11-10-02

Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2002 05:15:45 -0800 (PST)
From: Thea W <wheewrites@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [mosaic] Visualizing & Hatchet

--- Andy and Shelly Kennedy <pristine@aclass.com>
wrote:
> I haven't taught sensory imagery yet, but I think
> Hatchet would be a
> great book.

Oh yes! I agree! Pre MOT, I had a 6th grade reading
classroom. They loved Hatchet. I have to say that
the other 6th grade team's kids always hated Hatchet.
They read over there for 9 weeks, the same book, and
dissected the heck out of it with study guides,
quizzes, etc. They did some things that I did...they
had them draw pictures, etc. They built the shelter,
they acted out some parts. But their activities were
always to check for picky details (graded) where as in
my class we were using our pictures to springboard our
conversation.

Oh the discussions we had! Some of you have already
heard me talk about this: the students loved it when I
read with chunky expression, the part about trying to
eat those turtle eggs. I love how Paulsen described
how pathetically thin Brian had gotten, "as his
stomach crawled back to his backbone" or something
along those lines (it's been years ago now!) and how
when he swallowed the raw egg his throat wanted to
throw it back, but his stomach seized it, held it, and
demanded more (again, paraphrased). ANYWAY, the kids
were so grossed out, I thought their throats would
toss back THEIR breakfast! Talk about putting
themselves inside the story.

My point? It was all the visualization we were doing,
or sensory imaging, that made this book come alive.
We were doing it before I had all the correct
terminology and without stopping to think about our
thinking, except to talk about it (how I wish I KNEW
MOT then!) and the book was that great for sensory
imaging THEN. Think how it would be now.

I'd love to pantomime, as a group, that whole scene
trying to eat the egg. I know they'd love it, and we
could talk about how our images helped us with that
story...

There are tons of places like that in Paulsen's
book..BOOKS...he is a great visualizer himself!

Missing Hatchet,
thea/2/pa, who always has to do a Hatchet commercial
when the book is mentioned.

=====
Thea/2/PA
http://www.vgsd.org/~twheeling
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Sat, 02 Nov 2002 10:55:14 -0600
From: motthebug <maps@resourceroom.net>
Subject: Re: [mosaic] [PERIODIC mosaic DIGEST POSTING
Just a note that the digest gets very long and full of mostly repeated
stuff if you just hit "reply" and automatically include the message, as
I have done this time to show what it does (imagine what happens when
two or ten people do this).

Immersed in those quotes is the question:
I just am wondering, those that say they do not visualize, what was going
on in the mind before you learned to read?

I don't remember much (I read young)-- lots and lots of words, though.
Sure, visual stuff was processed -- but I doubt it was even filed away
as a visual memory for long; words are so much more efficient at
classifying and recording.

Sue
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: "btillman" <btillman@farmerstel.com>
Subject: Re: [mosaic] visualizing
Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2002 15:38:36 -0500

One thing to keep in mind with all the focusing on visualizing, is that =
this is only one of the several strategies that research has shown good =
readers use. Furthermore, most of the research clearly shows that good =
readers use several strategies at once. We should introduce the separate =
strategies, but our instruction should begin to focus in late 2nd grade =
and up on getting kids to sythesize a variety of strategies when they =
are reading. It becomes more about helping those readers who struggle =
get a window into the minds of proficient readers.=20
Proficient readers don't stop and think about using decoding skills, =
comprehension skills, etc. They just use them. Our concern is for those =
kids who don't realize that these strategies exist and don't use them =
when they read. How can we help them understand and use these =
strategies? That is what our instruction should address.=20
Cece/LC/GA
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: ETA46dave@aol.com
Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2002 19:30:46 EST
Subject: Re: [mosaic] visualizing

The perspective in which btillman places visiualization makes perfect sense
to me. I just concerned whenever educators begin speak of any strategy as
though it were a "magic bullet."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2002 17:14:50 -0800
From: becky alexander <bekalex@ocsnet.net>
Subject: RE: [mosaic] mind pictures/connections

At 3:44 PM -0600 11/1/02, Leonard, Wanda L. wrote:
> I just am wondering, those that say they do not visualize, what
>was going on in the mind before you learned to read?

I'm a visualizer but I'm coming out of lurk to respond. (While I'm at
it thanks for the fascinating thread!)

Before I read I was read to.

And I was also being told stories.

And I'm very sad that children need to learn how to visualize. It
says to me that no one is telling stories anymore. Parents and
teachers and other well-meaning folks are only reading them (with
pictures of course) and watching them (tv/film). So the kids are
being spoon fed the visuals instead of developing their own process
to use as a strategy.

