and no one way is better than another. Thank you for another good idea!
ReplyDeleteAs many of my classmates have already mentioned I also tried to use the strategy of visualization a lot when using Adrienne Gears Reading Power, but your lesson really showed that visualization is just a great strategy on its own- and that is by far the most impressive thing that I will take away. The story about the little boy who tells his mom that he wants to finish the movie from in the car was a great way to introduce your lesson. Personally, it acted as an eye opener, reminding me that small children visualize all the time, without prompts or guidance, and yet as children get older, visualization seems to take a back seat, and while I don’t know the reason for this students seem to do it less.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to do the visualization activity and then discuss our “movies” or “pictures” with our peers because they were all so different. I also thought that it was interesting to close our eyes and attempt to follow verbal (paper folding) instructions, because, again, we each of us participating, ended up with a piece of paper folded in a totally different way. I thought that your instructions during the lesson were very clear, I liked that you wrote the question prompts on the board to give students something to refer back to, and I thought that you provided activities that children would really engage with and enjoy!
Thanks for the lesson!
I was surprised to see how vivid my visualization was of the scene that Ashok set for us. This was a great example of what visualization can be when done properly. I think this would most definitely strengthen comprehension of a story if done before reading. If students can imagine themselves in the setting/situation of the story they would be much more likely to be engaged and interested.
ReplyDeleteThis lesson was very clear, well thought out and helpful.
thanks a bunch!
Short and sweet. You did in a few minutes what the rest of us had tons of time to do, and it was great! I loved how you made us aware and reminded us of how our memories are not just visual but also contain smells, sounds, tastes and feelings. I had never heard the quote about the words only bringing in part of the book… but I couldn’t agree more. No wonder a book means different things to each person who reads it. This is one reason why book clubs are so interesting both for adults and children… it is fascinating to hear what someone else brought to the plate. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThanks Reema,
ReplyDeleteWe agree, the paper exercise is a great way of showing concretely (gives students evidence) of how everyone visualizes differently and that it’s okay.
Thanks Mable,
You are correct that “The main idea is that books need the reader to make it come alive.” It is important for students to be able to visualize novels and use text in novels that do not have a lot or any pictures. Visualization is a very good Reading Power and one of the most enjoyable for students to develop.
BAT aka Brandt Ashok K. Tania
Thanks Kellyd,
ReplyDeleteJust make sure when you are using Visualization in reading that the students are relating their visualizations back to the text. In their journals or activity sheets their “movies” should show an understanding of the text as well. Not so much with Visualizations but with the Reading Power connections sometimes students make so many connections that they forget to bring it back to text and show how it helped them with their respective reading.
Thanks Ashlea,
Thanks for your comments. There seems to be a lot of positive feedback towards our lesson and that is a good feeling. We are glad you and others enjoyed the lesson and that you will use it in your own classes. Yes, the lesson and strategy can be used for different and multiple purposes. We used it for specific purposes to support Reading Power but thanks to all of your great ideas and comments we also have found many more uses for it. Very exciting receiving all of your peoples thoughts and ideas.
BAT aka Brandt Ashok K. Tania
Thanks Heidi & Crystal,
ReplyDeleteYour comments are appreciated :)
Our goal was to make it short and sweet. Thank you for your comments and everyone has in fact provided us with a lot of ideas and information to reflect on. It is deeply appreciated.
We think our lesson worked well because of our team chemistry and the strategy we chose was very good and created a relaxed atmosphere considering everyone was tired and anxious to have the presentations over and done. Keeping that in mind and the fact we have now completed our long practicum and taught in very hostile(lol) environments we had no fear and were confident we would delivery the lesson well.
p.s. Another reason the lesson worked well was that we genuinely have a great deal of respect and trust for one another. We knew our reading strategy well and we knew each of our strengths. You can give us any lesson and strategy and we as a team would be able to execute it with the same effectiveness. :)
B A T
Tania, Ashok & Brandt – Visualization
ReplyDeleteI really liked the quote that Tania used, “Half of the story is the text, the other half is the video/picture you create in your mind.”
This lesson was great and I think visualization is really important for students to make connections to what they are reading and through visualization, they are capable of understanding it better.
During my practicum, I was teaching a unit on weather and used a visualization passage with the students for them to really understand a thunderstorm from the point of view of animals.
