Post by 4/9: Description of your Visual Bridge
Please post a brief description of the visual bridge you recently shared with your peers. Be specific enough that a peer could duplicate your bridge in the future if he or she chooses.
Remember that you will not receive your grade for your visual bridge until your description has been posted.
posted by Bucky C. @ 8:17 AM
16 comments
16 Comments:
I described a Spider-Man mask that had crinkled up strands of construction paper streaming from it. These strands represented "Spidey Sense" stress lines, and on the back of each line was a writing prompt like "My body is changing so quickly!" or "How can I get him/her to notice me?" Students could pick a stress line from Spidey's head, then journal on the topic. This would help produce prior knowledge of the stresses Peter Parker will face in our reading of _Ultimate Spider-Man Volume 1_, and it would also go ahead and help student connect with the character as they read. As we encountered the various stresses, we could revisit our writing to help with text-to-self, text-to-world connections.
I used a pair of jeans with ideas from the book to describe the novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I wrote the four main character's names on the front of the jeans and then on the back of the jeans I listed the ten rules that can be found in the book. You can find the ten rules on the first page and then in a later chapter. I chose to put the rules on the jeans so that the students will be able to get a little taste of what the book will be like. I also attached questions that I wrote on poster board with wire. The questions that I put on the pants should be read to the class before the students start reading the book. But, if you choose, you can put questions on the pants that can be done before reading the novel, it is just whatever you as a teacher decide to do. I used questions such as, which character did you relate to most and why? What were the main themes and storylines? If you were a character in this novel, what would your story be? I was talking to a classmate, Shannon, and she also had an idea for this novel. She said that the students could make their own pair of jeans in a way to describe themselves, but at the same time have it relate to the novel. So the students could write on the pants some rules they would make up if they were a character in the book, and they could describe themselves and one of their summers that was interesting to them. It would be a colorful and fun way to incorporate a project while learning.
I presented pictures of Cookie Monster, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Monster.com Monster, asking the class what the three images had in common. (They are all monsters.) I asked what other types of monsters there are and commented that some monsters are scarier than others, and that some monsters are not monsters at all. I then asked the class to draw or imagine their own monsters. After a time, I asked them to describe the monsters and drew them on the board. I then told them I was going to draw a monster that is in the book we are about to read, then I drew the likeness of a young black male. I asked them if it looked like a monster; why/why not. I told them that by the end of the book we will decide for ourselves if we think the protagonist truly is a "monster."
I presented a "diary" that had different writing prompts on each page. A class could make their own diary and decorate the front cover to make it "theirs." Each writing prompt had something to do with what a teenager really would write in a diary. An example would be: "How much my family bugs me" or "My first kiss". This would help activate prior knowledge and be a lead-in to reading "The Diary of Anne Frank." Doing the activity would help students understand that Anne was a real person who was just an average teenager. Their own diaries might help the students relate to the things that Anne writes about in her diary.
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Visual Bridge by Shannon McCraw
In my visual bridge, I constructed a rudimentary replica of the figures on the cover of my copy of "Stargirl" with a few stars dangling out of the "skyline." Each star posed a question such as "If you could change your name to anything in the world, what would it be? Why?" and "Go to someone across the room (someone you don't know) and sing Happy Birthday" and "What would you do to fit into the "in" crowd or to please a boy or girl? Why?" These are all writing prompts and while reading and studying the novel, we would refer back to their answers and compare them to what happened to Stargirl. I also had the idea to break the class up into groups and have each group pick a star with the posed challenge and respond. My actual visual image was a bit elementary, but Stargirl is a novel for a lower level student, such as middle school, and as I said in class, the colors would attract attention and interest in the subject at hand.
I drew a poster of The Marauder's Map comple with Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. I asked the class if the stuffed dog I presented looked like a criminal and then pointed to the Sirius Black wanted poster on my shirt. I explained-perhaps to thoroughly-that the man and the dog were in fact the same. I also had a Harry Potter action figure and a "Knight Bus," which I fashioned by taping purple construction paper to a replica of a London tour bus.
Oh yeah! My book was "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling. LOL
I used Microsoft PowerPoint to project the images. I began by introducing the paintings I used which were realist painting by a modern Scottish painter named Jack Vettriano. (May want to define what a realist painting is to students.) The images included:
"The Singng Butler"~ the couple dancing on the beach
"Drifters"~The man and woman with luggage in the bar.
"Mad Dogs"~The three young adults on a beach
"Along Came a Spider"~The woman in black on a couch with a man standing in the doorway.