And I would imagine that it's harder to teach/learn visualization at
the age of 11 when the other strategies have been so carefully taught
and compensation (and possibly some very good compensation, I'm sure)
has occurred.

Even with mediocre storytelling neither decoding nor syntax
strategies are needed. These are given. The listener's only job is to
sit back and let the tale spin pictures (to which the listener
obviously adds his own connections/ details).

I read and tell short stories to my kindergartners. "The Three Bears"
is great as a story! Why put pictures with it? I was raised on my
Dad's oral version (no pictures) of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff." We
dramatized it in the family living room. (lol) True.

I tell it to my class and afterwards we dramatize it or draw it. What
did your Troll look like? My Dad told countless bedtime stores.
Sometimes we would tell him what to include and he would have to
oblige. There was a train theme. I do believe that in this way he
helped me to develop my visualization skills which I rely on. I also
use emotional recognition, memory of the look and sound of the words
themselves (poetry), other sensory recognition, intellectual recall
of facts and logic. And, yes, there are some times when visualization
can get in the way, take time, interfere. There is text with which it
doesn't function as well as with other text.

I must add, I suppose, that it seems post-modern fiction relies less
on visualization than the chronological "storytellers" of old. They
use a variety of avenues to the reader (and I won't go there).

But, back to my point, way too many children today have never had to
visualize anything. I teach my class (ages 4 and 5) basically how to
do it. I tell them to watch the tv their heads and make the picture
do what I tell it to do. I start with a simple ball, now it's a red
ball, now it's a small red ball. They love it. They get excited that
they can do it. I may develop this into story telling on their part.
Where did the red ball come from? Where did it go?

Anyway, then, after showing them a turnip, I tell "The Enormous
Turnip" (LOL! Am I getting old?) We dramatize it. We draw it. We work
on making it a story and making sense of it.

And they didn't know how already probably because their parents
didn't simply "tell" and interact with pictureless stories. :(

Becky
rambling now
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: "Mary Jo Wentz" <wingspan@powerweb.net>
Subject: RE: [mosaic] [PERIODIC mosaic DIGEST POSTING]
Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2002 20:34:26 -0600
I used this article with some seventh grade boys.
It was sufficiently gross and disgusting for them
get the picture.

http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2002/01/012802_nature.jhtml

MJW/reading teacher/WI
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 21:25:46 -0800
From: ~~~Katharine~~~ <katha@syix.com>
Subject: Re: [mosaic] mind pictures

>Oh my, I had a similar reaction to the passage, but decided not to
>go there. I did, however, enjoy JLabar's willingness to do so.
>Perhaps a "visualizer" can help us out. Were the husband's clothes
>in disarray as he slipped into the house?

Ahhhh, the quote was from the novel _Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind_ by
Ann B. Ross. A quick read, funny and clever.

The husband's clothes were definitely in disarray as he left that
house and slipped back into his own. :o) Miss Julia spoke her mind
about that as well as a robbery, and kidnapping and other disgraceful
events precipitated by her rotten husband's death.

Katharine
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2002 18:54:50 -0800
From: becky alexander <bekalex@ocsnet.net>
Subject: Re: [mosaic] mind pictures

At 9:07 PM -0800 10/31/02, ~~~Katharine~~~ wrote:
>ALSO -- I read in my dreams. What I read makes no sense, and
>possibly there are no real words, but again I look at pages and my
>eyes go back and forth over the pages and I like the feeling of
>reading.

Oh, thank you for mentioning that!!! Me too. I read newspapers
sometimes and there are letters and words and I'm reading but it gets
kind of nonsensical and then the words start flying around.

Becky
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Patty526@aol.com
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 00:00:26 EST
Subject: [mosaic] Visualizing

I've been reading the posts on this topic and have two thoughts to add. The
first is about myself, an avid reader since childhood. I have always
visualized, and it just occurred to me that that's the reason why I have
always hated those long descriptive paragraphs that detail a setting. In
fact, I often skip them. I'm guessing it's because it interferes, rather
than aids, the very personal visualizing process. I don't want a picture
given to me; I want to make it myself.

I asked my daughter, a very visual art-oriented type who happens to hate
reading, what she does. She replied that she makes movies and in fact,
"rewinds them" when her teachers ask her questions about a story. Once a
teacher asked her why she closes her eyes to answer a question. When she
explained what she was doing, her teacher just looked at her strangely. I
guess she doesn't know!

