CAPACITACIÓN

MAYO 2017
Part 1: Reading is seeing
Part 2: Mindfulness
Part 3: Writing
PART 1: READING IS
SEEING
Teaching students how to visualize in order to improve comprehension
Reading is seeing, the essence
• “Being able to create images, storyworlds, and mental models
while one reads is an essential element of reading comprehension,
engagement, and reflection. In fact, without visualization, students
cannot comprehend, and reading cannot be said to be reading.”
Jeffrey D. Wilhelm
Visualizations
• They help to establish the meaning of what you are reading.
• They help to put meaning into a form that summarizes it, so one can interpret it
and use it.
• When we read, meaning is created by the reader’s prior/background
knowledge and the information offered by the text.
• There is a direct relationship between a student’s experiential background and
both comprehension and imagery. The teacher must help students notice they
must activate this knowledge.
A red car…???
An example…
I walk around the house all day
Run through the yard
And help with play
When nighttime falls
I find my place and
Underneath the bed I’ll stay.
• In this case, the reader needs to activate conceptual knowledge of “shoes” + knowledge of the
genre (riddles) + procedures (appropriate strategies, and seeing complex implied
relationships). (P. 35)
Images and more images…
• In order to comprehend a text, the students must be provided with the appropriate experience before they
read: photos, movies, drama work, field trips, etc.
• Valid images combine personal background experience with direct and implied cues from a text.
This way, they create a visualization that is consistent with and respectful of all the details of a text.
Sequence teaching
1. Pre-assess: Identify students’ needs.
2. Modeling: I do/you watch (teacher models new strategy).
3. Sharing expertise: I do/you help (teacher uses strategy with the help from students).
4. Gradual release: Students work in small groups.
5. Assessing mastery: You do/I watch (students use the strategy individually).
Activities to visualize from words:
• “We cannot read what we cannot see. This means students need to be able to perceive words and build
visual meanings based on the ideas words communicate and suggest to us.”
• 1. Create mental images of concrete objects (p.47)
• 2. Create elaborate mental images of imagined concrete objects.
• 3. Envision familiar objects and settings from their own experiences. (p.48)
• 4. Add familiar actions and events, then relationships and settings.
• 5. Picture characters, settings, details and events while listening to a story read or told aloud.
• 6. Study illustrations and use them to create internal images. (p.49)
• 7. Create mental pictures independently.
How do we start?

• Move from “word imaging” to “single sentence imaging” to “sentence by sentence imaging” with oral
and then written language.
• Eventually, students will be able to handle “multiple-sentences imaging,” “whole paragraph imaging”
and “paragraph-by-paragraph imaging.”
• To help students refine their visualizations, use cards with prompts, like what, where, when, size, shape,
movement, mood…
• Examples: make a drawing that captures the central meaning of a word (love); act out the meaning of a
word (oppression); have students create a PPT presentation of the vocabulary of a story, with slides for
each new word; have students make a video summary of a story, play Pictionary with new vocabulary…
Read-alouds and think-alouds to model
imagery (I do/you watch)
• As you read aloud, be sure you also think aloud to model how you create images as you read. Use texts
rich in images.
• Identify the cues you use to begin creating a “story world” (for a narrative) or a “mental model” of the
information, concepts, or processes (for both narrative and informational text).
• Be sure to identify both the textual cues and the life experiences you used to build the images.
• Have students circle or underline on the text the visual cues you use to make your mental images, as you
read aloud. Then, students can circle their own.
• Example: p. 59+
Read-alouds and guided imagery (I
do/you help)
• As you read an informational text or a story, prompt students to create images.
• Ask students to create and describe their visualizations to the class, small groups, or partners.
• Provide assistance by asking for justifications based on text cues or by correcting misconceptions, if
students bring inconsistent images.
• Have students compare and contrast the images they have created, and compare the textual cues and life
experiences they used to create such images.
Simple prompting (You do/I help)
• Eventually, you can read aloud, or have students read aloud to each other, and simply prompt them to
circle visual cues and make pictures in their heads about story events or ideas.
• Advise them to “make a movie” in their minds as they read.
Visual think-alouds
• Have students sketch anything
they see, think, or feel as they go
through a think-aloud of a text.
• Ask them to sketch their
visualizations at particular points
in the story.
• Have them identify the visual cues
and words that helped them visualize
the scene they sketched.
More ideas
• Provide background knowledge before you start reading: visual aids, charts, maps, videos, etc.
• Create timelines and mind maps to help students identify key details, to summarize, to see patterns of
textual details, to discover complex implied relationships…
Reading ART! - VTS
• Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is an inquiry-based teaching strategy for all grade levels. You do not
need any special art training to use this strategy. The goal of VTS is not to teach the history of a work of
art but, rather, to encourage students to observe independently and to back up their comments with
evidence.

