Cornerstone Spreads

It has been exciting to watch the work of the Cornerstone Literacy framework spread at Mathews. As students learn to read, to write, to think critically, to reason, to analyze and evaluate information ,to communicate effectively in a variety of forms, and to inquire systematically into any important matter, it is evident that higher order thinking skills are being activated and lessons have taken on deeper rigor. I invite parents to inquire about visiting a Cornerstone Model Classroom and see for yourself the great work taking place.

We are adding to the strategy of schema by incorporating visualization as a reading strategy. The comprehension strategy of Visualizing is also known as Making Mental Images or Creating Mind Movies. Visualization is the creation of images in the mind as the student reads, processes and recalls what has been read. Visualizing a picture or scene with the words and phrases allows the reader to organize the ideas, to see the relationship among the ideas, and to make meaningful connections with them. Using visualization and discussing the pictures to check for understanding and discrepancies help a reader increase comprehension.

It is important that students continue making connections to activate schema (prior knowledge) well into this strategy of making mental images. The bottom line we want all children to learn is that everybody's mental images are different because everyone's schema for text is different.

More on Visualization next time.