On another topic, I'm finding that my fourth graders are meeting with
varying
success in making T-T connections. Those who do best are often the children
who have been known to be the weakest readers for years. Those children who
read at, or above grade level seems to have more difficulty expressing or
finding connections. Little by little, they, too, are understanding this,
but I wonder if it isn't because they have done this more naturally, without
conscious effort, and so don't recognize it as easily. Any similar
experiences out there?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: "Donna Baker" <baker@sprint.ca>
Subject: [mosaic] CONTEST WINNER
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 07:51:43 -0500

CONGRATULATIONS to P. Johnson, a fourth grade teacher from Alabama, who has
won a full color set of Reading Strategy posters for her entry in our
October Making Connections Lesson contest. A set of eight colored 11 x 17
Reading Strategy posters will be mailed to her free of charge this week.
Many thanks to her and all others who shared their teaching expertise.

The good news is... we are having another contest. For the month of
November, teachers are invited to share lesson ideas for ANY of the
strategies. As in last month's contest, any person sending a lesson idea
will be entered in a draw to win a free set of eight full color 11 x 17
inch Reading Strategy Posters. (Check them out at
www.u46teachers.org/mosaic/tools/tools.htm). Lesson ideas will be compiled
and placed on the tools page. Share your knowledge and expertise and WIN.

Contest closes on November 30th, so get your submissions in. Enter often.

Donna
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: "Donna Baker" <baker@sprint.ca>
Subject: [mosaic] REPOSTING - October's Contest Winner
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 07:57:57 -0500
Just in case you missed it... below is the lesson idea sent in by P.
Johnson, the winner of October's contest for a free set of full color 11 x
17 strategy posters.
Donna

I love to use children's literature to help spun their prior knowledge
connections. I like using the books by Mem Fox and/or Cynthia Rylant.

My favorite is Mem Fox's Wilford Gordon McDonald Patridge (I hope they are
in the right order)
I like to bring in a basket with MY memories- and share with the students.
For instance, a paper clip (I TRY to be very organized.), a picture of my
animals and my family(they are dearest to me) , a good book I am reading(my
pleasure is reading), a diskette (something to represent technology because
this is my passion).

I read the book to the students and discuss memory and how wonderful it is
to have one. I review the book with the students(sequence) then I share my
memories. For homework they have to go home and bag up three things to
show and share their memories with the class.

They will be required to write about their memories and share their books
in groups.

P. Johnson
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: RKCTEC5@aol.com
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 08:47:08 EST
Subject: Re: [mosaic] Visualizing

In a message dated 11/3/02 12:04:19 AM, Patty526@aol.com writes:
<< I don't want a picture given to me; I want to make it myself.>>

Patty,
As a visualizer, I really identify with your posting.

<<I asked my daughter, a very visual art-oriented type who happens to hate
reading, what she does. She replied that she makes movies and in fact,
"rewinds them" when her teachers ask her questions about a story. >>

I was like your daughter. In college I would rewind textbooks in my head,
finding the exact page, paragraph, then sentence I need for a particular
question, then reading it in my mind.
Ruby
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 09:44:24 -0800
From: becky alexander <bekalex@ocsnet.net>
Subject: Re: [mosaic] Visualizing

At 8:47 AM -0500 11/3/02, RKCTEC5@aol.com wrote:
>I was like your daughter. In college I would rewind textbooks in my head,
>finding the exact page, paragraph, then sentence I need for a particular
>question, then reading it in my mind.

But is this the same thing as rewinding the story? It seems to me
that this is rewinding the pages and the literal print of the text.
It's like a computer going back to a place, not like a visual memory
going back to a time (except the time that you read the book).

I did the same thing in some classes, reviewed the pages and text in
my mind to see the printed answer, but I don't think that this is the
same thing as seeing in my mind's eye the story that is within the
text.

Becky
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: MAMASWIRLZ@aol.com
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 13:32:29 EST
Subject: Re: [mosaic] Visualizing

OK. I have been reading with interest. I do believe that proficient readers
must run some kind of pictures through their mind. I told my daughter, who
is a teacher, about what Patty's daughter had said about seeing a movie,
rewinding to remember, etc. She also sees movies. She said that when she
thinks back on something she read long ago, she sometimes forgets if it was
a
movie or if she read it, because the "movie" in her mind is so realistic. So
here is my question to those who do not think they see pictures. When you
think about a book you read long ago....how do you remember? Like when I
think about the All of a Kind Family or Harry Potter I see a picture in my
mind.....

Naomi
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: RKCTEC5@aol.com
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 13:43:15 EST
Subject: Re: [mosaic] Visualizing

Seeing words in the minds eye is a visual too. Pictures are another. I do
both.
Ruby
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: GailHFo@aol.com
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 14:33:22 EST
Subject: Re: [mosaic] mind pictures

BG- Can we just simply read. What does that mean?

