ABSTRACT
The muted trumpet of Miles Davis plays on the CD player, floating among the voices in the crowded classroom. Freshly scrubbed tables are rearranged into cozy pairs. Handmade flowers in tiny clay pots, poetry books, bowls of pretzels, and small containers of words from magnetic poetry kits have replaced crayons, markers, scissors, sticky notes, pencils, and glue. Parents and children sit together, munching pretzels and sipping steamy hot chocolate in mugs brought from home, reading poetry by the likes of Eloise Greenfield, Maya Angelou, Aileen Fisher, Jane Yolen, Valerie Worth, and Georgia Heard. When readers create mental images, they engage with text in ways that make it personal and memorable to them alone. A wonderful consequence of teaching mental images in reading is the effect it has on children’s writing.