• What is the routine?

A. Choose a work of art that is not abstract and show it to students.
B. Ask students to look closely and silently at it for a minute or two.
C. Three questions guide the discussion:
 PART 2:
MINDFULNESS
Paying attention to things in the present momento.
The benefits of mindfulness
• It aids in concentration and stress-reduction in the classroom. It also helps to improve memory, self-
acceptance, and self-control skills.
• It involves active attention, thinking of the present (not the past nor the future), and accepting whatever
we experience in the present.
• Take some “quiet time” and switch off the automatic-pilot mode!
+ Sitting down meditation.
+ Body scan meditation and mindful stretching.
+ Walking meditation in the yard.
+ Standing meditation on line before going to class.
Teach mindfulness progressively
1. Awareness of the external environment: draw or describe an object in as much detail as possible.
2. Awareness of the self in the environment: teach children to pay attention to both the environment and
their own actions, rather than moving through the day like a robot.
3. Awareness of the body: attending to the senses, to movement and to one’s breathing.
4. Meditation exercises that attend to cognitive processes: focus on the thinking process.
Practise mindfulness on a regular basis!
• Check the Cambridge English
4 Mindfulness Challenges.
PART 3: WRITING
“Good writing skills are based on good
reading skills.”
• 4 Developmental Stages of Writing
The four stages of teaching good writing involve a gradual release from teacher-directed to complete
independence.
They are:
1. Modeled writing
2. Shared writing
3. Guided writing
4. Independent writing
1. Modeled writing
• The teacher is in front of the class doing all of the writing.
• If your students struggle greatly with getting their ideas going, come back to this basic step and model
your writing process for them.
• Make your thoughts about the process known (be explicit) while you are teaching writing to children.
• For example, you might say, "Today I want to write about what happened to me last night. I need to make
a web to sort out my thoughts, then I can start putting the words into sentences."
• The key to modeled writing is to never assume your students are following you. Tell them everything you
are doing and why.
2. Shared writing
• During shared writing, a teacher will write the words on the board, but the students are now invited to
contribute to the piece.
• Students contribute ideas while the
teacher writes.
• There are lots of discussion, questions and
answers.
• Think-alouds continue to be used.
3. Guided writing
• In guided writing, teachers continually provide feedback, redirection and expansion of ideas.
• The teacher works with students either in a small group or independently.
• There is an oral discussion of sentences before writing.
• The teacher can walk around the classroom and stop at students’ desks. They read to the teacher what
they are working on and she asks them what they might be struggling with.
4. Independent writing
• This is where the students effectively utilize written language for their own purposes or as assigned by
the teacher.
• Students use ideas from shared writing to produce their own independent piece. (Revise appropriate
format for each writing.)
• They refer to charts and other materials to revise and edit composition
• Teacher evaluation for growth.
• The teacher makes corrections, but also makes comments on the content.
• Pre-teach relevant vocabulary for the writing.
• Brainstorm possible content/ideas with the whole class.
• Teach them to plan before writing.