Whatever it means, it is exactly what, (sometimes, especially if they are
really interested in the story) my third graders ask for! Many times when
I'm "teaching" reading a student will raise their hand and ask "Can't we
just
read the story?"! Or if I'm reading out loud to them, but have to stop to
corrrect behavior, I've been asked "Can't we just hear the story?"
Gail
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: GailHFo@aol.com
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 15:36:15 EST
Subject: Re: [mosaic] mind pictures/connections

In a message dated 11/1/02 1:45:49 PM Pacific Standard Time,
leonardw@mail.davenport.k12.ia.us writes:

> I just am wondering, those that say they do not visualize, what was going
> on in the mind before you learned to read?

I can't tell you what went on "decades ago!" But do you think my
mind was blank because I don't do pictures when I read now? I can surmise
that I was absorbing everything that makes me me.
Maybe our problem here is the definition of visualize. Right now I'm
trying to get a "picture" of a large standard poodle, but all I get -after
stopping my typing and really trying to focus a picture-- is how the fur
would feel, and a sense of joy at playing with a dog. There is no literal
picture.
Gail
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: GailHFo@aol.com
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 15:59:58 EST
Subject: Re: [mosaic] Visualizing

In a message dated 11/3/02 10:05:35 AM Pacific Standard Time,
bekalex@ocsnet.net writes:

> I did the same thing in some classes, reviewed the pages and text in
> my mind to see the printed answer, but I don't think that this is the
> same thing as seeing in my mind's eye the story that is within the
> text.
>
> Becky
>
Until lately, I've always been able to write down, pretty much
verbatim, what I read. Read it once and I could regurgitate it for the test
the next day, read it twice and I was good for a week. I mostly used the
process when answering questions on a psych, biology, etc. test. But I
didn't "see the textbook pages." It was more of just remembering the
voice.

I think a necessary preliminary teaching strategy for "visualizing"
might be just talking with the students about what they see, feel, etc. when
they read. I often have my students draw a scene from a story we've read,
or
I've read out loud to them. I just want them to understand they can connect
to the story in many ways--either through pictures, feelings, whatever.
In the past I thought I made movies in my head, until I heard what
other people said they "saw." I started trying to capture one of the
"pictures" that I thought I was seeing, that's when I realized I wasn't
doing
what others described.
Gail
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: JLabar1026@aol.com
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 17:39:34 EST
Subject: Re: [mosaic] mind pictures/connections

In a message dated 11/3/02 3:41:08 PM Eastern Standard Time, GailHFo@aol.com
writes:

> >> What was going on in the mind before you learned to read?
>
>

Great question, Gail!

I suspect I was thinking a lot about Mom, about not getting beat up by my
next door neighbor, Jimmy, about eating (still think too much about this),
and about listening to radio and listening to my mother's stories.

BG-

How about you??
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: JLabar1026@aol.com
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 17:44:31 EST
Subject: Re: [mosaic] Visualizing

In a message dated 11/3/02 1:35:19 PM Eastern Standard Time,
MAMASWIRLZ@aol.com writes:

> When you
> think about a book you read long ago....how do you remember?

Naomi-

I usually go by the title.

However, I notice that when I go to see a film which has has been adapted
from a book that I don't compare the two. I see both as independent
entities
or mediums.

BG
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: "Ginger/Rob" <elephant@foxvalley.net>
Subject: [mosaic] parent education on comprehension
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 19:48:24 -0600
This weekend a member wrote me offline to ask for suggestions regarding an
upcoming parent workshop. Here is my response. I am posting it to the list
in hopes that you will all share what YOU would suggest we do with parents
in such a venue. These are just some thoughts that came spilling out of my
mind.......... Ginger :)

=============
"Hi Carol. I remember someone asking the list members if anyone had
anything for parents but I really don't remember anything coming through as
far as handouts or even written directly to the list. Sorry I can't be of
more help. My thoughts on the subject would be to have some short text
pieces ready to have them practice a few of the strategies after YOU do some
modeling and explaining about each one individually. You might want to find
a technical piece that is complicated to "understand" but easy to decode.
Something from a computer training manual or something to prove the point
that even if a child can read THE WORDS they might not always be able to
understand (comprehend) the meaning and that is why we need to explicitly
teach the specific strategies. I would type up a handout with the
strategies defined in easy to understand language. Give them some suggested
wording for working with their child on those strategies. For example:
"Tonite when we read together, let's try and make a movie in our mind as we
are reading. Then I'll stop once in a while and we can share what we each
saw (heard, tasted, touched, smelled, saw, felt/emotion) up to that point"
Or something like that??? "When I just read that part it made me think of
the time when ......... and that helps me understand how the character is
feeling because . . . . . " "I am wondering...?"
"Using these clues from the book (...........) and what I know already (my
schema) I can infer that .........."

