Unit 2a Lesson 1
Following Characters Into Meaning
Title of Lesson: Making Movies in Our Minds as We Read
Connection: (Activate prior knowledge and focus student attention on the lesson)Prior to lesson, begin a selected read-aloud that will thread through this unit. Lucy Calkins recommends The Tiger Rising, by Kate DiCamillo. If you go with this book , read Chapter 1 prior to this session with your children.
Tell children about a time when words on a page brought a distant person to life for you.
“Reading is a miracle if you think of it. My father recently decided to pull out trunks of family papers that had been passed from one person to another in our family until they finally ended up in the closets of his house. From those trunks my father pulled logs, written hundreds of years ago, all by people I have never met.”
“Do you remember the fairy-tale story of Aladdin, who found a magic lamp? He lit that oil lamp and poof! People from far away and long ago appeared before him, real as life. For me , reading is like Aladdin’s magic lamp.”
Today and for upcoming days, I want to teach you that we will read well, we become the character in the book. WE read the words and then poof! We are on of the characters in the mental movie we are making. Poof!
Teach: (Demonstrate the teaching point as if you were working independently)
Reread an intense, but brief section of your read-aloud book, and as you read, pause often to visualize, describing what you see and enacting it.
“Right now I’m going to go back and reread a bit of The Tiger Rising, and we’re going to almost become Rob. WE will see what he sees, as if we were right there with him at the Kentucky Star Motel. To do this, we’ll have to fill in stuff that’s missing. WE’ll draw on details from the earlier parts of the book and from our own experiences of motels, rainy days, funerals, and tigers. “
“Let’s read and create a movie in the mind, almost becoming Rob.”
Continue to alternate between reading aloud and thinking aloud, re-enacting parts of the story as you read.
Active Engagement: (coach and assess students during this time)
Continue reading, this time pausing often to prompt children to walk in the shoes of the character seeing what he or she is seeing, thinking what he or she is thinking.
Students will get together with their reading partners.
“Partner 1, be Rob. You are waiting for the bus. Say aloud your thoughts as you look to your left for that bus, and as you try not to think about all these things. Say what you are thinking to partner 2-and watch for the bus.”
After a minute, voice over the role play, rereading a bit of the text and then reading on. Have students stop and jot in their notebook. Ask them what do describe the picture in their mind. They can sketch what they are picturing or use words. After a moment have readers turn and talk to each other about their sketches or writing.
Link: (Review and clarify key points, globalizing their utility from the now to the future)
Make it as likely as possible that when children disperse to read, they continue visualizing and almost dramatizing. Channel them to mark especially powerful passages as they read independently.
“Readers, move to your reading places, get our your independent reading books, and continue reading where you left off last night. And remember, whenever you are reading, make sure you are seeing the movie of the story in your mind and picture yourself inside the scenes. You’ll need to take a moment to fill out your log when you get to your reading spot, but then slip right back into the skin of your character.”
Today and everyday when you are writing/reading, you should be aware of the amount of reading that you are able to do. The more you read, the greater your reading stamina will become.
Off you go!