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Quick and Easy Visualizing Lesson

November 20, 2015

First Grade Visualizing Lesson with Short Poem
 This week I introduced visualizing to my little ones with a super easy and powerful lesson! Visualizing is such an important comprehension standard in primary grades! As our students delve into chapter books, and more challenging plot lines, they MUST visualize to able to understand the text. Though it happens naturally for us, we can’t forget our students need to be taught what it means to visualize! When we give a name to a strategy, they are more likely to use it comfortably. Throughout the year, as I’m reading aloud to students, I make sure to think aloud and model this strategy! Here are some sentence stems I might use and teach to my students! I also included a anchor chart with the definition. (You can grab all the freebies at the bottom of this post!)
Free Visualizing Anchor Charts
To solidify the strategy, we used this perfect poem from Jack Prelutsky! It is perfect for visualizing, and the kiddos really love it! They always freak out at the end when they realize what it is!
Jack Prelutsky Poem for Visualizing
Now for the lesson! I chose to use manilla paper (prefolded in thirds), but I also included a printable version for you to use at the end! The should label their paper before, during, and after.
Visualizing Paper Example

First, just show the title of the poem and have them draw their mental image. I LOVE seeing all their drawings…they’re always so unique! (I made all these fancy printables after this lesson, so I just typed it up quickly in Word on my projector!)

 Visualizing Lesson-Show the Title
Visualizing Lesson Example Student Work 3
 Continue to add more of the poem and have them add their “during” drawing.
Visualizing Lesson-Middle
Make sure you give them enough time to do a detailed drawing. Usually I tell my students to sketch quickly, but for this lesson, the important thing is that they’re really visualizing…including the details! I gave my students about 4-5 minutes for each time. (You can tell them to draw a small picture to save time…just make sure to encourage them to add detail!)
Finally, show the entire poem and  let them finish their drawing!
Visualizing Show the Poem
Here are two examples of my student’s completed work. At the end, be sure to have students discuss their mental image using the sentence stems! It’s important they know that our mental images are our own…they might be different for different people and that’s okay! But what matters is that we are thinking deeply about the text and picturing it in our brain!
Visualizing Lesson Example Student Work Visualizin Lesson Example Student Work 2
As promised, I have lots of freebies that go with this lesson. You can grab them by clicking the picture below.
Freebies for Teaching Visualizing
I hope this lesson is helpful to you! Let me know if you try it out! 🙂
Easy Visualizing Lesson Long Pin
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Filed Under: Reading, Uncategorized 13 Comments

Comments

  1. Maria says

    May 15, 2017 at 1:50 pm

    This looks wonderful Haley, a quick lesson for visualizing, especially for ELL students. How can I download it?

    Reply
    • Haley O'Connor says

      June 4, 2017 at 9:20 pm

      Thank you Maria! 🙂 You can click the images to download 🙂

      Reply
  2. SP says

    June 10, 2017 at 10:03 pm

    Love this resource—however, the poems in your download reads “its eyes AND large and green”—I don’t see a correction in the download. Are you able to fix them for both the poem and the projectable versions?

    Reply
    • Haley O'Connor says

      August 14, 2017 at 10:31 pm

      It’s fixed now! 🙂

      Reply
  3. Sarah says

    February 14, 2018 at 7:40 pm

    I still don’t see a correction, what a shame! I would also love to use with ELL little ones! It is such a nice picture!

    Reply
    • Haley O'Connor says

      February 16, 2018 at 7:04 pm

      It’s fixed now! 🙂

      Reply
      • Sarah says

        February 17, 2018 at 6:30 pm

        Great! It looks awesome!

        Reply
  4. Jaime says

    April 10, 2018 at 8:11 pm

    Love this lesson idea. I’m searching for a lesson idea for a demo lesson for 3rd grade. Wondering if this idea can be adapted and if you have any ideas for doing so. Thanks.

    Reply
    • Haley O'Connor says

      April 25, 2018 at 11:02 pm

      Yes I think so! You could definitely follow the same format with a more challenging poem too!

      Reply
  5. Val says

    October 25, 2020 at 7:38 pm

    During this time of home schooling I’m grateful for all resources, especially terrific ones y like this and it’s free. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

    Reply
    • Haley O'Connor says

      November 12, 2020 at 6:18 pm

      I’m so glad they’re helpful to you!

      Reply
  6. Rita Ferreira says

    December 6, 2020 at 9:52 am

    YOU ARE AMAZING!! Thank you so much first of all for a great lesson!! Second, Thank you for the FREE documents! You definitely have help a special ed teacher this week! I really appreciate you and the hard work you have done.

    Reply
    • Haley O'Connor says

      January 2, 2021 at 6:55 am

      You are the amazing one 🙂

      Reply

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