The explicit teaching of Visualizing to Prep students will improve

Transcription

The explicit teaching of Visualizing to Prep students will improve
verbalizing and listening comprehension
and demonstrate that the results can be replicated.
‘Our Learning Journey’
‘If I use the T.V in my brain it helps me to understand what is
happening in the story.’
‘I can think that I am watching a T.V in my brain.’
‘I can think about the words and what they look like.’
‘When I am reading at home I can use my T.V in my brain to help
visualize the story.’
‘I know I can read the words, say the words, write the words and
I can visualize the words.’
‘Visualizing helps me to make a picture in my brain about what is
happening in the story.’
Learning Reflections: Teaching Group 1.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1
METHOD...................................................................................................................................... 5
Design...................................................................................................................................... 5
Participants .......................................................................................................................... 5
Materials ................................................................................................................................ 6
Procedure .............................................................................................................................. 7
RESULTS ................................................................................................................................... 11
Observations of Teaching Groups......................................................................... 11
Analysing each Test conducted: ............................................................................ 11
Reviewing each Group’s Individual Data and the Learning Trend for
each group.......................................................................................................................... 14
Learning Trends for Each Student in the Testing Group (Group 1) . 17
Correlation of Tests ....................................................................................................... 23
Discussion ............................................................................................................................... 25
References:............................................................................................................................. 29
Appendix A.............................................................................................................................. 30
Appendix B.............................................................................................................................. 31
Appendix C.............................................................................................................................. 33
Appendix D…………………………………………………………………………………………………….49
ABSTRACT
As educators we understand the fundamental importance of bringing meaning to student’s
learning experiences. For a child to successfully transfer information into knowledge they must
internalize the information and make it their own. For students and teachers the driving force
behind education is not on teaching but it is on learning. Teachers must equip their student’s with
the building blocks they require to gain knowledge and understanding.
Many students are successful when learning to read, they develop sight word recognition and
strategies to help them to decode. However, a number of student’s encounter difficulties with
comprehending and comprehension. They are able to read to the end of the page without making
an error but unable to retain information, make it their own and share their knowledge. If students
are unable to make meaning from text the purpose of reading is lost. As teacher’s it is imperative
that we equip our student’s with the skills, knowledge and strategies they require as they embark
on the journey as life-long users of Literacy.
The hypothesis of this study is that ‘the explicit teaching of Visualizing across Prep classes will
improve Verbalizing and listening comprehension and demonstrate that the results can be
replicated’. To bring meaning to texts student’s need to be able to develop images and bring their
own language to what is being read or listened to. It could be said that the key to reading is to get
meaning and to comprehend. By providing students with the strategies they require to visualize
and provide them with opportunities to retell the information in their own words we are indeed
unlocking a world of knowledge and understanding for our student’s.
In this study students were taught how to visualize using visual prompts, visualize from listening
and visualize in order to retell. The student’s learning was scaffolded and each learning phase
was laid as a building block to equip the student’s with the strategies they require to
independently visualize, verbalize and comprehend. This study was conducted using three groups
of student’s. A Control Group, Teaching Group and a Replicating Teaching Group; whose basis
was to demonstrate how the results could be replicated across settings.
The study generated results to support the hypothesis. The Post-test scores demonstrate greater
improvement made by the two teaching groups when required to independently utilize the
Visualization strategy. The research findings also support the benefit of teaching a strategy to a
whole class in comparison to a small group.
This study highlights the positive effect the explicit teaching of a strategy has on student’s
individual learning. Without prompting the student’s have continued post teaching to
independently utilize the language and strategies taught to bring meaning to their own learning.
Providing students with the skills they require to further their knowledge and understanding is
indeed our responsibility in the very special job of facilitating our students’ roles as life-long
learners.
INTRODUCTION
Learning to read for some learners will be an enjoyable and exhilarating journey that unlocks a
world of imagination and information. Some Literacy learners from a very early age will seek out
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opportunities to listen to stories, explore books and talk about the texts being read to them. The
‘World of Words’ will for some become a valuable world of knowledge and learning, a world
where the story goes beyond the end of the page and develops in their imagination, builds upon
what they know and challenges them to seek to understand more.
However, the journey for other learners can be a long and tough uphill battle. They must listen to
stories with increasing length and ideas, conquer sounds, recall these sounds quick enough to
decode words, place a string of words together to form a sentence thus retaining all this
information to make sense of what message lay hidden beneath the letters on the page. The battle
does not end at the full stop. The text increases as do the messages and information being
conveyed in the words. Teachers try and combat this battle by talking about books and equipping
their learners with skills to decode words. Many students experience great difficulty in
connecting the words read and making meaning of the words. As stated by Bell “the only reason
to read or listen to language – take in verbal stimuli – is to get meaning, to comprehend, to
interpret, to reason”(Bell 1991, p 13). Even though some learners will acquire the skills necessary
to decode the words adequately, they will not attain the skills necessary to comprehend, gain
meaning and make connections with texts they are listening to or reading. Some Literacy learners
will indeed win the battle with reading, they will be able to sufficiently decode and recall words
automatically, however many will lose the war with words as their focus on reading at the word
and sentence level will greatly impede on their comprehension.
Nelson states in her research that “learning to read is a tough process” (Neslon, 2005, p6). She
explains that “comprehension goes beyond the literal decoding of the text” (p6) and that students
must “understand what they are reading – they must comprehend” (p6). Nelson also uses the
work of Goudvis and Harvey (2000) to support her observation of comprehension.
“Comprehension means that readers think not only about what they are reading but what they are
learning. When readers construct meaning, they are building their store knowledge. But along
with knowledge must come understanding” (p6). For some readers making the connection
between words and meaning is a difficult task. Many students are able to read words but they are
unable to visualize hence understand what is occurring in the text. Furthermore, they are unable
to make connections to their existing knowledge or verbalize to organise their thoughts.
As stated by Westwood “effective comprehension requires that the reader maintain the meaning
throughout the reading of the text” (Westwood, 2003, p 10). Westwood further uses the work of
Pressley (1999) to suggest “that good comprehenders are effective users of comprehension
strategies when they work with a text. A strategy can be defined as a mental plan or action
designed to achieve a specific purpose” (p 10). Some students struggle with self-management and
control strategies before, during and after the reading process. Not being able to plan how they
will read, monitor their reading and organise their thoughts post reading greatly impacts on their
overall comprehension. Munro states in his research “that many students have difficulty
managing and directing their learning, seeing themselves making progress as learners” (Munro
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2003.p 1). If students lose confidence in their own ability the process of reading becomes a
greater challenge. Students need to be equipped early on with strategies to connect words,
thoughts and images. Westwood opens his text with a quote from Strickland in 1999 “learning to
read and write is arguably the most complex task humans face” ( p 1). In order to prepare
students to undertake this complex task they must be operational with the skills and knowledge
necessary to create belief in themselves as learners, hence being effective life-long users of
Literacy.
For most children the process of learning to read happens long before they start school
(Westwood, 2003, p1). They are born into a print society where symbols such as an M represent
chips and burgers and a red background and the letters c-o-k-e represent a sweet beverage.
Students from a very young age bring meanings to these visual elements. They may not be able to
read the letters but they are able to visualize and verbalize what the symbols represent. If children
are able to make these connections at such an early age, it highlights the power of visualizing and
verbalizing to gain meaning and make connections with their own experiences. Observations of
the literate world continue as children develop, they observe individuals around them conveying
messages through writing lists, notes, texting, emailing. Without any explicit teaching the young
learners become aware that written text contains some message. In many literate home
environments it is normal for students to be read to, view others reading around them, and be
given their own books to read and explore (p1). We live in a ‘World of Words’ being able to
build upon our understandings of these words is a distinct difference between reading at the word
level opposed to reading at the text level. Educators have become very good at teaching to the
word level but teaching students to unlock the meaning of text and use both types of their
thinking strategies; cognition and meta-cognition (Munro, p 2-3) is an area that requires further
investigation.
