Writing Workshop:Visualization Exercise

Anansi Steals the Palm Wine

Prof. Myrna Monllor JiménezProf. Helen Avilés

Borinquen Writing Project

Visualization

Visualizing involves picturing in your mind what is happening in the text.

Current studies demonstrate that when students experience explicit instruction of comprehension strategies, it improves their comprehension of new texts and topics.

Encourages diverse perspectives in response to text and fosters an environment of open discussion.

When students visualize

They find connections between the author’s thoughts and their own thoughts.

They create images by using prior knowledge.

•They understand that throughout the writing process, a great deal of thinking by a writer considers how readers will visualize.

•They understand that words connect the emotion, senses, and experiences  of a writer to a reader.

Anansi Steals the Palm Wine

Before reading you may want to discuss new vocabulary

Read the story Anansi Steals the Palm Wine

Have students skim through the reading again and mark all verbs

Write a list of the verbs you want to emphasize on the board

Divide the class in groups

Give instructions

Draw the story in seven scenes

Color your story

Write a sentence caption for each scene

Have each group check for subject-verb agreement

Have them underline the verbs

Display murals

Retell the story using your mural

Options: 1 student reads from the mural,

others retell the story in their own words

Provide butcher paper for the preparation of murals

Additional Activities

When a story is long enough, you may want to give each class group only one scene from the story.

With the scenes that they develop, you may work with sequence exercises.

Display murals throughout the time they will be working with the story. In this way students will review the vocabulary words they used every time they look at the mural. They may also use the words for additional writing activities.

References

http://www.reading.org/downloads/53rd_conv_handouts/Visualization.pdf

Visualization: The Missing Link  Between Reading and Writing