Putting Students' Imagination to Work
A note from the editor: One of the wonderful things about 1:1 education is that our teachers are able to design unique, thoughtful lessons that work for each student. We love giving our teachers autonomy to design engaging lessons that speak to their students’ (and their own!) strengths and interests. We are also proud to have a strong support staff leading our teachers in this process, offering consistent professional development and guidance. Jenny Coico, one of the recent additions to the support staff, taught with us prior to joining our leadership team. Learn more about one of her favorite lessons below, and consider how you might adapt that to your own 1:1 classroom!
IMAGINATION AT WORK
Let’s use our imaginations for a moment. When you read the following words, what images or feelings come to mind?
liquid water, ice, burning log, ashes, iron nail, rust, irreversible change
Do you picture ordinary objects from your daily life -- the water in your faucet, the ice cubes in your freezer? Maybe you’re thinking about rain and snow, a campfire, or the passage of time.
Now, imagine you’re a 6th-grade student, and your teacher hands you a text called “Changes in matter: physical versus chemical changes.” How do you feel? Are you excited to read more, or have your eyes already glazed over?
As a teacher, I never want to be on the other side of that equation, handing a dry reading to my students and trying to convince them that it’s worth their time. But I also know that some important readings are simply less captivating than others. When assigning a challenging but worthy text, I have a few go-to strategies to prevent that glazed-over look. One of my favorites is a pre-reading strategy known as the Mind’s Eye. It’s all about harnessing the power of imagination.
THE STRATEGY
The Mind’s Eye activity can be done with any grade level or subject area. Here’s how it works: Before presenting a text to a student, pull out 20-30 significant and evocative words from that text. Using the example above, those elemental words (liquid water, ice, and so on) came from that chemistry article on “Changes in Matter.” At the start of the activity, tell your student that you are going to read aloud a list of words without providing any other context. Ask them to silently picture what they see in their mind as they listen.
When you finish reading the list, give your student a few minutes to solidify the image they have in their head. Depending on the age of the student or the topic at hand, you might have them make a quick drawing or write a short paragraph. You can also have them write down or share aloud a prediction or question they have. Finally, present the text and begin to read, pausing periodically to discuss how it matches their predictions. By piquing your student’s curiosity from the outset, they have more motivation to read with a critical eye.
THE STRATEGY IN ACTION
As a PacPrep teacher, I used the Mind’s Eye strategy with one of my third-grade students to begin a unit on Ancient Egypt. I found an article that provided a great overview of the geography of Egypt, but I knew it wasn’t the most riveting read. So instead of jumping straight into the text, I used the Mind’s Eye strategy to activate his imagination and spark his interest. I chose words such as: barren, desert, floods, fruit trees, crocodiles, and woven baskets. My student then drew a picture of the image that formed in his mind. We used that as a jumping off point to read and discuss the text.
WHY IT WORKS
What I love about the Mind’s Eye strategy is that it's widely applicable. It works just as well for a science text as it does for a history or English text. Take these two examples:
instability, injustice, confusion, liberty (from James Madison’s “Federalist Paper No. 10”)
clear water, polished stones, ragged gypsies, new inventions (from Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude)
Without the Mind’s Eye strategy, a primary source document like Federalist Paper No. 10 doesn't have a ton of appeal for the typical student. With this strategy, a student can read the text anticipating the drama it contains. Similarly, One Hundred Years of Solitude -- my personal favorite novel -- is a hefty 400 pages, which could be intimidating for many students. By sharing such evocative words in advance, however, they know they’re about to be transported to a faraway place with mystical people. The Mind’s Eye strategy harnesses students’ innate curiosity. In doing so, it lays the foundation for closer reading and deeper learning.Some kind of concluding headline here
REFERENCES
The Mind’s Eye strategy comes from a book called The Strategic Teacher by Silver, Strong, and Perini. I first learned about it from the Cult of Pedagogy blog and podcast by Jennifer Gonzalez.