Does that help??? I would do a couple think alouds for them and then have
them tell you what they saw you doing and heard you saying after each one.
If they would at least start thinking aloud during reading at home time, it
would really make an impact on our teaching. The children would hear more
good readers doing the thinking.

If you have access to the Strategies in Action (Stephanie Harvey) videos or
Debbie Miller's new video set, I might choose a part of either of them that
shows kids doing the work.

I guess for me, the most powerful of all is having the adults do the work
THEMSELVES. We use that Micro Fiction book (by Jerome Stern- available on
Amazon.com) in our graduate courses which has short adult essays. Full of
great opportunities for applying the strategy work themselves. Since you
wouldn't have them read MOT first like we do in the graduate course, you
would have to "teach" the purpose/method behind the strategy first. We pick
one essay for one specific strategy. Then we do the post its individually,
share back at the table group and then each table group has to share one
thing they heard discussed back with the whole group. You could set
something like that up so that they parents are doing the work and you are
facilitating it.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes!

Ginger"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 19:01:35 -0800
From: becky alexander <bekalex@ocsnet.net>
Subject: Re: [mosaic] Visualizing
Reply-To: mosaic@u46teachers.org
At 5:44 PM -0500 11/3/02, JLabar1026@aol.com wrote:

For the life of me I can't remember films. I have to call home to see
if we've already seen this movie or that one. (My friend has
excellent memory for movies; remembers who played in what when and
the plot too.) Books? I can remember the title, the author, the plot,
the structure, and some details of books. But my visualization (or
whatever it is, interactivity?, about text) is much more intense,
more consuming, than a movie. (I found that out with "Silence of the
Lambs.")

If I were a kid in a class where the teacher thought out loud or
taught strategies during an oral reading session I would say, "Get on
with the story!!!"

In school we used to have a chapter-type book read to us after lunch,
just for fun. This was through 6th grade. We loved it. I did *not*
want the teacher interrupting my story with her "thoughts." If she
had done this during other reading lessons it would have been fine.
But, please, not during "the book." (g)

Becky
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: "Brenda L. Donley" <bdonley@chippewa-hills.k12.mi.us>
Subject: [mosaic] Schema/Activating Prior Knowledge
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 06:41:41 -0500

I'm a MOT beginner and have been lurking on this listserve, learning all
kinds of things and feeling reaffirmed about some of my own reading/thinking
of MOT. Thank you all for sharing. Now here's my somewhat simple
question....When I see posts about "schema" and posts about "Activating
Prior Knowledge" are these one in the same?? I'm assuming so but would like
another opinion...thanks.
Brenda Beginner!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Mon, 04 Nov 2002 12:23:32 -0700
Subject: Re: RE: [mosaic] visualizing
From: "Cris Tovani" <ctovani@mail.ccsd.k12.co.us>

I don't think that readers have to visualize every time they read. When I
read the daily announcement to my students, I am not visualizing. I am
however engaging in different thinking strategies. I am deciding what
announcement are most important to read. I have connections and questions
and when I don't understand what one of the announcements means I do
something to find out. The way I understand the Proficient Reader
Strategies (the ones in Mosaic) is that the strategies are used in a
flexible, adaptable manner that meets the demands of the reading task.

Cris Tovani
Smoky Hill High School
720-886-5643
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 19:01:35 -0800
From: becky alexander <bekalex@ocsnet.net>
Subject: Re: [mosaic] Visualizing

At 5:44 PM -0500 11/3/02, JLabar1026@aol.com wrote:

If I were a kid in a class where the teacher thought out loud or
taught strategies during an oral reading session I would say, "Get on
with the story!!!"

Becky
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: "Brenda L. Donley" <bdonley@chippewa-hills.k12.mi.us>
Subject: [mosaic] Schema/Activating Prior Knowledge
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 06:41:41 -0500

Date: Mon, 04 Nov 2002 20:14:18 -0800
From: Lori Jackson <ljackson@gwtc.net>
Subject: [mosaic] Connections for Parents

Someone was fishing for a good title to use when demonstrating
connections to parents. Tonight at a class I am taking the instructor
read a book called Jerry Seinfeld's Halloween by, well, Jerry Seinfeld.
I know it isn't Halloween but this book will hit home hard and fast with
parents and grandparents. It is so funny.

