Delightful Reading with Ms. DeLidle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Readers Are Leaders

 

by 

 

Halley DeLidle

 

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 by making students realize that their imagination can help them comprehend stories. My techniques for teaching visualization will be through student drawing the stories they read. 

 

Materials: Copy or construction paper; crayons, markers, and/or pencils; Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman; Dragonfly’s First Flight by Rebecca Lehman; teacher rubric

 

 Procedure:

• “We are going to visualize a story to help us understand what is going on. What do you think visualize means? It means to create your own picture of the story in your head to help you comprehend and remember the story. When you hear basketball, what do you see in your mind? I see an orange, round ball with black lines curving around it. It also has little dots all over it. Give me your thumbs up if that’s what you see. Now I want everyone to close your eyes. I want you to think about what you see noticing a lot of details when I say this sentence. ‘Ms. DeLidle likes to eat chocolate ice cream in the park.’ Okay, who can describe that picture using our descriptive words like color, smell, sound, and feel?”

                Make sure to collect answers including what the weather is like, what I am wearing, are there other people around, how                     big is my ice cream cone, are there animals making noise, and what my ice cream tastes like.

                “Now, look at this picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                  What is wrong with the sentence, ‘The bird is blue and sleeping.’? Right, this is a green dinosaur that is awake, and I think                   he looks playful. Show me your thumbs up that you understand our visualizing.”

 

• “Today we are going to read Dragonfly’s First Flight by Rebecca Birch. She wrote this to tell a story, using words to paint a picture. While we are reading, follow along and color in the details in your mind.”

 

• “First I want to introduce some vocabulary words that we may not know yet. The first word is carapace. A carapace is the hard shell protecting a dragonfly. Next is rapt, and it means to be completely interested by something. The student had rapt concentration at the dinosaur museum. Has anyone heard of a prototype before? It is usually the very first example of something, like a machine or building. Before cars are made, there is normally a small model made that is the prototype. Our next word is handkerchief. Some of your grandparents and older relatives may carry one of these in their pocket. It is a cloth material used as a tissue or decoration. This next one is even older than handkerchiefs! Petticoats were worn during the sixteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. This is an underskirt that ladies wore for warm and to make their dresses full and shapely. Perpetual is a descriptive word. It means to be continuous or never changing. A clock’s hands are perpetually turning through the day.”

                Now have students complete the sentences using the new vocabulary words. Read the sentences in their entirety and                       then prompt students to fill in the correct word. Have a word bank provided on board for students to choose from.                           Sentences may be displayed for visual learners.

                “Let’s finish these sentences. She wore a (petticoat) under her skirt. The model of the car is called the (prototype). The                       hard body that protects a dragonfly is the (carapace). I was surprised to see that a young person carried a (handkerchief)                   when disposable tissues are so much more convenient. Audra (raptly) studied for her science test the next morning. Sarah                 sat watching the ferris wheel turn in a (perpetual) motion wondering how the machine worked.

                I want you to remember these words. Knowing these definitions will be handy during our reading and review time.”

 

• “Let’s read about Pippa and James’ adventure in Dragonfly’s First Flight.” Read story as a class.

 

• “Okay, that was interesting, wasn’t it? Now that we have read the story and used visualization to help us understand it, we are going to make a wordless book like Rainstorm.”  

 

• “Barbara Lehman wrote a book called Rainstorm without using any words, but we can still tell what the story is about because she shows all of the details of the story. Let’s look through it together and figure out what the story is.”

                The results to this will change from class to class and even in one classroom because children will have different                                 interpretations in their imagination. This will keep the teacher interested in hearing all of the different possibilities                             students can come up with.

 

• Pass out paper and give instructions on folding for students to make their own booklet. Folding steps:
          1. Take papers and make first hamburger fold, then fold in half again. 
          2. Cut the top folds so that you can turn the pages like a book. 
          3. Staple the spine fold to keep the booklet in order.

 

• Review plot of Dragonfly’s First Flight. Questions for students  to answer:
           What was the purpose of the Dragonfly?
           How did Pippa and James help save the Dragonfly?
           What did Pippa and James learn on their adventure?

 

• “Remember your summarization lesson. Include all of the important things like main points. Think about each event and make sure your pictures match those ideas, but include all those details that we use our five senses for to make your book interesting and make sure everyone can follow along.”

 

• “When you finish, find a partner that is also finished and read through each other’s books.”

 

 

Assessment: 

The assessment will be the book that each student makes. Teacher will walk around to assess progress and to keep students on task, stopping to ask explanations of each students’ work. Students may share their wordless books for the class to see multiple perspectives. The books will be collected and graded by a rubric.

 

 

Visualization Book Rubric

0-5 Points

Book clearly follows the plot.

Includes all main points and important facts learned in previous summarization lesson.

___/5

Shows detail in pictures.

Includes different colors, elements, actions, and has real characters and events from the story.

___/5

                                                                                                                           Total ___/10

 

 

 References:

Lehman, Barbara. Rainstorm. Houghton Mifflin, 2007. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/barbara-lehman/rainstorm/

Birch, Rebecca. Dragonfly’s First Flight. Cricket, Mar 2015. http://web.ebscohost.com/sas/detail?vid=13&sid=0899d6e7-0f11-4350-aa6b-561251497af8%40sessionmgr4001&hid=115&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPQ%3d%3d#db=prh&AN=101054425

Jennifer Pride, “Visualizing a Best Friend”. http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/journeys/priderl.htm