Creating Sensory Images

Developed by Kathy Francescani, Jodi Snyder and Carole TaylorLiteracy Coaches

“My dad always says I’m daydreaming, but that’s not the right word. I’m making mental images and connecting them together. I’m not daydreaming, I tell him, I’m thinking.” -Cory

“If I can’t picture it, I can’t understand it.”

---Albert Einstein

Visualizing happens when…Readers create images from their schema and the text

Readers create images to form unique interpretations

Readers clarify thinking, draw conclusions, and enhance understanding

Readers make connections to the reading through use of the senses (seeing, hearing, touching…)

When you visualize narrative text, you use sensory images like sounds, physical sensations, smells, touch, and emotions described in the story to help you picture the story.

Visualizing heightens motivation and enjoyment of reading.

Visualizing improves comprehension of narrative and expository text.

Try to

imagine

a setting….

EgyptEgypt

Picture this setting:

China

What do you see?

Think about it!

“The barn was very large. It was very old. It smelled of hay… It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows… It smelled of grain and of harness dressing... It was full of all sorts of things you find in barns: ladders, grindstones, pitch forks... lawn mowers, snow shovels, ax handles, milk pails, water buckets, empty grain sacks, and nasty rat traps...” E.B. White

Details Will Start Sketchy Press students for greater elaboration.

What color is the barn?How old do you think it is?Have you ever seen a barn?Have you ever been in a barn?What feelings do you have about the barn??

Sensory Images

Strategy Instruction during the Literacy Block

Demonstration ………………… I do, you watch

Guided practice ………………… I do, you help

Independent practice ……………… You do, I help

Application ……………………………… You do, I watch

The Gradual Release of Responsibility Model

Teaching Phase Teacher Behavior Learner Behavior

Demonstration •Initiates•Models•Explains•Thinks Aloud•Show “how to do it”

•Listens•Observes•May participate on a limited basis

Guided Practice •Demonstrates•Leads•Suggests•Explains•Responds•Acknowledges

•Listens•Interacts•Questions•Collaborates•Responds•Tries out•Approximates•Participates

The Gradual Release of Responsibility Model The Teacher Hands Over Responsibility

Teaching Phase Learner Behavior Teacher Behavior

Independent Practice

•Applies learning•Takes charge•Practices•Problem solves•Approximates•Self-corrects

•Scaffolds•Validates•Teaches as needed•Evaluates•Observes, encourages•Clarifies, confirms, coaches

Application •Initiates•Self-monitors•Self-directs•Applies learning•Problem solves•Confirms•Self-evaluates

•Affirms•Assists as needed•Responds•Acknowledges•Evaluates•Sets goals

Think Aloud Leon's Story

By Leon Walter Tillage

Think AloudHoney, I Love

by Eloise GreenfieldI loveI love a lot of things,a whole lot of things.Like.My cousin comes to visitand you know he’s from the South‘cause every word he saysJust kind of slides out of his mouthI like the way he whistlesAnd I like the way he walksBut honey, let me tell you thatI Love the way he talks

Model Your Thoughts…Then Ask…What words in the text helped you form that

picture?How did your background knowledge add to the

details of this mental picture?How have the sensory images changed as you

read the story?Does creating images help you remember the

story?Can you explain to the group how seeing the

facts in your mind helps you decide what information is the most important to remember?

Mentor Texts

•My name is India Opal Buloni, and last summer my daddy, the preacher, sent me to the store for a box of macaroni-and-cheese, some white rice, and two tomatoes and I came back with a dog. This is what happened: I walked into the produce section of the Winn-Dixie grocery store to pick out my two tomatoes and I almost bumped right into the store manager. He was standing there all red-faced, screaming and waving his arms around. "Who let a dog in here?" he kept on shouting. "Who let a dirty dog in here?"

•At first, I didn't see a dog. There were just a lot of vegetables rolling around on the floor, tomatoes and onions and green peppers. And there was what seemed like a whole army of Winn-Dixie employees running around waving their arms just the same way the store manager was waving his.

•The manager screamed, "Somebody grab that dog!"

•And then the dog came running around the corner. He was a big dog. And ugly. And he looked like he was having a real good time. His tongue was hanging out and he was wagging his tail. He skidded to a stop and smiled right at me. I had never before in my life seen a dog smile, but that is what he did. He pulled back his lips and showed me all his teeth. Then he wagged his tail so hard that he knocked some oranges off a display, and they went rolling everywhere, mixing in with the tomatoes and onions and green peppers.

