Monday, November 11, 2013

Mental Movies

Our current unit, Following Characters into Meaning, focuses on four main skills: envisioning, empathy, making predictions, describing character traits. Using the book Because of Winn Dixie as a read aloud, I have taught my students that envisioning is like making a mental movie in their heads. To bring this point to the front of their minds, I created a movie poster using scenes from the movie Because of Winn Dixie.
 
I had an old book that I found somewhere (probably a freebie from Scholastic) that was a scrapbook of the movie. I cut out photos from the book and placed them on the movie screen after we read that particular portion of the book.
 
The students love looking at the display each morning to see what new photos have been added. Many times they comment to each other that this is not what they had envisioned during the book!

 
In the book, Teach Like a Pirate, there is a strategy called the Board Message Hook. This isn't a message on the front board, but I think it meets the same criteria. Originally I thought it was more of a Props Hook, but I've changed my mind! This display hooked my students and encouraged them to discuss the book outside of Reading Workshop. I say that is success!



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