Lori Jackson
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: SLPAWY11@aol.com
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 05:54:54 EST
Subject: Re: [mosaic] [PERIODIC mosaic DIGEST POSTING]

what about visulalizing for non fiction???? we are reading a story on
tornadaoes this week???eileen
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Tue, 05 Nov 2002 21:03:19 -0500
Subject: Re: [mosaic] [PERIODIC mosaic DIGEST POSTING]
From: "Jerry Diakiw" <jdiakiw@edu.yorku.ca>

"If you have access to the Strategies in Action (Stephanie Harvey) videos or
Debbie Miller's new video set, I might choose a part of either of them that
shows kids doing the work."
Can anyone provide more information on the distributor or ordering
information for either of these videos?
jerry
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: "btillman" <btillman@farmerstel.com>
Subject: Re: RE: [mosaic] visualizing
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 21:38:43 -0500
Cris,
That is so interesting that you are saying this, and I am just reading your
book tonight where you say the same thing (going through your mail).
BTW, the book is really great. It makes me want to teach a reading course at
the middle or high school!
Cece/LC/GA
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: "btillman" <btillman@farmerstel.com>
Subject: Re: [mosaic] [PERIODIC mosaic DIGEST POSTING]
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 21:53:30 -0500

I would think you would use different strategies for a nonfiction text =
such as this...summarizing, clarifying, etc.
You might want to help them visualize the damage tornadoes inflict, but =
I think that we need to remember that strategies should be appropriate =
to the text we read. We shouldn't be teaching visualizing just because =
it's the next strategy on our list, but because our students need it to =
comprehend the text we are reading.
I always look at the text, determine the strategy or strategies it lends =
itself to, and go from there. I think we can get into a bind when we =
start trying to fit strategies to text when they aren't suited.
Just my 2cents,
Cece/LC/GA
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: "Ginger/Rob" <elephant@foxvalley.net>
Subject: [mosaic] video ordering info
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 22:18:10 -0600

The site to order both the videos is http://www.stenhouse.com/videos.htm Be
prepared. They are expensive. See if your district or school will purchase
them to share, they are well worth it.

"Strategies In Action" and "Happy Reading".

Ginger
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Wed, 06 Nov 2002 13:00:42 -0600
From: "Dawn Marmo" <dmarmo@kaneland.org>
Subject: [mosaic] MOT and Six Traits connections
I read previously that there was information out there somewhere that
links MOT strategies with the Six Traits of Writing Strategies. If
anyone has that information, could you please forward it to me or a
website where I can find it. I know I read it somewhere and now can not
locate that information.

Thank you!

Dawn
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Wed, 06 Nov 2002 15:27:27 -0600
From: "JUDY SERAPHIN" <JSERAPHI@kaneland.org>
Subject: [mosaic] 6 Traits link with MOT strategies

Will the person with the information linking the 6 traits writing to
the
MOT/STW strategies please contact me. I would love to have that info.
Thanks, Judy
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2002 10:29:23 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: [mosaic] [PERIODIC mosaic DIGEST POSTING]
From: <suki@nac.net>

Jerry- the videos are available through Stenhouse pubishers

Chris Tovani: How exciting to hear from you on this web-site! I visited
your classroom last year-for the fall study-you are really inspiring.
We've bought your book, in my district, for all lang. arts teachers
(middle school and high school) and, last year, used it as a book club.
Now the high school s.s. and science teachers are asking for it. I
believe that it's made a real difference with teachers. I e-mailed Judy
recently to ask for your e-mail address to talk to you about your
availability for a staff-dev day next year in our district in New Jersey.
Will e-mail you.
susan wilson
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Fri, 08 Nov 2002 12:41:32 -0500
From: Elisa Waingort <elisawi@fcaq.k12.ec>
Subject: Re: [mosaic] mind pictures

Hi Dawn--
I think you make a good point in your message below: you make
pictures in your mind when you need to, such as when meaning
breaks down or you realize that you've been reading the last few
pages and can't remember anything you've read! I too have been
reading the messages very closely and I don't see pictures in my
mind most of the time and still have good comprehension of what
I'm reading. I think the key to remember here is that we use these
strategies as needed. It is not a prescription that we need to follow
whether or not it's working for us.
Elisa

Dawn Marmo wrote:

> this is fascinating!! In reading all of this I am revisiting all my
> thoughts and strategies of reading comprehension, as I did when I first
> read Mosaics. I am finding that what Dave and many others have said to
> be quite true. I think some of the areas I wrote about previously were
> too specific to what I am working on in the classroom with students and
> focused to another discussion group I am in about Mosaics. In reading
> and writing all of these emails, nonfiction, etc. I do not visualize
> unless I am taking time to stop and clarify some statistical type
> information. I have always been a proficient reader and writer too. I
> can echo what I've been reading here--it has always been easy for me to
> read, comprehend, learn, etc. I just find all of this some stimulating!
> It is wonderful to really dive into a subject and pick it apart! Thank
> you for all of the input. It has helped me to go back and really
> evaluate what I do as a reader--no, no pictures unless I am really lost
> in a good story--then it is like a spell, like I have become part of the
> book. That has always been present for me. I just started training
> myself since reading Mosaics to visualize things more vivdly when I am
> reading fiction. I think that this rambling has encompassed all that
> came to me while I was reading this listserve about metacognition, etc.
> Dawn
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2002 19:30:49 -0800
From: becky alexander <bekalex@ocsnet.net>
Subject: Re: [mosaic] A Questions