Readers who obtain the skills to visualize and verbalize early in their reading journey are being
introduced to the relationship between imagery and cognition (Bell, 1991,p14). As explored by
Bell in enabling the reader or listener to bring meaning to what is read or heard, is an integral part
of cognition (p14). Bell further explores the relationship of imagery and cognition by analyzing
the work of many great thinkers including Aristotle, Einstein, Aquinas and Piaget. Aristotle
stated in ‘On Memory and Recollection’ in 348BC “it is impossible even to think without a
mental picture” (p14). This was further supported by Thomas Aquinas who wrote “Man’s mind
cannot understand thoughts without images of them” (p15). These great thinkers understood the
importance of cognition; “linking relevant existing knowledge, visualising, organizing what you
know about an idea, self-questioning and monitoring….(Munro, p2). They further understood the
importance of meta-cognition by planning, monitoring, taking further strategic action and
evaluating the success of their learning (Munro, p2). Bell (1991) uses the research of Oliver
(1982) who concludes that “teachers should try to help children to develop the metacognitive
skill of visual imagery as a strategy for improving comprehension…Visualization enhances
comprehension”(p17). Our great thinkers and many researchers have recognized the significance
of visualization by creating images. Bell supports this by stating that imagery is “a critical factor
in language comprehension” (p14). And that “visualization is directly related to language
comprehension, language expression, and critical thinking. Imagery is a primary sensory
connection in the brain”(p 9).
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It is a generally agreed upon by educators and researchers that even in the earliest stages of the
reading process, comprehension must be the central focus point of teaching and not something to
be focused on after students have learned how to decode and read words (Westwood, 2003, p 9).
Westwood (2003) highlights that “most definitions of reading stress that it a process of getting
meaning from print. Understanding information in the text is, of course, the whole purpose of
reading”(p10). Westwood uses the work of Gambrell and Dromsky (2000) who suggests “a
cognitive-constructivist view of reading emphasizes that it is a process in which readers actively
search for and make meaning for themselves in what they read”(p 10). By building upon this
understanding of comprehension and ‘making meaning for themselves whilst they read’ draws a
direct correlation with the explicit teaching of Visualization.
Nelson (2005) uses the work of Goudvis and Harvey (2000) to define visualization as, “creating
pictures in our minds that belong to us and no one else. Visualizing personalizes reading, keeps
us engaged….(p7). Nelson further explores the concept of visualizing by referring to Miller
(2001) who defines visualization as “forming a mental image in one’s mind” (p 7). She further
explains that Miller believes that “everyone’s visualization is different because of each person’s
unique background knowledge developed in their individual schema”(p 7). If we use the old
proverb ‘a picture is worth 1000 words’ then by using the strategy of Visualizing it is directly
inter-related with Verbalizing. We want students to visualize what they are reading but to also
gain meaning and sort through their understandings, build upon their knowledge base and seek
clarification; therefore it is imperative that they are able to verbalize their thoughts by retelling
stories and providing feedback. The teaching of and application of comprehension is a complex
and multifaceted concept that requires various levels of thinking and instruction.
Nelsons study to investigate the use of the Visualization strategy and its effectiveness in
enhancing students’ reading comprehension (p 4) led her to find three major changes; student
answers to comprehension questions improved (p 24), students attitudes towards reading became
more positive (p 27) and her ability to teach reading improved, increasing her confidence level (p
27). Nelson concluded that not only did teaching the Visualization strategy improve students’
comprehension scores it also gave them a better understanding of author’s purpose and the
meaning behind the events of the story. In addition it promoted a higher level of enjoyment for
students when reading (p28). However, some student’s results in Nelsons study did not improve.
Nelson directly links this occurrence with the students’ lack of confidence in their drawing
abilities (p 26). To combat this, the current study being conducted uses a combination of visual
prompts and images, discussions and oral descriptions to articulate their predictions, thoughts and
ideas about the texts being explored.
The present investigation aims to examine the effect of visualizing using visual prompts to
promote the concept of connecting to prior experiences and drawing conclusions. This study
further examines the benefit of visualization by creating images whilst listening, to promote oral
retell; hence verbalizing. The benefits of the explicit teaching of Visualizing and Verbalizing
through scaffolding and modelling aim to equip readers with the skills to prepare and plan before
reading, visualizing whilst listening and reading to improve comprehending strategies and to
successfully orally retell a text to develop comprehension. The investigation aims to assist
students in building upon their knowledge and the constant development of mental images. It is
imperative that readers are able to understand the information and messages being conveyed to
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them by the writer in order to comprehend. Hence to further the validity of the investigation the
sequence of lessons will be implemented by two teachers to demonstrate the results can be
replicated. The Reading Journey never ends; we are life-longer users of Literacy, being able to
read, sort through information and comprehend both visual and written texts is a fundamental
need in the ‘World of Words’. This investigation aims to facilitate students with laying strong
comprehension foundations for their life-long experiences with Literacy. The hypothesis of this
study is that ‘the explicit teaching of Visualizing across Prep classes will improve Verbalizing
and listening comprehension and demonstrate that the results can be replicated’.
4
METHOD
Design
This study uses the OXO design method to ascertain if student’s verbalizing and listening
comprehension improves after the explicit teaching of visualizing. The target segment for this
study is lower primary school students with a range of oral language skills and listening
comprehension abilities. Three groups are compared in the current study, a control group
(without intervention) and two treatment groups (with intervention). One treatment group is
having the lessons implemented through a teacher who is demonstrating that the lessons and
results can be replicated.
Participants
The participants selected for this study all attend the same Primary school which is large in size
and are in straight Grade Prep classes. Based on results from the Record of Oral Language
conducted in February 2010 a range of students from each core group were selected based on
their results. The results were matched across settings and six students from each group were
selected to demonstrate low, middle and high scoring students. These participants were
specifically chosen on their results to display how the explicit teaching of visualizing improves
the scores across a whole class setting.
Table 1 : Participant Characteristics
(Complete Table: Appendix A)
Name
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
Groups
Teaching =
1
Replicating
Teaching =
2
Control = 3
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
Gender Time at
Male = 0 School
Age in
Female =
in
MONTHS
1
Months
1
65
5
0
67
5
1
73
5
1
68
5
0
73
5
0
63
5
1
66
5
0
70
5
0
63
5
0
72
5
1
65
5
1
74
5
0
69
5
ESL
No=0
Yes=1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
EMA
No=0
Yes=1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
ROL
14
4
23
19
10
34
13
4
17
30
12
29
25
5
3
3
3
3
3
N
O
P
Q
R
68
74
75
65
64
1
0
0
1
1
5
5
5
5
5
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
17
18
5
29
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Materials
The following materials were used for Pre and Post testing data collection, for this study:
•
•
•
•
Record of Oral Language – taken from Literacy Assessment conducted in February 2010.
For post-testing the Alternative ROL was used. Test displays student’s ability to retain
information and successfully repeat sentences. Explicit teaching of Visualizing aims to
promote students retention of information by using mental images.
Task 18 - Listening Comprehension – taken from Eric. This test requires students to retell
a short narrative. Explicit teaching of Visualizing intends to encourage students to
visualize texts to retain information during the reading and promote retell by using their
mental images as stimuli.
Visualizing Task – (Appendix B), task requires students to listen to a sentence with one to
two ideas. Students are required to draw an image of what they visualize and then
describe what occurred in the sentence. Assesses both visualizing through the images and
retell by assessing the description.
Self-Efficacy scales – to ascertain students belief in their abilities and how they feel about
themselves as Literacy learners.
Each of the lessons were designed and structured to be used in lower, middle and upper classes.
The lessons can be adapted by altering choice of visual stimuli and selected material. The lessons
can be taught in a teaching sequence or in isolation. The teaching sequence aimed to follow the
following progression: Visualize using visual prompts, visualize from listening and visualize in
order to retell.
As the students were being introduced to the letter Bb during the teaching sequence and were in
the initial stages of an Inquiry unit on Nature the following texts were used during the
implementation of the lessons:
•
A single red balloon – used as a visual prompt to introduce students to the concept of
Getting Knowledge Ready – GKR. Lesson also assisted with students practice in using
phrases to explain their ideas or experiences.
•
Niki’s Walk – Big Book without text. Text used for students to use visual images to draw
conclusions and make connections to assist with comprehension. Students are explicitly
instructed on how to use all aspects of an image to make meaning.
6
•
The Hedgehog’s Balloon – Text was specifically used to teach the students listening
comprehension skills and develop their oral retell.
An ongoing ‘Learning Journey’ (Appendix D) was implemented in each of the target teaching
groups. This aimed to monitor students own reflections on their learning’s and record their
responses to learning experiences. The Learning Journey was also used during sessions at the
beginning of lessons to revisit learning experiences and revise with students their own learning.
