Visualizing and Verbalizing

I took a workshop about 10 years ago by Lindamood Bell to learn their phonemic awareness program and their comprehension program. Their entire comprehension program, which is designed to teach kids strategies for comprehending reading, is based on visualization. They use it for vocabulary development and for comprehension of ideas and texts of all kinds. It was an eye opener for me who struggled with comprehension myself as a younger person. I really like the journal type activities where students can write their visualizations for a specific passage. I have used read aloud time to try to encourage visualizing and then verbalizing what they see. I have tried to encourage this in my own children when I read to them, especially chapter books with few pictures. Then I will occasionally stop and ask what they are seeing in the movie in their mind.

I really like this text book. It will be a great reference for years to come!

text set: Humor

My text set is for a humorous literature unit. I have middle school in mind with the selections I have chosen.  I was intrigued by that chapter (all of them since too!) and decided it would be neat to just focus on a genre.  Having to incorporate different kinds of texts really makes the study more diverse. I'd like to really teach the elements of humor, such as hyperbole, satire, and comic irony. A nice side emphasis, especially in the novels, is giving an opportunity to read about issues that are important to kids and how humor helps looking at it more tolerable.

A sample of what I've included:

Agee, J. (2009).  Orangutan Tongs: Poems to Tangle your Tongue. New York:  Hyperion Books.  

Allen, L. (2009). Comedy scenes for student actors: short sketches for young performers. Colorado: Meriwether Publishing Ltd. 

Barry, D. (2002, November 17). A leap in cow control.  Miami Herald. Retrieved from http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/28/1481352/a-leap-in-cow-control.html   

Dahl, R. (1984). Boy: tales of childhood. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, Giroux.  

Lubbock, tx replaced by walmart supercenter. (2008, May 27). The Giant Napkin, (5-18), Retrieved from http://www.thegiantnapkin.com/lubbock_tx_replaced_by.htm  

Silverstein, S.(1981). A light in the attic. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Evil Eye 

Spinelli, J. (1996). Crash. New York: Knopf.  

 

Comment on Summaries - Text Structures

I just finished chapter 10.  I love the instructional techniques in each of these chapters.  This text really is going to be great resource! It sure makes sense to me that using the summaries techniques are great teaching tools for content area reading.  You can practice the mechanics of writing a good summary while learning content.  This might seem like a no-brainer for many of you, but I was just excited by the idea of accomplishing two tasks at once!

Hist. Fiction: Red Moon At Sharpburg

Red Moon at Sharpsburg by Rosemary Wells

This book about a young girl's experience in Virginia during the Civil War centers on the theme of breaking traditions and challenging stereotypes.  India, tutored by a family friend after the schools close because the teacher goes off to fight, learns chemistry and biology rather than the Women subjects her mother asked her to learn.  There is a fascinating tale of how medicine evolved from dealing with spirits and bleeding out to the science of  microorganisms and bacteri during this tumultuous time in history.  It also very clearly shows how the South struggled simply due to poor medical attention for their army.  In the end, India finds her way North to enroll in a college that  accepts women with the hope that someday things will open up for her. 

This is a hard historical fiction book, with scenes centered around the famous battles and much talk of the Lee, Grant, Lincoln, etc. 

This could be a suitable book for inclusion in a Civil War study, especially since it provides insight from a female perspective and illuminates a wider look at the social fabric of the time.


I have also been reading The Help by Katherine Stockart which is historical fiction for adults.  Set in the 60's  it is a story told by three women about the Negro maids and their struggle in the time of civil rights movement.  The third women is a single, white women who wants to become a journalist and interviews the maids about what it is like to be a maid for a white family.  During the time of deaths of Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, and JFK, this is a very risky thing for these women. 
Anyway, even though this doesn't fit in the YAL category, when you have time to read adult stuff again, I highly recommend. 

PIcture Books - a few more

I selected several books on the theme of greek mythology and Heros.

The Hero Beowulf by Eric A Kimmel was a nice shorter version of just the most famous fight with Grendel. For middle school, this would be a great introduction to this kind of literature.  I remember reading Beowulf, probably in college, and it was a pretty thick read (especially since it is not my preferred genre).  This age group would be attracted to the fight and challenge themes - and perhaps spur some readers on to the real thing!

Sir Gawain & the Green Knight as told by Michael Morpurgo is a longer picture book that tells this famous tale.  It is really well done and engaging with very nice illustrations.  There are a lot of references to religion in this book which makes it appealing for my parochial school.   The themes of honor and loyalty and keeping your word despite struggle and temptation would make for great discussion.  I really enjoyed this book

The Adventures of Odysseus by Hugh Lupton, Daniel Morden, and Christina Balit ( A Barefoot Book)
  Like the first book I talked of in this post, this is a shortened and simpler version of great literature.  The illustrations are beautiful and  stories well told.  I'm still in progress on this one.  All three of my kids (11, 9, 5) enjoy this book, so it appeals to a wide age range.