As humans, when there are thunderstorms, we have houses to protect us and we are aware of what is happening. However, for animals, the storm becomes something that they must get away from. I had students hiding in caves, swimming deeper into the sea and domestic animals running to their owners or hiding under the beds. The students really gained from the lesson and quite enjoyed having the lights turned off and getting to close their eyes and put their heads down :)
Great job on the lesson and as Brandt said, though he told everyone the same instructions, everyone had folded the piece of paper in a different way. I think this is good to highlight that there are different perspectives and that visualization is something that helps the individual make sense of the situation for themselves.
Very good points Tracy. We agree, visualization is a great way to make connections. Reading Power actually recommends Teachers teach connections and visualizations one after the other because there is a lot of linkages between the two. And the other Reading Powers such as Questions and Inferences would work best being taught one after the other. Because naturally when students wonder or have questions about the text the next step is for them to infer some answers.
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Visualization is a powerful tool to get the juices of imagination and creativity flowing. It is also an essential part of metacognitive growth. I was working with a group of Grade 6 boys who had learning issues this past year. I used Adrienne Gear’s book Reading Power to do some visualization to teach them how to engage with the material on a deeper level, to develop their understanding and to increase the movie of the mind. It was wonderful to see these boys completely engaged in the story called “My Dad is a Superhero”. They were read the story but they did not know the title nor could they see the pictures. The movie of their minds took off! Thanks for some great demonstrations on how verbal instructions are all visualized and interpreted differently. We need to remember that when we are teaching!
ReplyDeleteThanks Rose,
ReplyDeleteIf anyone has the opportunity in their practicum to see Adrienne Gear’s workshops they should go because she does a wonderful job in role modelling how she teaches reading.
I think it is important to remember that children think and learn differently in general. It is the responsibility of the teacher to facilitate the most optimal learning environment for his or her students. It’s up to the teachers to find ways to motivate and encourage students.
Ashok K.
Well I have enough to write my reflection easily. However, it would be nice if everyone who hasn’t had time to give their comments would do so as soon as they can, this would allow me to think and add any changes I need to make to my reflection before handing it in.
ReplyDeletep.s. The quality of my reflection depends on your comments and/or questions friends...
Ashok K. (God Bless)
The lesson about visualization by Tania, Ashok, and Brandt was an excellent end to the presentations. Visualization is a key part of how students read and understand what happens in stories. As Tania said, it is how they experience stories and get more out of the story. Stories are more than just black ink on a white page, but worlds that stretch our imagination. I really enjoyed the visualization activity that Ashok had us do. It was great to hear the enthusiasm that he put into this part of the presentation – it was a playground and we were visualizing how we would have acted as Elementary School students. It was nice to hear how for some students it brought back memories of the past, for some it brought memories of the present, and for some it was an imagined past. This illustrated the difference in conceptualization for each student that makes the classroom such a colorful, unique, and interesting community.
ReplyDeleteAs Jacqueline said, the paper folding activity was great. I really enjoyed attempting to follow the instructions but getting a different result from other people in the classroom. This illustrates how clear a teacher needs to be in giving instructions because the way each student interprets them may be different. After completing this activity, would you show the students the actual paper folding product or would you hold a class discussion that connected individual interpretation with visualization?
That’s a very good question. For the purpose of our activity in this particular lesson I would choose to hold a class discussion that connected individual interpretation with visualization. I don’t think there is an actual way to have folded the paper however I will ask Brandt when I get the chance and see what he has to say. It was his invention :)
ReplyDeleteLisa thanks, your comments were refreshingly different :)
Ashok K.
