Visualization

Below are ideas from your Breed Teachers who have incorporated visualization techniques in their instruction.  There are many unique, interesting, and informative ideas you may wish to use in your own instruction.  It has been relayed to me that students are particularly motivated and enthusiastic about learning new material when visualization activities are present.

• Students write out student-friendly definitions of words, and then draw a picture representing that word (this is the most popular activity incorporated!).
• Students look through magazines and find pictures related to a vocabulary word and then write a sentence about the connection.
•  I provide students with a picture related to what we are studying (mills).  Students then describe the mood, setting, and tone of the picture.
• Students are encouraged to use their “mind’s eye” to visualize what is going on the text using sensory details (what I see, hear, smell, taste, and touch) and key words are highlighted.
• Students create posters as part of a countries oral presentation.
• Students draw the main idea of the story, labeling the picture.
• Students draw and labels different steps in a process.
• After reading a portion of the text, students complete these sentence starters:  I see…, I smell…, I hear…, I feel…, I taste…
• Students will formulate a “rock key”, identifying different types of rock.
• Students work in groups to compose a rhyme describing the properties of igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary rock.
• Students construct graphs from collected data.
• Students conduct experiments.
• List and illustrate sources of energy in the home (brings in connections also).
• Students will see video examples of energy conservation.
• Students visualize their way from home to school and then draw a map (incorporating a compass rose and give cardinal directions and landmarks).
• Students act out science concepts
• I use the overhead to illustrate science concepts for the students.
• Graphic organizers are utilized for students to have a visual representation of important information.
• Teacher modeled visuals of fractions (proper, improper, equivalent, and mixed numbers) and decimals and in turn students created posters interpreting fractions and decimals in their own way.
• I use number lines to graph decimals.
• Coordinate plotting pictures are used.
• I draw diagrams to help solve word problems.
• I use benchmarks to estimate length (millimeter = thickness of a dime), mass (gram = weight of a paperclip), capacity (kiloliter = 8 large trash cans).
• In Social Studies, providing graphic detail beyond the text to engage students, asking them how it would feel, or look to them.
• I show students an overhead of Africa in the past and then Africa in present day and discuss changes that have occurred.
• Students map the area of studies themselves.
• I construct a PowerPoint showcasing areas of study, attaching audio files for music of the area, dialect, famous speeches, etc.
• The Geography textbook comes with a DVD to show students highlights of areas studied (Japanese fish market).
• Have students take the role of people in history (farmer in Babylon, boater on the Nile River) and write about their experiences in a Collins.

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Remember to always come to department meetings with your strategy sheet filled out.  Also, KEEP THIS IN PIM BINDER (Strategy Section).