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Sherine Aboelezz

Advanced Trends in Education: Imagery

The topic of imagery is commonly taught in the Language Arts classroom throughout the
elementary and middle school years. The subject matter is typically defined as sensory
details that outline a texts description of sound, taste, touch, smell, and sight. Although
imagery varies from text to text, the manner in which the subject matter is taught varies very
little from teacher to teacher. It appears that the trends of modeling good reading practices,
large group discussions, and graphic illustrations are the trends that lay at the forefront when
teaching imagery; however, incorporating project based learning will ultimately result in a
more relevant and long lasting student product.

Part I:
Upon researching the current practices and trends of teaching imagery, it is found that
lesson plans typically revolve around the practice of modeling good reading practices as a
primary approach. Kathy Glass, a curriculum consultant, outlines a lesson using this very
practice. Her lessons may be accessed at www.kathyglassconsulting.com. Glass, in her lesson,
states, model this assignment with students by reading aloud the excerpt from
Johnny
Tremain
or use another novel from your class reading. The trend is to model good reading
behavior in order to bring about metacognitive awareness in students. Teachers, in an attempt
to improve their students reading abilities, show students what good readers see when

reading. It is thought that when weak readers are given the tools of good reading, they then in
turn become good readers.
While this practice is extremely effective, it neglects to provide any relevance or context
for the skill. Although students may better understand the text in which they are dissecting,
they are not told exactly why this practice makes them better readers and/or writers. While
Kathy Glass does require her students to compose an imagery paragraph as a final assessment,
the assignment does not create a meaningful relationship between the student and the text i.e.
the purpose for learning.
Another imagery lesson plan detailed on brighthubeducation.com exemplifies the
common trend of using large group discussions in order to engage its learners. The lesson plan
states, write telling sentences on the board and instruct students to convert them to showing
sentences containing figurative language. In other words, the teacher asks students to convert
telling sentences like, the pizza was great, to showing sentences like the crusty tomato pie was
cheesy and savory. The purpose of large group discussion is meant to demonstrate the writing
process for the whole class so that learning no longer becomes an isolating process. The
problem and process belongs to everyone collectively.
While large group discussions are beneficial, they are more fruitful if smaller group
discussions precede the activity. Large group discussions as an anticipatory set do not put into
account the recollective and reflective processes necessary before learning takes place. In
cases where smaller group activities are not put into place first, one or two outspoken students
are usually known to dominate and/or steer the conversation. When students are not given

the time to think and practice before discussion, their questions fall to the waste side.
Differentiation, for that matter, is non existent in this lesson. This practice does not leave room
for struggling learners to voice their concerns as they seemingly feel that their
misunderstandings might be in the minority.
Finally, a third imagery lesson described on
www.readingrockets.org displays the
growing trend of using graphic illustrations as an extension of student learning. According to
the site, creating mental images while reading can improve reading comprehension.
Ultimately, the key to this lesson is to activate ones mental camera so that he/she can see the
reading in ones head. This process does, indeed, improve reading comprehension as it forces
readers to interconnect sensory imagery in order to construct meaning. The reader then is
given the tools to comprehend the text on his/her own.
Consequently, a helpful practice, as the lesson outlines, is to graphically illustrate the
written the text. This practice utilizes Garners theory of multiple intelligences as it uses various
forms of intelligences in the classroom in order to teach the lesson e.g. spatial/visual. Much
research backs this practice, yet, this lesson would be more effective if it required students to
utilize the skill thereafter. The lesson is introduced, and taught, with an isolated text and
therefore holds no relevance and/or context. The students understanding would only endure
if they were allowed to apply their newly unearthed skills in a written assignment.

Graphic Organizer
The below image represents a visual representation of the trends used in the above
lesson plans. Although they use exceptional trends, such as modeling good reading habits,
conducting large group discussions, and utilizing graphic illustrations, they fail to create
relevancy and/or purpose for the reader. The aftermath of these good intentioned lesson plans
is that they all eventually lead to dead ends. Students are unable to see the function of their
new skills and, therefore, the necessary neurotransmitter connections are not formed. It is
likely that the students in these classes will eventually forget the information.

Part II:
The aforementioned image shows that when a concept is taught in isolation, the
learning process reaches a dead end. While modeling good reading practices, conducting large
classroom discussions, and extending mental images is beneficial for the learning process, it
becomes short lived when not utilized within a global context. The information and skill
acquired must be practical and relevant to the learner. In other words, as mentioned by John
Larmer on
www.edutopia.com
, the information must, provide authentic applications of
content and skill. While one may argue that Project Based Learning has been utilized in
classrooms since the time of John Dewey, it is still not executed properly in many schools. As
www.ascd.com indicates in its article on Educational Leadership,
Projects vary greatly in the
depth of the questions explored, the clarity of the learning goals, the content and structure of
the activity, and guidance from the teacher. In other words, the teachers in the above lesson
plans may have interpreted their lessons as Project Based Learning because they asked
students to decode and deconstruct complicated text. It therefore, in their minds, became a
project of exploration. However, in order for true PBL to occur, the project must be be
authentically in context, student driven, and include a reflective process for students.
(
www.http://bie.org/about/what_pbl
)
Students would have internalized the information better if they were asked to apply
their understandings of imagery to their own pieces of written work i.e. an extended project. A
recommendation is that students be asked to create a work of fiction or nonfiction and submit
it by the end of school term. When students are asked to produce such projects over an

extended period of time, questions and problems inevitably arise. For example, students may
ask: How do I organize my story? How can I make the reader
see the setting? How can I make
the narrators voice sound scary? How can I make my character relatable? The result of such
inquiry is student engagement, as students research and find the information and skill that is
relevant to the creation of their own piece of writing. Students then understand
why the
information is needed. The skill is now contextualized, authenticated, and student driven.
Differentiation is also at the forefront of this practice because the nature of these inquiries is
individualistic in nature.
Furthermore, the reflective process is needed to accumulate long lasting information
retention. After completing such a student driven writing project, students are advised to map
out a reflection of their learning curve. It is during this time that learners are able to re-visit
their questions and answers; they, in turn, crystallize the skills learned for future use.
In conclusion, while the first three lessons on imagery were exceptional, they lacked an
overall context. The lessons should be utilized within the context of a greater project, as
opposed to isolated lesson plans. The use of project based learning creates relevancy for
information, thereby creating a heightened learning experience for those involved.