The following activity sheets were used to monitor student’s progress with visualizing and
verbalizing, they were collected during the teaching sequence to observe progression. All
activities were designed to encourage student’s knowledge of language and promote the use of
language to explain their own thinking and learning:
Table 2: Activity Sheets
(All Activity Sheets found in Appendix C)
My Balloon’ Activity Sheet – Images with matching text are collected and
compiled into a class text to be used for future reference.
The T.V in My Brain – What will happen next?
Storyboard – before, now and after
My Brain T.V
Storyboard – 5 events
Storyboard – 7 events
The T.V in my Brain
Assessment: My Prediction, My Visualisation Picture, My Retell.
Procedure
The participants selected were pre and post tested under the same test conditions. For the
Listening Comprehension test the students were tested individually during class time. For the
ROL, Visualizing Task and Self-Efficacy test the students were tested in an office with the test
administrator and individual participant. For both pre and post testing the same language and
instructions were used so as not alter the conditions of the tests conducted. Both pre and post
testing took approximately 1 hour per student however each test was conducted in isolation so as
not to tire students or cause frustration. All data collected was tabled (Table 3, Appendix A) to
display the differences between pre and post test scores after the explicit teaching of
Visualization.
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RESULTS: Table 3
(Complete Table Appendix A)
Name
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
Groups
Teaching =
1
Replicating
Teaching =
2
Control = 3
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
3
3
3
3
3
Attendance
No. of
sessions
12
10
11
12
12
11
12
10
12
12
11
11
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
ROL
Pre
/42
ROL
Post
/42
Listening
Comp
Pre /26
Listening
Comp
Post /26
Visualizing
Task
Pre /39
Visualizing
Task
Post /39
SelfEfficacy
Pre /66
SelfEfficacy
Post /66
14
4
23
19
10
34
13
4
17
30
12
29
25
17
18
5
29
12
17
10
29
30
13
29
10
8
15
31
22
31
26
21
16
3
25
13
5
1
4
10
2
12
2
1
8
12
4
13
10
10
5
2
9
6
15
9
14
17
11
18
5
2
12
15
14
14
9
18
5
5
10
2
21
4
8
16
19
27
10
8
12
15
10
23
20
20
12
16
22
8
28
13
22
29
25
32
22
11
25
21
15
31
26
20
17
12
26
9
36
37
33
54
53
54
41
36
58
61
61
61
48
34
40
39
40
37
56
66
66
55
54
59
42
40
62
62
49
66
50
41
49
50
49
43
Statistics
ROL Pre ROL
Listening
Listening
Self-
Self-
Comp Pre /
Comp Post /
Visualizing Task
Visualizing Task Efficacy
Efficacy
/ 42
Post / 42 26
26
Pre / 39
Post / 39
Pre / 66
Post/66
Mean
17.50
19.39
6.44
10.83
15.06
21.33
45.72
53.28
Std. Deviation
9.243
8.892
4.105
5.272
6.403
7.104
10.346
8.804
Minimum
4
3
1
2
4
9
33
40
Maximum
34
31
13
18
27
32
61
66
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Following the pre-testing which took approximately two weeks to complete the students from
Group 1 and 2 were involved in an intensive twelve lesson teaching sequence (Appendix C). The
lessons were taught during the Literacy Block once a day for two weeks. As two lessons were
remaining they were integrated into the Inquiry unit as they complemented the unit being taught.
The lesson sequence was taught to the whole class by their own class teacher. All students were
actively engaged in the lesson sequence and the daily lesson replaced a normal rotational small
group activity. Teaching to the whole class during Literacy demonstrated how explicit teaching
of a skill improves the results of a whole class. The driving force of the lessons designed was on
developing students learning. Students were encouraged to articulate what they would do before
they began tasks, to review their own learning, make connections and verbalize how they would
use this knowledge in the future. The learning sequence aimed to promote self-talk and equip
students with skills and knowledge they would independently implement in their own future
learning experiences. The lesson sequence aimed to promote the automatic use of actions for
students to take to transfer information gained into knowledge (Munro 2008).
To introduce students to the concept of ‘Visualizing’ a visual prompt of a single balloon was
used. This lesson was designed to tap into student’s experiences and allow them to make
connections with what they know about balloons. By scaffolding the lesson it provided student’s
with an opportunity to build on their own knowledge. During the introductory session students
were introduced to the term ‘GKR’ – Getting Knowledge Ready. This term was explicitly taught
to students and was utilized in all teaching and learning activities.
The following five lessons used the text ‘Niki’s Walk’. Students were encouraged to read the text
from pictures. Students were asked to use ‘The T.V in their brains’, to think about what was
happening in the story now, what would happen next and what could have happened before.
Students during these lessons were prompted to use language introduced in the sessions and they
reflected upon their learning and experiences using the ‘Learning Journey’ (Appendix D).
Through out these lessons students were required to jointly construct a text to match the images,
during this teaching phase the students were exposed to the understanding that ‘we can read
words, we can say words, we can write words and we can visualize words’. Through out the
implementation of the lesson sequence the teacher made links between reading, talking, writing
and visualizing.
Once student’s had become familiar with visualizing texts and discussing their own mental
images the lessons progressed to developing listening comprehension. This element of the
teaching required students to listen to sentences with varying degrees of complexity and drawing
images to match the text. From this point students were then asked to retell first at a sentence
level and then a short paragraph. During this phase of the teaching, students were required to
close their eyes and use their own ‘T.V’s in their brains’. The sentences were read at least three
times to allow students to retain information and provide time for them to conjure up their mental
images to match the text. As in all of the lessons the students were required to use their self-talk
and complete their oral retell in sentences.
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The final lesson was used as the major assessment of the lesson sequence. It demonstrated
student’s ability to successfully complete all three major elements of the lesson sequence.
Students were first asked to visualize the end of ‘The Hedgehog’s Balloon’, this task required
students to utilize their prior knowledge of the text and use their own existing knowledge.
Secondly, students were required to listen to the next part of the text, visualize what was
occurring and draw an image to represent their visualization. The last part of the assessment
required student’s to orally retell what occurred in their visualization. This directly assessed the
correlation between Visualizing and Verbalizing.
10
RESULTS
Observations of Teaching Groups
The results generated from this study greatly support the hypothesis that ‘the explicit teaching of
Visualizing across Prep classes will improve Verbalizing and listening comprehension and
demonstrate that the results can be replicated’. Mean test scores for participants in the two
teaching groups improved considerably, however the control group made less progress in the
Literacy tests conducted. (Table 3, Appendix A)
Analysing each Test conducted:
Figure 1: ROL overall test scores.
When analyzing the data for the Record of Oral Language it displays that all three groups had
very similar Pre-test mean scores. After the explicit teaching of visualizing the mean scores for
the Teaching Group had increased by 4 and for the Replicating Group and increased by 2.
However the Control in the Post-test scores experienced a decrease of .34.
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Figure 2: Listening Comprehension
The Listening Comprehension mean scores improved for all groups. The Teaching Group had an
increase of 9, the Replicating Group 3.66 and the Control Group 1.17. What is interesting to note
for the Listening Comprehension test the two teaching groups demonstrated a noteworthy
improvement on their oral retell. The participants for both groups remembered far more detail
and had a far more sophisticated approach to their retell.
Figure 3: Visualizing Task
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The Visualizing Task data reflects the most improvement overall for the three groups. The
Teaching Group had an increase of 9 scores and the Replicating Group an increase of 7.83. The
Control Group had the least improvement with an increase of 5 scores. There was an obvious
observable improvement made by all participants in the administration of the Post-test. All
participants interviewed provided far greater detail in their retell and their images reflected a
greater understanding of the ideas being conveyed in the text.
Figure 4: Self-Efficacy Test
On review of the testing data for the Self-Efficacy it displays the greatest increase of mean scores
made by the Teaching Group being 14.83. This increase was the largest made overall in the all
the tests conducted. The Replicating Group experienced the smallest increase made which was
.50. The Control Group had a mean score increase of 7.53.
13
Reviewing each Group’s Individual Data and the Learning Trend for each group.
Figure 5: Teaching Group Average Test Scores.
When anlaysing the data for the Teaching Group it demonstrates the greatest improvements were
made overall for this group. The greatest increase was made in the Listening Comprehension test
where participants results increased by 32%. Students also demonstrated improvement in the
ROL where scores increased by 10% and the Visualising Task where scores increased by 23%.
The second greatest improvement was the Self-Efficacy test where average scores increased from
44.5 to 59.3. In the Self-Efficacy test students who began with a lower score in the Pre-test had a
considerably higher score in the Post-test. However, students whose Pre-test scores were already
greater than 50 only made slight increases in their Post-test score (Table 3).
