With Thinking Boxes, students use cartooning methods to put themselves in the role of a character in order to express thoughts and feelings as a follow-up to a story they have read or heard.
Strategies/Skills Used
Reading Strategy 6: Connect what you read with what you already know.
Reading Strategy 11: Make inferences and draw conclusions.
Reading Strategy 12: Reflect and respond.
(1) Discuss with students different ways to show internal and external voices in cartoons.
(2) Fold a paper in four or use the Graphic Organizer provided.
(3) Read a selection to the students. Stop at an appropriate spot, once the setting has been established and the characters have been introduced, and instruct students to
- show what is happening,
- think like an illustrator or a cartoonist,
- use the inside voice and outside voice of the characters, and
- share in pairs or in groups.
(4) Continue in this fashion for all the thinking and speech boxes (repeat steps (2) and (3)).
(5) Have students reflect on their thought processes and how this strategy helped them remember the story by thinking like the characters.
Primary
Intermediate
Secondary
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