Placing yourself in the text, IMAGINING the world brought to life, grants a stronger understanding of the environment, the characters’ choices, and the ability to predict things to come.  VISUALIZING demands that you focus on all FIVE SENSES to explore the text’s environment as if you were there.

 

Charles: A Focus on Literacy Skills

Charles is a short story written by Shirley Jackson in 1948.  A full copy of the text can be READ HERE.  This SERIES will focus on all TEN KEY LITERACY SKILLS.  The lessons are arranged in SEQUENTIAL ORDER which builds a strong foundation before moving on to the next skill.

This series is an excellent way to BEGIN your class’s semester, ensuring everyone has a strong understanding of BASIC LITERACY SKILLS before you gradually release responsibility, asking them to put those skills into practice.

Explore other SHORT STORY LITERACY SKILLS ASSIGNMENTS for more ways to instruct your students.

 

 

 

Summarizing

Visualizing is the act of CREATE AN IMAGE in a reader’s mind.  The image should stimulate as many of the FIVE SENSES as possible: Taste, Touch, Sight, Sound, and Smell.  By visualizing, a reader enhances their connection to a text by immersing themselves within a specific situation.

Visualizing the Parent-Teachers Meeting

Read the final TEN to FIFTEEN lines of the story.  Imagine that you are LAURIE’S MOTHER or FATHER.  Try to think about what you would notice at the Parent-Teacher meeting.  Use the GRAPHIC ORGANIZER below to collect your thoughts.

SIGHT At the meeting I would see… ·         The calm faces on the other parents in the room. · ·	HEARING At the meeting I would hear… ·         The bored drone of the teachers’ voices. · ·	TOUCH At the meeting I would feel… ·         My sweaty hands on the chair as I looked for Charles’s parents · ·
TASTE At the meeting I would taste… ·         Chalk dust floating around the air after a day of school. · ·	SMELL At the meeting I would smell… ·         The body odor of other parents cramped into this room. · ·	OTHER Other details about this meeting are… ·         The teacher was confused when I asked about Charles · ·

 

Write a Visualizing Paragraph that Includes the Details You Noticed

You are free to use the PARAGRAPH TEMPLATE below, however you may wish to write your own paragraph on a separate sheet of paper.  Refer to the template for an understanding of how to connect all the REQUIRED DETAILS together in your piece.

During the __________________________ I couldn’t help but notice the strong smell of __________________________.  The taste of __________________________ was on my lips because __________________________.  My hands brushed against __________________________, and it was impossible not to feel __________________________ while the sound of __________________________ swirled around me.  Before me, I saw __________________________ which made me think of __________________________.  Finally, something that I couldn’t miss was __________________________.

 

 

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What’s Next

Having placed yourself WITHIN THE TEXT you now have a stronger understanding of the environment.  This will allow you to better understand the EVENTS of the story.  You are now prepared to INFER – make educated guesses – about some of the unspecified parts of the story.

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RESOURCES

Charles – WhatBinderDotCom – Literacy Skills – Visualizing.PDF

 

 

 

 

 

Charles: Literacy Skills Series

CHARLES: ANNOTATING

CHARLES: DETERMINING IMPORTANCE

CHARLES: SUMMARIZING

CHARLES: VISUALIZING

CHARLES: INFERRING

CHARLES: QUESTIONING

CHARLES: CONNECTING

CHARLES: COMPARING

CHARLES: PREDICTING

CHARLES: SYNTHESIZING