"The Waltzers"~A group of people dancing under the stars.
Have students say how they feel about the images. Things to point out to them is the class distinction in the photos, the eliments of seduction, and the relationships portrayed in the paintings.
The text that you will introduce is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. You can use these paintings to introduce various chapters or the text as a whole.
I used a poster board, decorated with felt honeybees to describe my book "The Secret Life of Bees." If I was in a classroom, I would have used a bulletin board instead of poster board. I put different facts about honeybees on slips of decorated paper. I would use these facts as we read the book. The students would be able associate the facts about real honeybees with the happenings of the characters in the book. When the class completed the book, I would then assign a writing assignment in which the student would choose a fact from the bulletin board and write how the fact correlates with a character or characters in the book. Knowing first hand some facts about honeybees will help the students to be able to compare and contrast the facts and the characters as they read.
The Adventures of Huckleberyy Finn
By:Mark Twain
I used a foam board and painted "The Mississippi River" on it. Huck's Raft was glued on the river. The bank of the river had different stopping points, Rocks, trees, birds, etc. Each stopping point was numbered and had a writing prompt. Stop one was -Society should have some kind of stability. Twain depicts society as unjust and nothing more than degraded rules. What is the importance of a "civilized society?" Stop 2- There are many family models in this novel. What is the importance of family structures in society? Stop 3- Racism is a big issue in this novel. Jim and Huck rise above racial stereotypes. How can/have we risen above racial stereotypes? Finally, stop 4- Many people tell lies. Sometimes lies are for a good purpose, sometimes bad. Do you think both are "wrong?" Why or why not?
I believe these writing prompts are important and address many issues that the class will see when they begin to read Huck Finn. In theory I would count the class off one through four and assign writing prompts that way, or make a dice with four sides and have each student roll to see what they would write about. Bucky also suggested making the raft velcro. I could then move it to each spot as we addressed the issue in the novel.
For my visual bridge i used one image from the PostSecret weekly blog, at http://postsecret.blogspot.com/
and one image from my copy of a PostSecret book. i used the first image to bridge into Stargirl and the second could have been used as a bridge later in the text.
I used the first image of a young girl, it had writing on it talking about the dreams of a young girl and the innocence of youth, to garner conversation in the class and to ask the class what the image made them feel and how they would feel if their view on life was suddenly changed by outside sources. i used the second image of a woman in a wedding dress to illustrate to the class the same concepts however this image would be better used later in the text, example when stargirl is looking at her bowl of marbles and realizes that it has never been that empty.
I presented a drawing of three girls. Two of the girls were making fun of the third one. I asked the students what did they see in the drawing. After the students answered I then asked them if they rememeber in elementary or high school if they have ever been a target of a bully or remember any bullies. I asked them how does that make you feel towards the one that was being picked on? After asking them several questions I told them that the drawing is demonstrating the novel they would be reading "Blubber." After I told them about what they would be reading I then left them with questions to think about while they were reading the novel.
I used a felt board to help students think about story elements. The felt board would be used while reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. It will also be used before the class begins the book by putting the dog, mouse, and pitchfork on the board and having students create a hypothesis of the story only using the items that are on the felt board. As students read the book we will discuss how their predictions compare to the events in the book. Each item on the felt board will spark student curiousity and encourage reading to find out why each item is important.
I used an "old beat up mailbox" and seven cut out stars as a visual for the book Seven Spells to Sunday. As a prompt to go into the book, you can get the children to choose a blank star from the mailbox and write a "magic wish" on it. The children can then discuss what each others stars say. Or they can write in their journals what they would want to recieve if they found a magic mailbox and why.
I used my scrap book that I made of my grandparents. The book that I related it to was "Sweet, Sweet,Memories" by Jacqueline Woodson. I used the relationship my grandfather and I had as an example of what the book was about. I started my visual with two questions, asking the class if they have or had close relationships with their grandparents and which one of them always do things with their grandparents. The book consentrated on the relationship between a young girl and the pasting of her grandfather, she talks about the thing he use to tell her and the things they did together.
I used comic strip illustrations in Jodi Picoult's novel "The Tenth Circle." The comic strip illustrates one man's interpretation of virgil/Dante's adventure through Hell. I thought that after showing this comic strip to the kids, I would then divide them into groups. I would then assign each group a level of Hell and ask them to illustrate it in comic book form. After all the groups are done, we can then combine levels and make one big comic book of our own. This comic book could be used for the example in the next year, along with Jodi Picoult's work.
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