ABSTRACT
Brain-based learning models inform us that “activating neurons using different sensory inputs related to the same concepts can strengthen memories and make more connections and pathways between related memories to build broader understanding” (Goodwin, p. 7). With each of our hands-on literacy activities, different sensory inputs are activated as students process reading into visual, aural, or hands-on experiences. We’re not only engaging our students through variety and creativity, but we are building stronger neurological learning experiences as well.
In this chapter, students will examine passages describing setting in any short story or novel and then transform the setting’s description into a bird’s eye view drawing. Sometimes our students who struggle with reading are highly visual and spatial, and this unit will allow those students to take visual perspectives and transform them—providing an opportunity for engagement and an opportunity to let their brilliance shine. In a creative extension activity, students become storytellers and create their own stories from a bird’s eye view perspective and share their stories with classmates as footprint mysteries.