14
Figure 6: Replicating Teaching Group Test Scores.
On review of the testing data for the Replicating Teaching group it displays an increase was made
in all tests conducted. The greatest gain was made in the Visualizing Task where scores increased
by 20%. Furthermore, Listening Comprehension’s average score increased from 6.6 to 10.3. The
scores for the ROL increased by 4%. The Replicating Teaching group overall made the least
improvement in the Self-Efficacy test with an increase of only 1%. The Replicating Teaching
group had considerably high scores in the Pre-test with three students receiving a score of 61
(Table 3), however they did not increase greatly in the Post-test. Student K who received 61 in
the Pre-test had a score of 49 in the Post-test (Table 3) this heavily impacted on there being very
little difference between the Pre-test and Post-test data.
15
Figure 7: Control Group Test Scores.
The control group in the Pre-testing received in total the highest scores in the ROL, the Listening
Comprehension and the Visualizing Task (Table 3). However, they made the least improvement
in all three tests. For the ROL there was a decrease of 1%. For the Visualizing Task the average
score increased from 16.3 to 18.3. The Listening Comprehension Task had an increase of 4%.
The greatest increase was in the Self-Efficacy test where scores increased from 60% to 71%.
The learning progress of students in the Teaching Group and in the Replicating group support the
prediction of the study by highlighting increases made in all tests after the explicit teaching of
Visualizing. The Teaching Group made an overall increase of 21% in all tests conducted and the
Replicating Group made a total increase of 9%. The control group’s scores increased by 5% with
the smallest gains made in the Literacy components of the testing being the: ROL, Listening
Comprehension and Visualizing Task.
16
Learning Trends for Each Student in the Testing Group (Group 1)
Figure 8: Student A
Student A is a very enthusiastic member of the class group. However, she can be easily distracted
and requires a great deal of monitoring to begin and remain on tasks. Student A at the completion
of activities has often not completed tasks. During the testing particularly the Post-testing Student
A was eager to participate and was actively engaged in all activities. From her testing Student A
demonstrated a total increase of 23% across all areas. She made the greatest improvement in the
Self-Efficacy test with her test results increasing by 20 marks (Table 3). Student A also
demonstrated a notable increase in the Listening Comprehension task with an improvement of
39%, this was the largest increase made by the group and was shared with Student C. Student A
was extremely confident during the Listening Comprehension Post-test and without prompting
articulated how she was visualizing the story whilst listening to the words by closing her eyes and
using the T.V in her brain.
17
Figure 9: Student B
Student B made an overall total increase of 20% in all tests conducted. Student B is an ESL
student and was absent for two of the teaching sessions (Table 1). In class Student B is
enthusiastic to contribute to discussions and activities. He has demonstrated a strong ability to
learn letters and words by rote. Student B made pleasing progress in articulating his ideas and
thoughts in sentences during and after the implication of the lesson sequence. Student B made the
greatest improvement in the Listening Comprehension task with an increase of 31%. Student B
had a increase of 29% for the Self-Efficacy test, 22% for the Visualizing Task and 13% for the
ROL.
18
Figure 10: Student C
Student C is an enthusiastic member of the class and is eager to please. She was extremely
willing to contribute to class discussions during the lesson sequence and to complete all set tasks.
Student C often reminded other students to use their GKR before beginning tasks and has
successfully adopted and utlises the language taught to her during the explicit teaching of
Visualizing. Student C in group activities is quite confident however she can lack confidence in
her own ability in one on one situations and will not take risks. Student C made the greatest total
increase overall by improving 37%. Her result in the Self-Efficacy test greatly impacted on this
as she increased by 50%. Both Student A and C had the greatest increase in their Listening
Comprehension being 39%. Her oral retell for the Listening Comprehension task demonstrated a
considerable improvement as she recalled far more detail and had notable increased confidence
during the task. Her results for the Visualizing task made the greatest increase of all students
which was 35%. Her ROL increased by 14%.
19
Figure 11: Student D
Student D is a confident student and has a strong belief in herself that she is capable of achieving
success as a learner, this was reflected in her high marks both pre and post testing in the Selfefficacy test. Her result only increased by one mark following the explicit teaching of Visualizing
(Table 3). She will often self-talk during activities and is quite competent when reflecting upon
her own learning. Student D made the greatest improvement in the ROL increasing her result by
26%. Her results for the Listening Comprehension increased by 27% and for the Visualizing Task
33%. Student D has adopted the languages and skills taught to her in the lesson sequence and
articulates her use of these skills before, during and after reading activities. Student D made an
overall total increase of 19%.
20
Figure 12: Student E
Student E is an eager learner and enjoys experiencing success with his academic pursuits. He was
very excited to participate in the study and enjoyed the one on one testing experiences. Student E
made a total increase of 11%. His greatest individual improvement was made in Listening
Comprehension which increased by 24%. His oral retell of the narrative demonstrated a far
greater recall of the sequence of events. He articulated how he was now using the T.V in his brain
when listening to stories. Student E prior to beginning tasks expresses how he is using his GKR
and during reading and writing activities shares his understanding of how ‘we can read words, we
can say words, we can write words and we can visualize words’. Student E made an increase of
7% for the ROL, 15% for the Visualizing Task and 1% for the Self-Efficacy Task. Student E in
his Pre-testing received a high score for the Self-Efficacy test and this carried over into the PostTesting.
21
Figure 13: Student F
Student F was the only student out of the Teaching Group to receive a Post-Testing score lower
than his Pre-testing, his results for the ROL were 5 marks lower than his Pre-testing result (Table
3). Student F still made a total increase of 13%. His Listening Comprehension and Verbalizing
Task test results increased by 13% and his Self-Efficacy test increased by 7%. Student F is
enthusiastic to learn and to please however he can become nervous during test situations and is
reluctant to provide a response if he is not confident that it is correct.
22
Correlation of Tests
Table 4
Pre-Test Correlations
Scale
1
2
1.ROL= Pre
.87*
2.ListeningPre 3.Visual Pre
4.Self-Efficacy Pre
*Indicates a significant correlation
3
.63*
.67*
-
4
.42
.51*
.31
-
The above table indicates the relationship between the tests in the Pre-testing data. As
demonstrated there is a strong positive correlation between: the ROL Pre-Test with Listening PreTest and Visualizing Task Pre-Test. The Listening Pre-Test also yielded a strong positive
correlation with the Visualizing Task Pre-Test and the Self-Efficacy Pre-Test. This indicates
strong association between scores on these tests prior to the implementation of the lesson
sequence.
Table 5
Post-Test Correlations
Scale
1
2
1.Role Post
.70*
2.Listening
Post
3.Visual Post
4.Self-Efficacy Post
3
.67*
.66*
4
.43
.51*
-
.42
-
Following the implementation of the lesson sequence and analyzing the Post-test data the above
table indicates the relationship between the four tests follows the same pattern as it did prior to
teaching. The strong correlation remains between the ROL with the Listening Comprehension
test and the Visualizing Task. The Listening Comprehension Test correlates with the both the
Visualizing Task and the Self-Efficacy Test. The correlation between the Pre-test and the Posttest scores following the same pattern indicates a sound reliability of the tests and the
administration of the tests.
23
Correlations between all Pre and Post Tests
Table 6
ROL Test
.88*
Post-Test
Pre-Test
Listening Test
Visual Test
.59*
.76*
Self-Efficacy
Test
.39
The above table demonstrates positive and strong correlations between the Pre and Post Tests
scores for the ROL, Listening Comprehension Test and Visualizing Task. It indicates that the
higher the students score for the Pre-test the higher score in the Post-Test. This however was not
the case for Pre and Post self-efficacy test as this yielded only a slightly moderate relationship
between test scores.
The correlations between the Pre-test and Post-test data indicate a relationship between students
individual performance in the three Literacy tests administered. However, as the Self-Efficacy
Test is a personal reflection about one’s belief of themselves as a learner it did not a show a
strong relationship with the Literacy tests.
24
DISCUSSION
When analyzing the data compiled through out this study, there is evidence to suggest that the
hypothesis, ‘the explicit teaching of Visualizing across Prep classes will improve Verbalizing and
listening comprehension and demonstrate that the results can be replicated’ is somewhat proven.
Participants in both teaching groups by large increased their post test scores in comparison to the
Control group who displayed far less improvement in their overall scores (Table 3, Appendix A).
