USE YOUR IMAGINATION
Rationale: A way for children to learn while reading is to visualize. Children who don’t visualize tend not to enjoy the story is because they’re not comprehending as much. This lesson will help students learn how to comprehend while visualizing.
Materials: paper, markers, crayons, pencils, evaluation criteria checklist with questions from the story, Junie B. Jones (has a monster under her bed)
1. Have children sit down, close their eyes, and imagine their favorite thing to do. Have the children open their eyes and discuss what they imagined.
2. Next, read a chapter of Junie B. Jones… Say: “Listen carefully to what I read and imagine you are Junie B. Jones.” After the chapter is read have the children discuss. Ask: “What did you see? [wait for response] What did the place look like? [wait for response] What else did you imagine?” [wait for response]
3. Say: “What we did before with our eyes closed and what we just did is called visualization and is important especially when reading books with no pictures.”
4. Say: “Now I want you to take out your copy of Junie B. Jones… and read Chapter 4. While you are reading visualize what is going on. When you are done draw a picture of what you visualized and write two sentences summarizing your picture. If you weren’t able to visualize the first time, read the chapter again.”
5. Let the children show the class their picture and read their summaries. Teacher can evaluate the children using their own checklist.
Reference: Junie B. Jones (has a monster under her bed) by Barbara Park, Random House (1997).
Symons, S., McGoldrick, J.A., and Kurity, J.A. (1989). Strategies that
children’s memory and comprehension of text. The Elementary School
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