•The dog went running over to the manager, wagging his tail and smiling. He stood up on his hind legs. You could tell that all he wanted to do was get face to face with the manager and thank him for the good time he was having in the produce department, but

somehow he ended up knocking the manager over. And the manager must have been having a bad day, because lying there on the floor, right in front of everybody, he started to cry. The dog leaned over him, real concerned, and licked his face.

•"Please," said the manager. "Somebody call the pound."

•"Wait a minute!" I hollered. "That's my dog. Don't call the pound."

•All the Winn-Dixie employees turned around and looked at me, and I knew I had done something big. And maybe stupid, too. But I couldn't help it. I couldn't let that dog go to the pound.

•"Here, boy," I said.

•The dog stopped licking the manager's face and put his ears up in the air and looked at me, like he was trying to remember where he knew me from.

•"Here, boy," I said again. And then I figured that the dog was probably just like everybody else in the world, that he would want to get called by a name, only I didn't know what his name was, so I just said the first thing that came into my head. I said, "Here, Winn-Dixie."

•And that dog came trotting over to me just like he had been doing it his whole life. The manager sat up and gave me a hard stare, like maybe I was making fun of him.

•"It's his name," I said. "Honest."

•The manager said, "Don't you know not to bring a dog into a grocery store?"

•Yes sir," I told him. "He got in by mistake. I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

•"Come on, Winn-Dixie," I said to the dog.

•I started walking and he followed along behind me as I went out of the produce department and down the cereal aisle and past all the cashiers and out the door.

•Once we were safe outside, I checked him over real careful and he didn't look that good. He was big, but skinny; you could see his ribs. And there were bald patches all over him, places where he didn't have any fur at all. Mostly, he looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.

•You're a mess," I told him. "I bet you don't belong to anybody."

• "He smiled at me. He did that thing again, where he

pulled back his lips and showed me his teeth. He smiled so big that it made him sneeze. It was like he was saying, "I know I'm a mess. Isn't it funny?"

•It's hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.

•"Come on," I told him. "Let's see what the preacher has to say about you."

•And the two of us, me and Winn-Dixie, started walking home.

End of Excerpt from: Because of Winn Dixie

By Kate DiCamillo

Conferencing Guidelines from the MPIR When you were reading this story (text) did you make

pictures or images in your mind? Tell me everything you can about the image in your mind

while you were reading just now. What is in your image that is not in the words or pictures in

the book? Can you think of another book where you Tell me everything you can about that picture or image. We have just discussed (talked about) the images you make

in your mind while you read. Do those images help you to understand the story (text) better?

How do images help you understand more about what you read? What would you tell another reader if he/she were trying to learn how to make images help them understand what they read?

Mentor Texts(with AR Book Levels)

Little Mouse’s Painting, Diane Wolkstein-3.0 Twilight Comes Twice, Ralph Fletcher-3.5 Lotus Seed, Sherry Garland-4.0 The Seashore Book, Charlotte Zolotow-3.8Newf, Marie Killilea-4.3 Baby Whales Journey, Jonathon London-3.5The Trip, Ezra Keats-1.6 The Condor’s Egg, Jonathon London-3.2Owl Moon, Jane Yolen-3.2 Dream Weaver, Jonathon London-2.4Seven Blind Mice, Ed Young-1.9 Hurricane, David Weisner-3.1Sheep in a Jeep, Nancy Shaw-1.0 All I See, Cynthia Rylant-3.9The Storm, W. Nikola-Lisa-4.8 At the Edge of the Forest, Jonathon London-2.9Chato’s Kitchen, Gary Soto-3.6 Like Butter on Pancakes, Jonathon London-2.5Abuela, Arthur Dorros-2.5 Grandpa’s Face, Eloise Greenfield-3.5Fireflies, Julie Brinklow-3.2 A Lucky Thing, Alice Schertle-4.2Grandfather Twilight, Barbara Berger-2.0 How Many Days to America, Eve Bunting-3.1Barn Dance, Bill Martin-3.4 Painted Words/Spoken Memories, Aliki-3.5The Ghost-Eye Tree, Bill Martin-2.3 The Sailor Dog, Margaret Wise Brown-3.3

ResourcesReading with Meaning, Debbie DillerTeaching Text Comprehension,

HarcourtStrategies That Work, Stephanie

Harvey and Anne GoudvisMosaic of Thought, Ellin KeeneTo Understand: New Horizons in

Reading Comprehension, Ellin Keene