Participants in both teaching groups displayed far more confidence in their post testing and
recalled far more detail of events in the Listening Comprehension and Visualizing Task. Their
performances in the Post-test demonstrate that a solid foundation is being laid in order for these
students to continue their individual acquisition of comprehension skills and actions. Both
teaching groups have continued to use the language and skills taught in their daily experiences
with Literacy. This occurrence was unexpected by the teachers involved in the teaching groups as
without prompting they are self-managing their own learning and individually transferring
information into knowledge.
This study and the events following the implementation of the lesson sequence support Bell
(1991) who suggests the importance of “incoming language – both oral and written …. links us to
and from prior knowledge, accesses background experiences, establishes vocabulary, and creates
and stores information in both long term and short term memory (p14). The participants involved
in both teaching groups are individually accessing the vocabulary and knowledge gained from the
skills and actions taught to improve their own comprehension of texts listened to and read. It
further supports the research of Nelson (2005) who found students “critical thinking skills have
increased which allows them to apply these thinking skills to other curriculum areas (p28). The
students involved in the current study have made the transition from strategy instruction to
student independence and this was an unexpected yet very pleasing occurrence in the study.
Observations made in both the Pre-test and Post-test highlighted how participants of the teaching
group approached their Post-testing differently to their Pre-testing. They were far more critical
users of Literacy and asked more questions. Many of the students closed their eyes in the Posttesting and articulated how they were using the T.V in their brains whilst listening to the
sentences or story. The skills and actions taught to the two teaching groups supported the belief
of Westwood (2003) who states “readers must use information already acquired to filter,
interpret, organise, reflect upon and establish relationships with the new incoming
information….(p10). The participants of the teaching groups instinctively and without prompting
knew the actions to take in order to comprehend and retell what had occurred. Students in the
Control group did not approach their Post-testing with the same confidence or understanding of
the actions to take in order to comprehend and retell. Their oral retells were on large far shorter
and included less detail. They also did not engage with the test administrator about how they
were enjoying the task or they knew what to do. This was in direct contrast to the testing
experiences with the participants of the teaching groups.
25
The current study complements the work of Nelson (2005) who found “the use of reading
strategies provides a tool and a purpose for reading. The visualization strategy has improved
students’ comprehension scores (p 28). The participants of the two teaching groups all
experienced increases in their Listening Comprehension and Visualizing Task. In comparison
students in the Control Group did not all experience increases in their scores. Some student’s
results remained the same and some decreased in their Post-test score (Table 3, Appendix A).
Despite the improvements made, dramatic increases were not observed. As the student’s selected
were to represent a whole class setting there were marked differences in their Pre and Post testing
scores. The variances between scores and the range of abilities of student’s being tested meant it
was difficult to analyze the data and see large increases particularly with standard deviations.
However, what the student’s individual data (Table 3, Appendix A) and reflections of the
implementation of the lesson sequence demonstrates is that the explicit teaching of visualizing
improves the comprehension of all students. This strategy does not just cater for the needs of
students with Literacy difficulties, it is an open-ended strategy meaning it extends high-achieving
students and challenges student’s who are developing comprehending skills to experience a far
greater level of success. What the findings of the study achieve is to support Westwood (2003)
who uses the work of Rubin (2000) who describes reading comprehension as “a complex
intellectual process involving a number of abilities” (p 10). By exposing our students to the
strategies to take to visualize in order to comprehend better we are providing an open-ended
strategy that allows success at all levels by scaffolding and promotes the transition from Literacy
instruction to Literacy independence.
Teaching Group 1 by large experienced the greatest improvements overall. Reflecting upon the
data for Group 1 highlights how the intensive 12 lesson sequence impacted on the student’s
ability to visualize, comprehend whilst listening and ability to retell. The results of such a short
teaching period emphasizes the impact explicit teaching can have on learning. As a teacher it
highlights the importance of teaching strategies to student’s that they can independently utilize
when required and know which actions to take in order to experience success. This supports the
view and work of Pressley (1991) which is used by Westwood (2003) as Pressley argues the goal
of teaching should be to develop fully self-regulated readers who are skilled and strategic.
Pressley goes on to highlight the importance of teaching of strategies as an essential part of
literacy teaching (p11).
The Replicating Group also made improvements in their Post-testing scores. During the
implementation of the Lesson sequence the teacher of the Replicating Group was absent for four
of the sessions. This may have impacted on the student’s grasp of the skills being taught due to
the inconsistency of teacher’s implementing the sessions. However, it does support the
hypothesis of the study that the results can be replicated as four different teachers followed and
executed the lesson sequence. The Control Group did not demonstrate to the same extent the
level of improvements made by the two teaching groups. This supports the benefit and success of
the explicit teaching of a strategy. As even though the Control Group did not follow the lesson
sequence they were taught concepts about Visualization through Language Experience. However,
being exposed to concepts and guided through tasks is in direct contrast to the explicit teaching
and independent use of strategies. Basically it can be viewed as the superficial level of teaching
opposed to an enriched and engaging learning experience.
26
The study conducted has direct implications for future teaching. From analyzing the results and
the obvious engagement and eagerness of the Teaching Group student’s, it highlights the
importance of explicit teaching and allowing student’s to participate in tasks, where they
independently develop and reflect upon the skills and knowledge learnt. The current study has
provoked areas of interest which require further exploring. For many years teachers in classrooms
on the advice of Literacy experts and texts have at large implemented small group learning
activities. These activities targeted the specific needs of individual groups. There is certainly a
need for small group targeted learning in our classrooms however; this study proves students
through whole class explicit teaching experience marked improvements. What does this mean for
our classrooms and what are the implications for our students? It is an area to certainly be further
explored and one of extreme interest to many educators. For this study however, it demonstrates
that it is the teaching of strategies and skills that increase performance. Through explicit teaching,
the teacher engages with all students and is able to monitor everyone’s progress. With small
groups the teacher is often focused on one specific teacher group, ultimately meaning no
observations of the strategies the student’s are employing in their group activities are observed.
Working with all student’s and scaffolding lessons promotes whole group instruction, targeted
group instruction and individual instruction. It allows the teacher to become the facilitator and
student’s begin to direct and monitor their own learning.
A further implication for teaching is the consistent use of vocabulary across a school setting. The
participants of the study became very confident and competent in utilizing the language taught to
them such as; ‘GKR’, ‘T.V’s in our brains’, ‘visualizing’ and ‘we can read words, say words,
write words and visualize words’. The student’s consistent use of this language across curriculum
areas demonstrates how they were able to internalize the learning and make meaning from the
terms. If teachers are consistent with the language they use in their classrooms it tunes students
into what they are going to learn and what strategies they will need to employ. Obviously as the
grade level increases the complexity of the language develops but the language is built upon just
as our knowledge is built upon in our long term memories.
Possibly the greatest implication for student’s was the understanding that they must understand
what they read. For parents and students alike they can take comprehension for granted or not
really comprehend that reading words is completely different to reading a text. It is difficult to
articulate to parents and student’s the importance of being able to retell and discuss what
occurred in a text. Often there is the opinion that reaching the end of the page without making an
error is experiencing success when reading. However, how can one experience success if they
have not constructed any meaning of what they have read. Highlighting for student’s the
importance of talking about what occurred in the text and retelling the story in their own words
resulted in a significant shift in the reading practice at home. Following the implementation of the
lesson sequence student’s reading diaries were full of commentaries about the success student’s
had at retelling the text and talking about the book eg: being critical users of Literacy. This is in
an implication across all classrooms having the student’s direct their own learning and become
aware of what is important as a learner. It is fabulous for a student to develop decoding skills and
sight word recognition but they must be able to verbalize the knowledge gained from the text.
This need significantly increases as the length and complexity of the texts students are presented
with increases.
27
Future areas of research to consider as earlier noted is exploring the benefits of explicit teaching
to a whole group opposed to small groups. Furthermore, it would be interesting to continue
explicit teaching of Visualizing to a group and have another group experience normal classroom
exposure to the concept of visualization. Then at a later date to Post-test and see if continued
explicit teaching has a direct impact or if student’s who have been taught the skills and strategies
are able to independently develop and utilize the strategies when required; monitoring their own
learning. As teachers we want all of our student’s experiences with reading to be an enjoyable
and exhilarating journey. For many of our student’s learning to read will be a challenging task.
However, we have the extreme pleasure of helping them through their journey and celebrating
with them the successes they will experience as we provide them with the skills, strategies and
knowledge they require to embark on their life-long journey as a learner.