At 1:28 PM -0500 11/8/02, Elisa Waingort wrote:
>I'm still wondering if some of us use visualization mostly as a strategy
>when our understanding breaks down...
>Elisa

Not me. I think that I visualize per the author's intent. If the
author gives me something to visualize I comply. :) If the s/he
doesn't, I don't/can't. Fortunately I'm easy, I visualize at the drop
of a metaphor.

The following were simply pulled from my library here and I only
looked at opening lines. I'm sure there are much better examples
around. These were used as examples of variation only.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I
think he is putting in a lot of visuals, intended to be visualized.)

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano
Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took
him to discover ice. At that time Macondo was a village of twenty
adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran
along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like
prehistoric eggs. The world was so recent that many things lacked
names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point.
Every year during the month of March a family of ragged gypsies would
set up their tents near the village and with a great uproar of pipes
and kettle drums they would display new inventions. First they
brought the magnet. A heavy gypsy with an untamed beard and sparrow
hands who introduced himself as Melquiades, put on a bold public
demonstration of what he himself called the eighth wonder of the
learned alchemists of Macdonia. He went from house to house dragging
two metal ingots and everybody was amazed to see pots, pans, tongs,
and braziers tumble down from their places and beams creak from the
desperation of nails and screws trying to emerge and even objects
that had been lost for a long time appeared from where they had been
searched for most and went dragging along in turbulent confusion
behind Melquiades' magical irons."

From The "Stone Diaries" by Carol Shields (another one with good visuals)

"My mother's name was Mercy Stone Goodwill. She was only thirty years
old when she took sick, a boiling hot day, standing there in her back
kitchen, making a Malvern pudding for her husband's supper. A cookery
book lay open on the table: "Take some slices of stale bread," the
recipe said, "and one pint of currants; half a pint of raspberries;
four ounces of sugar; some sweet cream if available." Of course she's
divided the recipe in half, there being just the two of them, and
what with the scarcity of currants, and Cuyler (my father) being a
dainty eater. A pick-and-nibble fellow, she calls him, able to take
his food or leave it.

"It shames her how little the man eats, diddling his spoon around in
his dish, perhaps raising his eyes once or twice to send her one of
his shy, appreciative glances across the table, but never taking a
second helping, just leaving it all for her to finish up - pulling
his hand tthrough the air with that dreamy gesture of his that urges
her on. And smiling all the while, his daft tender-faced look."

From "The Metaphysical Club" by Louis Menand (fewer visuals, but
pretty good for a history/philosophy book):

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an officer in the Union Army. He stood
six feet three inches tall and had a soldierly bearing. In later life
he loved to use military metaphors in his speeches and his
conversation; he didn't mind being referred to good-naturedly as
Captain Holmes; and he wore his enormous military mustaches until his
death, in 1935, at the age of ninety-three. The war was the central
experience of his life, and he kept its memory alive. Every year he
drank a glass of wine in observance of the anniversary of the battle
of Antietam where he had been shot in the neck and left, briefly
behind enemy lines, for dead.

"But Holmes hated the war. He was twenty years old and weighted just
136 pounds at the time of his first battle, at Ball's Bluff, where
he was shot through the chest. He fought bravely and he was
resilient, but he was not strong in a brute sense, and as the war
went on the physical ordeal was punishing. HE was wounded three times
in all, the third time in an engagement leading up to the battle of
Chancelorseville, when he was shot in the foot. He hoped the foot
would amputated so he would be discharged but it was spared and he
served his commission. Many of his friends were killed in battle,
some of hem in front of his eyes. Those glasses of wine were toasts
to pain."

From "Unweaving the Rainbow" by Richard Dawkins (with very few visuals)

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people
are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The
potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in
fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia.
Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats,
scientists greater than Newoton. We know this because the set of
possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of
actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I,
in our ordinariness, that are here."