I really enjoyed this concise and engaging presentation. Visualization is the key aspect of guided imagery and music (a music therapy technique) that I have experienced, but I haven’t really thought too much about teaching visualization and reading. I have always thought that I am not a very creative visualizer (not a word?!) and is that because I am more of an auditory learner? (In the paper folding exercise I didn’t even fold my paper-I just made creases! However, the atmosphere that was created was very non- judgmental so it didn’t matter). What ever the case, visualizing gives the student another tool to improve comprehension, and perhaps those students that are more visual than auditory will benefit even more from this strategy. The other thing that comes to mind after this presentation is that I definitely need to get my hands on some Reading Power books. Thank you for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Sharon
Short and sweet! I thought that you guys got your point across in an engaging and efficient manner. The creative activities are great because they are useful for any age, I had fun participating.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy using visualization during many of my lessons. When teaching an art lesson on the Pacific Ocean Garbage dump, I asked all of the students to close there eyes and visualize a clean ocean and the types of animal and plant life. We discussed what everyone visualized then I read an article about the Pacific Ocean Garbage dump. The class then had to draw a picture of the ocean before and after then answer a few questions about their thinking on the topic. Essentially, I think that visualization can be extremely powerful and helpful for individuals, especially those who are visual learners. Great lesson and I can definitely see myself continuing on with this learning strategy.
ReplyDeleteVisualization
ReplyDeleteThe lesson was very useful because I have not observed or taught a visualization lesson before. The six questions that your group asked were interesting to students and it was easy for them to connect with that situation. Also, it was great to see how people came up with different movies when we shared our ideas in class. I could see how visualization can be beneficial to improve students’ imagination and five senses such as feeling, taste, hearing, seeing and smell. I liked the idea that there was no right or wrong answer to these questions. All students including ESL and struggling learners would be comfortable with imaging movies using this strategy of visualization. I could use this lesson for any grade level with a little modification and it would be easy to prepare the lesson like this as a teacher. It was a great lesson. Thanks.
Sharon, I noticed that you only made creases in your paper, I am wondering why, I did make some assumptions such as you didn’t want to commit in case you were “wrong” which I found intriguing. Please share your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteTania.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI was introduced to the Adrienne Gear ideas in 401/2 and think they're wonderful- I really need to get her Reading Power book for my 405!
ReplyDeleteI have used minor visualization in my lessons, but never like this, I really liked your presentation. It was short, well presented and effective.
I really liked that you had us close our eyes and create a story in our head-- I actually felt as though I was there, hearing the sounds, smelling the smells; I found myself reconfiguring as each new "part" was introduced and a new connection was made. Great job! Talking with a A/B partner to hear how each other's story turned out (instead of turning and sharing with the whole class) was a very safe environment, and I was excited to share! The results were interesting-- it was neat how, given the exact same verbal cues, our stories came out so differently - likely because of differing personal experiences, interpretations and thought processes.
During your presentation I wrote down the quote "the books need YOU". I love that! It's so true - without the reader's imagination, books are just words on a page! It reminded me of the first Harry Potter book I read... I felt like I was going into imagination overload!
The folding task solidified the fact that we all conceptualize tasks in a different way... at the end, I looked around the room to see if ONE person folded it the way I did... and no one had! For me, I guess there are a couple things that come out of that activity- one: be sensitive to the fact that each student has different needs, and two: as I teacher I need to make sure my directions are clear! I guess that's why we always use demos!!
I enjoyed your presentation, it brought the idea home. It was well presented, organized and your groups showed great cooperation. It was a little more low key, and a great way to end the class.
Thank you for your ideas, and if I ever get the chance I will go to an Adrienne Gear workshop!
Hi Tania
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if anyone noticed! No I don't think I was worrying about being wrong. I recently did a paper folding activity where we were directed to fold and then unfold to make lines to follow, to eventually fold and make a box.I think I just automatically assumed Brandt meant unfold after folding even though he clearly didn't say that! Its a good example of how sometimes we can make incorrect assumptions based on previous experiences
Cheers
Sharon
Group 5: Visualization is a method that I am very familiar with through my career in swimming, and now as a coach. What an excellent idea to bring into the classroom. God readers can create a picture in their heads, and this provides a wonderful exercise on making a “mind movie” of the story as they go to make it richer. I liked the cure paper folding to demo the learning styles too – really creative!
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate enough to see the district literacy teacher for SD43 do a fantastic visualizing exercise with the class I volunteered with and it really imparted the value of visualizing to me. In one exercise, the students sat and listened to the story and visualized what they heard. In another, the students stopped at every paragraph and added new details they had learned to a picture of what was being described to us. After the students were done, they shared their pictures and everyone commented on what was different between them all. Some were very close to the action, some were looking at it from far away, etc. It was so interesting to see how student’s personalities changed how they interpreted the stories.
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