28
References:
Bell, N. (1991). Visualising & Verbalizing. Paso Rables, CA: Academy of Reading Publications.
Nelson, A.N. (2005) Developing Reading Comprehension through use of the Visualizatoin Strategy, Paper presented
for Master of Science Education Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
http://www.uwosh.edu/coehs/departments/curriculum-instructiondepartment/documents/Nelson2005Spring.pdf/view - Downloaded 30th April, 2010.
Munro, J.K. (2003). How do we change what we know – thinking?
http://online.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/selage/pub/poel.htm Downloaded 13th April, 2010.
Munro, J. K. (2009). Literacy Intervention Strategies, 472697. Lecture notes. 2009-2010.
Westwood, P. (2003). Reading and Learning Difficulties, Approaches to teaching and assessment. The Australian
Council for Educational Research Ltd.
Bibliography and Materials:
Bell, N. (1991). Visualising & Verbalizing. Paso Rables, CA: Academy of Reading Publications.
Butterworth, N. (1996 ) The Hedgehog’s Balloon. Harper Collins London.
ERIK, 476 -696 Project in Literacy Intervention. Assessment Booklet Core Tests – Task 18 – Listening
Comprehension Test – downloaded 25th February 2010.
Love E & Reilly S. (2004) Time for Talking – Speaking and listening activities for lower primary students. Pearson
Education Australia.
Nelson, A.N. (2005) Developing Reading Comprehension through use of the Visualization Strategy, Paper presented
for Master of Science Education Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
http://www.uwosh.edu/coehs/departments/curriculum-instructiondepartment/documents/Nelson2005Spring.pdf/view - Downloaded 30th April, 2010.
Munro, J.K. (2003). How do we change what we know – thinking?
http://online.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/selage/pub/poel.htm Downloaded 13 April, 2010.
Munro, J. K. (2009). Literacy Intervention Strategies, 472697. Lecture notes. 2009-2010.
Munro, J.K. (2009). Self-Efficacy Test. Gained from Literacy Intervention Strategies 2009/
O’Connor J, Rajasingam D. (2010) Visualising Task – Adapted from John Munro Visualising Task.
Record of Oral Language and Alternative ROL sentences. Literacy Testing P-4 February and retrieved Alternative
ROL sentences from B Delheim March 17 2010.
Taner, J. (1987 ) Niki’s Walk. McMillan Company of Australia.
Westwood, P. (2003). Reading and Learning Difficulties, Approaches to teaching and assessment. The Australian
Council for Educational Research Ltd.
Zeigler L, Beesley V, Finger E. (2008, May 7) Vixualization: The Missing Link Between Reading and Writing.
Paper presented at the IRA – Engaging Learners in Literacy. Atlanta, Georgia. Retieved April 4 2010 from:
www.reading.org/downloads/53rd_conv.../Visualization.pdf
29
Appendix A
Name
Groups
Teaching
=1
Replicatin
g
Teaching
=2
Control =
3
Age
in
MON
THS
Gender
Male = 0
Female
=1
A
1
65
1
B
1
67
0
C
1
73
1
D
1
68
1
E
1
73
0
Time
at
Scho
ol in
Mont
hs
5
5
5
5
5
5
F
1
63
0
G
2
66
1
H
2
70
0
I
2
63
0
5
5
5
5
J
2
72
0
K
2
65
1
L
2
74
1
M
3
69
0
N
3
68
1
5
5
5
5
5
O
3
74
0
P
3
75
0
Q
3
65
1
R
3
64
1
5
5
5
ESL
No=0
Yes=
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
EMA
No=0
Yes=
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
ROL
Atten
danc
e No.
of
sessi
ons
14
4
ROL
Pre /42
ROL
Post
/42
Listening
Comp
Pre /26
Listening
Comp
Post /26
Visuali
zing
Task
Pre /39
Visualizi
ng Task
Post /39
SelfEfficacy
Pre /66
SelfEfficacy
Post /66
12
14
17
5
15
21
28
36
56
10
4
10
1
9
4
13
37
66
23
11
23
29
4
14
8
22
33
66
19
12
19
30
10
1$7
16
29
54
55
10
12
10
13
2
11
19
25
53
54
34
11
34
29
12
18
27
32
54
59
13
12
13
10
2
5
10
22
41
42
4
10
4
8
1
2
8
11
36
40
17
12
17
15
8
12
12
25
58
62
30
12
30
31
12
15
15
21
61
62
12
11
12
22
4
14
10
15
61
49
29
11
29
31
13
14
23
31
61
66
25
n/a
25
26
10
9
20
26
48
50
17
n/a
17
21
10
18
20
20
34
41
18
n/a
18
16
5
5
12
17
40
49
5
n/a
5
3
2
5
16
12
39
50
29
n/a
29
25
9
10
22
26
40
49
12
n/a
12
13
6
2
8
9
37
43
Self-
Self-
Statistics
Listening
ROL Pre /
Listening
ROL Post / Comp Pre /
42
26
42
Visualizing Visualizing
Comp Post / Task Pre / Task Post / Efficacy Pre
26
39
39
/ 66
Efficacy
Post / 66
Mean
17.50
19.39
6.44
10.83
15.06
21.33
45.72
53.28
Std. Deviation
9.243
8.892
4.105
5.272
6.403
7.104
10.346
8.804
Minimum
4
3
1
2
4
9
33
40
Maximum
34
31
13
18
27
32
61
66
30
Appendix B
Visualising Task – Individual Administration
(Adapted from John Munro’s Visualising task and scoring system)
Prep Test
Introduce the target sentences, follow the script:
This is a story about a boy and his friend who go on a bike ride together.
Give the students the following instructions:
Listen to each sentence. Make a picture in your mind. Draw the picture in the space. Then describe your
picture in words.
The teacher is to write the child’s description in the space provided next to each sentence.
Sentence
Drawing
Score for
drawing
Description
Score for
description
*a
/13
/13
Score
when
synonym
s used or
order of
sentence
changed
*b
The boy and his
friend rode on their
bikes. They were
having fun.
The two friends
chatted to each
other.
/2
/2
/13
/2
/1
/1
/1
They were not
watching where
they were going.
/1
/1
/1
The bike track
became narrow and
twisted.
/1
/1
/1
They came to the
top of a hill.
/1
/1
/1
Suddenly the bikes
went faster. The
two riders weren’t
smiling and chatting
anymore.
/2
/2
/2
31
Now they were
holding their bikes
as tightly as they
could. They looked
very scared.
One boy’s bike hit a
stone and he flew
into the air.
/2
/2
/2
/2
/2
/2
His bike was
ruined.
/1
/1
/1
*a
Give 0 points if a sentence is incomplete, or does not maintain meaning.
Give 1 point if a the meaning of a sentence is maintained.
*b
Give 1 point for a sentence that has been reworded, and the student has substituted more
than 50% of the words in the sentence (using synonyms).
or
Give 1 points for a sentence in which the order of the words within the sentence has been
changed and meaning has been maintained. (Some synonyms may also be used.)
Give 1/2 point for a sentence that has had less than 50% of the words in the sentence have
been substituted with synonyms.
Note: Students can only gain points if the meaning of the sentence is maintained.
32
Appendix C
Lesson Plans
Each of these lessons have been designed where any text can be used and they
can be taught in a teaching sequence or isolated.
The teaching sequence follows the following progression: Visualise using visual
prompts, visualize from listening and visualize in order to retell.
Lesson 1. – 30 minutes
As reading begins with what we know we are going to use our GKR, ‘Getting
Knowledge Ready’.
Have a single balloon on display in the classroom. Balloon is already on display
when students walk into the room.
Complete a Language Experience Task. Students are to orally tell teacher all they
know about balloons. At this point introduce the term ‘GKR’, today we are going
to learn how to ‘Get our Knowledge Ready’. Link to students’ personal experiences
with balloons, linking with what they already know
will assist in the scaffolding of learning.
Teacher is to record in sentences what each student’s oral responses are. Teacher
models phrasing to develop student’s oral language skills. Teacher is to highlight
the connection between talking, writing and then reading. We can write what we
say and then read what we say.
Students in an outline of a frame are to draw an image of themselves with a balloon
‘My Ballloon’. Teacher is to record the student’s sentence to match their individual
image. Texts are to be collected and to be bound or be used as a class text ‘My
Balloon’.
Students are encouraged to discuss what they learnt today. Teacher introduces ‘Our
Learning Journey’ and records statements of what student’s learning’s have been.
These statements can be recorded in a large display book that can be used for
Shared Reading or on the Interactive Whiteboard.