And from "Mao Zedong" by Jonathan Spence (with only the barest of
visuals; think of a map maybe)(g)

Mao Zedong was born in late 1893, at a time when China was sliding
into one of the bleakest and most humiliating decades in its long
history. The Qing dynasty, which had ruled China with a firm hand for
two hundred and fifty years, was falling apart, no longer
understanding either how to exercise its own power or how to chart
the country's course into the future. For over thirty years the Qing
rulers had been trying to reorganize their land and naval forces, and
to equip them with modern Western weapons, but in 1894 their proud
new navy was obliterated by the Japanese in a short, bloody war that
also brought heavy casualties to the Chinese ground forces.
Victorious, the Japanese staked out major spheres of influence in
southern Manchuria - once the ancestral home of the Qing rulers - and
also annexed the Chinese island of Taiwan, transforming it into a
Japanese colony. Before the century was out the Germans had seized
areas of north China, near the birthplace of China's ancient sage
Confucius, the British had expanded the territory they dominated in
central China, along the Yangtze River, and the French were pushing
their influence into China's mountainous southwest. In 1898, an
emperor with a broad view of the need for economic and institutional
change was ousted in a palace coup only a hundred days after he began
his reform program. And in 1900, as the old century ended, rebels in
north China seized Beijing, and by killing scores of foreigners and
thousands of Chinese Christian converts, brought upon their country
an armed invasion of reprisal by a combined force of eight foreign
nations."

*******

Some of the best non-fiction today is very visual: "John Adams,"
"Galileo's Daughter," "The Professor and the Madman," "Into The
Wild," and even the older "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"
are good examples, I suppose. Other good non-fiction is not so
visual: "Guns, Germs and Steel," "The Tipping Point," "Credit Card
Nation."

One of the most frustrating books I've read of late (although I
dearly loved it) was Blindness" by Jose Saramago. Saramago pictures
for us, if you will, a world in which virtually everyone is blind.
His style is suited for this white blindness with no paragraph
breaks. There is precious little to visualize either for the story is
told primarily from the vantage of the blind. So there is a lot of
reference to sounds, smells, feelings, etc. But there is only one
person who is able to see and it is her eyes which we use to see the
world. Truly, I felt like I was going blind, reading this one. My
ears and my other senses seemed perked though. Odd, eh?

Becky
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: JLabar1026@aol.com
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 07:05:38 EST
Subject: Re: [mosaic] A Questions

In a message dated 11/8/02 10:32:21 PM Eastern Standard Time,
bekalex@ocsnet.net writes:

> "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"
>

Loved that book. Terrible movie.

BG- Yes- I thought that book lent itself to visualization.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: JLabar1026@aol.com
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 07:08:25 EST
Subject: Re: [mosaic] A Questions
Reply-To: mosaic@u46teachers.org

In a message dated 11/8/02 10:32:21 PM Eastern Standard Time,
bekalex@ocsnet.net writes:

> "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I
> think he is putting in a lot of visuals, intended to be visualized.)
>
>

Interesting how a book written in one language and translated to another
comes across.

BG
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: "Patricia Watson" <pwatson@sfasu.edu>
Subject: RE: [mosaic] Becoming a Strategic Reader
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 12:26:18 -0600
Reply-To: mosaic@u46teachers.org

Actually, most of these instructional strategies have been around for
quite some time. For example, Reciprocal Teaching comes from Palinscar and
Brown and QAR comes from Taffy Raphael, both from the mid-80s. I could cite
the others if I were at my office. They're in most good content area texts.
They don't come from MOT or STW, specifically. This is the exact same list
of
instructional methods that's being pushed as "research based" here in
Texas. These strategies appear in lots of materials being distributed, and
often the original authors aren't cited...which is a real shame as well as
being illegal. Some of these (Reciprocal Teaching and QARs at least I
think),
were mentioned in the NRP report, and so are getting renewed interest.

MOT looked at all the research that had been done up until that point in
the area of comprehension, synthesized it, and added additional original
research with the strategy interviews.=20

I think, as professionals, we should point out to folks like this
presenter that they ought to give credit to the originators of the ideas.
It's
very unprofessional to go around presenting workshops based on the research
of others, implying (even by omission and silence) that the ideas are
original.

My thoughts...
Pat
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: CheriSumm@aol.com
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 01:21:01 EST
Subject: Re: [mosaic] visualizing
Reply-To: mosaic@u46teachers.org

Cece's response is right on! Perhaps the thread got started by some who had
read that research has suggested a connection between good readers and
visualization. But a current definition of visualizing would include
multi-sensory images... including those of us who get enveloped in a book
and
feel as though we are a part of it.

But apart from all of that, I would second Cece's points that all of the
strategies are important, and that proficient readers use them together.

Ellin Keene has pointed out, and my teaching experience has borne out, that
although we use the strategies fluidly it is most helpful to teach them
separately. I know this may be counter-intuitive, but it seems to work for
kids.

Cheri/CA
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

back to archive