Lesson 1 | Lesson 2

Lesson 1: Double Entry Journal

Description:      
A double-entry journal is a strategy students can use in which they respond to what they have read in the form of a journal.  As they read, they take notes of the mental images that form in their head and respond at the same time.  This is similar to the Cornell style of taking notes.  Students section their paper into halves lengthwise. They label the top of the left-hand column “What’s In The Book” and the top of the right-hand column “My Response”.   The left-hand side is passages from the text or quotes and the right-hand side is for recording visual images and pictures about this text.    This lesson is taken from When Kids Can’t Read by Kylene Beers, 2003.

Procedure:
For this lesson I modeled to the students how to do a “Double Entry Journal”.  I read to the class from the novel Crash by Jerry Spinelli.  Any text will work, but be sure to pick something a page or two in length that will provide ample opportunities for students to form visual images.

On the overhead projector, I sectioned the display screen into halves lengthwise. I labeled the top of the left-hand column “What’s In The Book” and the top of the right-hand column “My Response”.   I read the text aloud to the students and recorded the words taken from the text along with my thoughts and visualizations on the overhead. This can be done with words, symbols, or illustrations.

Model between 5- 7 visualizations that you have as you read aloud. 

 As students read the text, they follow the modeled procedure.

The following student examples show their visualizations while they read either Canyons or Where the Red Fern Grows. 
Sample One     Sample Two

Lesson 2: Visualizing to Summarize

Visualizing in Order to Summarize

Objective:

Students will use visualizing to make meaning while reading a nonfiction text.  Students will then be able to use this strategy to determine the important elements of any text and create a summary based on their visualizations. 

Definition:

A summary is a written or spoken statement of main points and their relation to each other.  It is usually very short, so it must include only the most important ideas.  Make sure the summary does not just state the topics covered.  It should say what the author said about these topics.[1] 

Purpose: 

In order for students to write successful summaries, they need to be able to comprehend the text and determine its important elements. This lesson allows students to practice the strategy of visualization and use it to create an appropriate summary.   

Standards:

9.2.1 Use strategies to comprehend informational materials and
        grade-level text.
9.3.1 Read a wide variety of genres.  

Materials Needed:

1. Piece of nonfiction text
2. “Visualizing to Summarize” handout (Word Format; PDF Format)
3. “Visualizing to Summarize” overhead (optional)
4. Colored pens, pencils or crayons
5. Regular pen or pencil

Lesson:

1. Distribute a piece of nonfiction text that is grade level appropriate.
2. Explain the objective and goals of this lesson.
3. Once students understand what they are going to do, have them read the article silently or in pairs.
4. Next, distribute the “Visualizing to Summarize” worksheet and materials.
5. Reinforce the goals for this lesson.
6. Have the students fill out the title and author of the article in the spaces provided.
7. Explain to the students that as they reread the article, they will be drawing pictures to answer each of the prompts in the boxes.
   1. Who is the article about?
   2. What happens in the article?
   3. When did it happen?
   4. Where did it happen?
   5. Why did it occur?
   6. How did it occur?

* This last one can be altered to “How is it important?” which allows students to think more critically about the article.  However, this type of visualization can be abstract and, thus, difficult for some students to draw. 

8. It is helpful to walk students through the first two or three boxes depending on how quickly they catch on.
9. Students can then work to create visualizations for the remaining boxes.
10. Once students have completed their visual representations in all six boxes, have them turn the paper over and create a four to five sentence summary of the information in the depicted boxes. 

*Students’ ability to write summaries will depend on the amount of previous experience they have had with this technique.  If students have had little to no exposure to summarizing, then walking the students through the process of summarizing will be necessary.  (See above definition of summaries.)  

11. After students have completed their summaries, allow time for them to share out what they have written.

Guided Practice:

This activity can be quite useful as a guided lesson on how to fix up meaning when it breaks down by using visualizing as a strategy to determine importance.  It is very important initially to explain to students how to use each box and what types of ideas or pictures should go into each one.  Drawing pictures and then using them to create a summary is not something that comes naturally to all students.  However, it is something that good readers do all the time in their minds.  Guiding the students through this process will help them experience how this fix up strategy works. 

Independent Practice:

This activity can also be a great tool for independent work with all types of text. Once they understand how visualizing works, students can use the steps and processes outlined on the worksheet to create summaries that adequately represent the text in question.   

Closure: 

The ultimate goal in all of these strategies and fix-up techniques is to get students to automatically use them when they find a piece of text that does not make sense or is difficult to comprehend.  The more that students practice visualizing, the more they will see its usefulness.  In addition, by using the “who, what, when, where, why and how” approach, students will begin to determine the most important elements, gain a better understanding of the entire text, and create more effective summaries.