33
Lesson 2. – 35 minutes
Use the Big Book ‘Niki’s Walk’ by Jane Tanner. Have on display for students the
double page of the birthday party in the park.
Ask students to look at image and ask them what they can tell you about the image.
Students are to articulate in phrases what they can see in the picture. Link to the
concept of balloons and in this text what is the balloon helping the students to do.
Introduce now the concept of ‘Visualisation’. What do we think is going to happen
next? Inform students when we Visualise it is like watching the T.V in our heads.
Students articulate all various possibilities of what could happen next in the text.
Teacher at this point specifically highlights for students that ‘Visualising ideas help
us to understand books better’.
On an outline of a T.V students are to draw an image of what they think is going to
happen next in the story. Use Activity Sheet ‘The T.V in My Brain – What will
happen next’.
Teacher is to record on each image what the student believes is going to happen
next in the text.
Students are given an opportunity in a group circle to share their predictions about
what will occur in the text.
Teacher is to collect work samples to see progression of Visualisation skills.
At completion of lesson teacher and students re-read their sentences from the
previous day that were recorded in ‘Our Learning Journey’. A few sentences are
recorded about what the students have learnt today. Pose the question ‘What did I
do really well today’. Record student’s phrases about what they did well.
34
Lesson 3 – 35 minutes
Introduce lesson by reading ‘Our
Learning Journal’.
Important Language to use; Visualise,
GKR, TV’s in our Brains.
Introduce the text front cover of ‘Niki’s
Walk by Jane Tanner’. Students use their
GKR by predicting what the text is going
to be about. Students use the T.V’s in
their brains to consider what is happening
in the text, what happened before and
what will happen next. Use activity
storyboard sheet: Before, Now and After.
Teacher models completing a story board
for the students, with three sections,
Before, Now and Next. Teacher is to
model drawing an image of what may
have happened before the front cover
image. Then draws what is happening
now, and uses input from students to
draw what happens Next. Teacher writes
text to match each of the images to
display the information to demonstrate
what ‘We Know in Images’, we can
‘Know in Sentences’ and we can ‘Read
the Text’. Teacher is to constantly
highlight the connection between the
spoken, written and read word.
Students are to complete their own
individual story boards, about what
happened before, what is happening now
and what will happen next. Teacher is to
complete text for students.
This text is to be kept and ascertain how
students are progressing with
Visualisation but also highlight how
familiar they are with Before, Now and
After.
Teacher uses her storyboard from the previous
day. Revise the concepts of before, now and
after. Inform students that we are going to be
using our GKR by thinking about the pictures
in the text, using the T.V’s in our brain and
telling each other what we think is happening
or will happen.
Re-read class composed text to match the
images of ‘Niki’s Walk. At the point
where we stopped, predict what students
are going to think will happen next.
Ask students to recall what they believed
would happen next. Inform students today we
are going to Visualise what is going to happen
in the story we have been learning about,
Niki’s Walk.
Teacher and students are to analyse each page
together. Class is to visualize, compose and
record text to match each of the images.
Teacher is to model completing for the first
page. Teacher uses the image and articulates
how she is using the T.V in her brain to
understand what is happening in the book.
Teacher visualizes, composes and records text
to match the image. The text is attached to the
bottom of the image.
This is repeated with students completing the
visualizing, composing and phrasing. Teacher
is to record students phrases and attach these
to the text.
Complete task until we reach the first focus
image of the party in the park.
Students are to again be introduced to the
image of the T.V. However this time
teacher models verbalizing first what she
believes is going to happen next. By
verbalizing first it assists in sorting out
students ideas and ascertaining if they
have the language required for the task.
Students complete their own Verbalising
and Visualising Task by completing ‘My
Brain T.V’ activity sheet. Students are to
complete a free writing task whilst
teacher roves the room to record their
text.
Teacher keeps all pieces of work and
assesses if students drew and image that
adequately matched their text. Use this
activity to monitor their progress.
Using ‘Our Learning Log’, record what
have I learnt more about today.
Lesson was not completed during
Sequence of Teaching.
Teacher and students are to re-read the text
they have just composed. Teacher asks student
to think about each image and the text and if
they would change anything. Link here to
being Critical Users of Literacy.
Use ‘Our Learning Journals’ and today focus
on tomorrow what we might try and do better
next time. Re-read to students their progress
of learning.
Teacher in a circle share time
environment encourages students to share
their work.
‘Our Learning Journal’ is to be used
again. This time students are to articulate
‘What do I want to learn more about’.
35
would happen next in the story.
Re-read class composed text and inform
students that today we are going to
complete writing our text to match the
images today.
Revise with students how we have spent last
sessions visualizing using pictures. Inform
them today that we are going to visualize
today from listening. Students need to have
made it explicit to them that they will need to
listen carefully and very carefully use the
T.V’s in their brains. Inform students of the
title of the book and spend a brief time
brainstorming what they believe will happen
in the story.
Revise what we learnt yesterday. Good
point in lesson sequence now to ask
student’s how they think they are
learning. If they feel more confident with
visualizing now.
Teacher and students are to analyse each
of the remaining pages together. Class is
to visualize, compose and record text to
match each of the images. Teacher is to
model completing for the first page after
the focus image. Teacher uses the image
and articulates how she is using the T.V
in her brain to understand what is
happening in the book. Teacher
visualizes, composes and records text to
match the image. The text is attached to
the bottom of the image.
This is repeated with students completing
the visualizing, composing and phrasing.
Teacher is to record students phrases and
attach these to the text.
Complete task until we reach the first
focus image of the party in the park.
Teacher and students are to re-read the
text they have just composed. Teacher
asks student to think about each image
and the text and if they would change
anything. Link here to being Critical
Users of Literacy.
Use ‘Our Learning Journals’ and today
focus on what I have learnt from the
activity.
Model for students reading the first sentence
of a text and visualizing what is seen. For our
lesson we will use the text, ‘The Hedgehogs
Balloon’. Read the sentence aloud to
student’s, however students are not shown the
image, “Percy the park keeper looked up from
his work and gazed in wonder”. Re-read the
sentence and ask students to visualize what
they see. Students orally inform teacher of
what they see. Teacher records the phrases
stated by the students and places a small
image next to each phrase. Focus on
discussing synonyms here and the meaning of
words eg gazed and wonder.
Teacher reads the next sentence, “Two red
ones…a blue one…there’s a yellow one…and
another blue one…” Teacher models drawing
on a storyboard what they visualize is
happening in the story. Ask students to inform
teacher of what she should draw. Teacher can
ascertain at this point if the student’s have
remembered and made a connection to the
title of the book. This completes page 1 of the
text.
Inform students that today we are going
to practice what we learnt yesterday. This
time they are going to have a sequence of
seven events. Read through each sentence
on page 3 and have students visualize and
draw what they think is happening after
each sentence.. After the three sentences
on page 3 stop and discuss with students
what they have drawn. Continue with first
paragraph on page 4. Stop at end of end
of paragraph and have students share
what they have drawn.
Ask student’s to sit in a circle with their
storyboards. Ask students to share with
each other their images and using their
images get them to retell the story. From
this activity teacher can gauge if students
are able to make accurately visualize a
text.
Use ‘Our Learning Journal’ and ask
students to explain how they use the
T.V’s in their brains. Record student
responses.
Students are given a storyboard with a
sequence of five events. This completes page
2 of the text. Teacher reads each sentence to
students and they are to draw what they see in
the T.V’s in their brains. The text has difficult
words such as trowel. Once the sequence has
been completed teacher revises each sentence
and discusses with student’s what the sentence
means. Go through all sentences and ask
students to share their images.
Using ‘Our Learning Journey’ students inform
teacher of what they have learnt today.
36
would happen next in the story.
Re-read class composed text and inform
students that today we are going to
complete writing our text to match the
images today.
Revise with students how we have spent last
sessions visualizing using pictures. Inform
them today that we are going to visualize
today from listening. Students need to have
made it explicit to them that they will need to
listen carefully and very carefully use the
T.V’s in their brains. Inform students of the
title of the book and spend a brief time
brainstorming what they believe will happen
in the story.
Revise what we learnt yesterday. Good
point in lesson sequence now to ask
student’s how they think they are
learning. If they feel more confident with
visualizing now.
Teacher and students are to analyse each
of the remaining pages together. Class is
to visualize, compose and record text to
match each of the images. Teacher is to
model completing for the first page after
the focus image. Teacher uses the image
and articulates how she is using the T.V
in her brain to understand what is
happening in the book. Teacher
visualizes, composes and records text to
match the image. The text is attached to
the bottom of the image.
This is repeated with students completing
the visualizing, composing and phrasing.
Teacher is to record students phrases and
attach these to the text.
Complete task until we reach the first
focus image of the party in the park.
Teacher and students are to re-read the
text they have just composed. Teacher
asks student to think about each image
and the text and if they would change
anything. Link here to being Critical
Users of Literacy.
Use ‘Our Learning Journals’ and today
focus on what I have learnt from the
activity.
Model for students reading the first sentence
of a text and visualizing what is seen. For our
lesson we will use the text, ‘The Hedgehogs
Balloon’. Read the sentence aloud to
student’s, however students are not shown the
image, “Percy the park keeper looked up from
his work and gazed in wonder”. Re-read the
sentence and ask students to visualize what
they see. Students orally inform teacher of
what they see. Teacher records the phrases
stated by the students and places a small
image next to each phrase. Focus on
discussing synonyms here and the meaning of
words eg gazed and wonder.
Teacher reads the next sentence, “Two red
ones…a blue one…there’s a yellow one…and
another blue one…” Teacher models drawing
on a storyboard what they visualize is
happening in the story. Ask students to inform
teacher of what she should draw. Teacher can
ascertain at this point if the student’s have
remembered and made a connection to the
title of the book. This completes page 1 of the
text.
Inform students that today we are going
to practice what we learnt yesterday. This
time they are going to have a sequence of
seven events. Read through each sentence
on page 3 and have students visualize and
draw what they think is happening after
each sentence. Use ‘Storyboard’ sheet
with seven events. After the three
sentences on page 3 stop and discuss with
students what they have drawn. Continue
with first paragraph on page 4. Stop at
end of end of paragraph and have students
share what they have drawn.
Ask student’s to sit in a circle with their
storyboards. Ask students to share with
each other their images and using their
images get them to retell the story. From
this activity teacher can gauge if students
are able to make accurately visualize a
text.
Use ‘Our Learning Journal’ and ask
students to explain how they use the
T.V’s in their brains. Record student
responses.
Students are given a storyboard with a
sequence of five events. This completes page
2 of the text. Teacher reads each sentence to
students and they are to draw what they see in
the T.V’s in their brains. The text has difficult
words such as trowel. Once the sequence has
been completed teacher revises each sentence
and discusses with student’s what the sentence
means. Go through all sentences and ask
students to share their images.
Using ‘Our Learning Journey’ students inform
students of what they have learnt today.
37
Revise with students what we have done
in previous lessons. We have talked about
what is happening in a story, we have
written sentences to match the story, we
have listened to a story and drawn
pictures to match the sentences. Today we
are going to listen to sentences, visualize
what is happening in the T.V’s in our
heads and then tell the story in our own
words.
Tell students that we have learnt lot’s about
visualizing and using the T.V’s in our brains.
Re-read yesterday’s statements from the
Learning Journal about what visualizing has
helped them to learn better.
Begin with familiar text the first
paragraph of page 4 which students drew
images for yesterday. Read each sentence
to students, ask them to visualize and then
tell you in their own words what they
visualized in the T.V’s in their brains.
Teacher is to record each of the sentence
retell to students.
Inform students that today we are going to
practice all the things we have learnt about.
We are going to use the T.V’s in our brains
and visualize what is happening in the story,
we are going to write what we think is
happening in the story, listen to the story,
draw what we see and retell what we saw in
the T.V’s in our brains.
Continue with page 5 and read each
sentence and have students retell in their
own words after visualising. Any words
students have difficulty with have a word
exploring discussion and reach and
discuss what they believe the word
means. Re-read to student’s the sentences
they have retold. Ask students if they are
happy with their story and if it makes
sense.
Show students the image on page 6. Ask them
to visualize what they think is happening on
the page. Tell them to use the T.V’s in their
brains and think about what happened on the
pages before. Students orally inform teacher
of what they visualize happening and teacher
records student’s responses.
Using ‘Our Learning Journal’ ask
students to tell you what learning about
Visualising has helped them with.
Repeat above activity for
page 7
Reiterate in this lesson that by visualizing it
helps us to understand what is happening in
stories better because it helps our brain to
remember and think about the story.
Read the four short sentences on the page to
students. The text does not match the
illustration Students draw on ‘The T.V in my
Brain’ activity sheet what they visualize is
happening after listening to the text.
Students whilst completing their images or
colouring in are individually called out and
asked to orally retell what they visualized was
happening in the text.
After each student is seen collect their work to
ascertain how well they are able to visualize at
each of the stages.
Using ‘Our Learning Journey’ discuss why it
is important to visualize, listen, think and
retell.
38
Assessment of student’s progression.
Ask student’s to visualize what they
believe is going to happen in the
remainder of the story. Teacher shows the
student’s the image on page 8. Student’s
individually tell teacher what they think
will happen in the rest of the story. Whilst
teacher roves around to each child
recording their predictions on the
assessment sheet student’s illustrate what
they visualize in their brain T.V’s what
they think will happen.
Teacher is to assess if student’s image
matches their predicted text.
Teacher then reads page 8 of the story to
students. Students again are sent back to
their tables where individually they retell
the text to teacher and she records it.
Students are to draw another image to
predict what they believe will happen
next.
As this task is time consuming it is best to
record text from student’s whose results
are being analysed first. It would be best
to have an assistant or parent helper in the
room to help you record more quickly
student’s retells.
Once student’s have visualized the
remainder of the story and drawn an
image to represent what they are
visualizing, had their prediction recorded,
have listened to the text on page 8 and
orally retold the text from their
visualizations the student’s work is
collected. This piece of work is to be used
as the main assessment piece.
Lessons with Matching
Activities
Lesson 1 – My Balloon
Lesson 2 – The T.V in My Brain –
What will happen next.
Lesson 3 – Storyboard Sheet:
Before, Now, After
Lesson 4 – Niki’s Walk
Lesson 5 – My Brain T.V
Lesson 6 – Niki’s Walk
Lesson 7 – Storyboard 5 events, 1st –
First, 2nd – Second etc.
Lesson 8 – Storyboard 7 events, 1st –
First, 2nd – Second etc.
Lesson 9 – Interactive Whiteboard
or butcher paper.
Lesson 10 – The T.V in my Brain.
Lesson 11 – The T.V in my Brain.
Lesson 12 – Assessment. My
Prediction, My Visualisation
Picture, My Retell.
Use ‘Our Learning Journey’ and re-read
all statements to student’s. Student’s
inform teacher why they think they are
better at understanding books better now.
Re-read remainder of text to student’s.
39
Lesson 1 – Front Cover of Class Book.
My Balloon
40
Lesson 1
My Balloon
41
Lesson 2
The T.V in my Brain
What will happen
next.
Place Activity landscape on A3.
42
Lesson 3
Before
Now
After
43
Lesson 5
Print on A3.
My Brain T.V
44
Lesson 7
Make Landscape
Can be completed either on A4 or A3.
st
nd
1 - 2 - 3rd- 4th- 5thFirs Secon Thir Fourt Fift
t
d
d
h
h
45
Lesson 8
Make Landscape
st
1 2nd 3rd First Second Third
4th 5th - 6th - 7th Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh
46
Lesson 10 and 11
Make Landscape
The T.V in my Brain
Lesson 12
Complete on Landscape in A3
47
Assessment
My Brain T.V
My Prediction
My Visualisation Picture
My Retell
48
Appendix D
OUR LEARNING JOURNEY
I learnt about GKR - Getting
Knowledge Ready.
I learnt about using the T.V in my
brain.
I am learning to read in my brain.
I learnt how to work with my
brain.
Visualising helps me to understand
books better.
I can read words, I can say words,
I can write words, I can visualise
words.
If I use the T.V in my brain it
helps me to understand what is
happening in the story.
I can think that I am watching a
T.V in my brain.
I can think about the words and
what they look like.
When I am reading at home I can
use my T.V in my brain to help
visualise the story.
49
Try to visualise more when I am
listening.
Know that when I visualise I am
then going to write it.
Listen more carefully to the story
so I can learn more.
I learnt about making pictures in
my brain.
I learnt how to use my brain to
see what is happening.
When I close my eyes I dream about
what is happening in the story.
When I visualise I know that I
know how to read.
I learnt how to read books better.
50

The explicit teaching of Visualizing to Prep students will improve

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