Focused Imaging By Emily, Jeff, and Alannah

Opening Activity

Explanation  Focused Imaging is a method of teaching that utilizes the child’s imaginations by getting them to create images in their mind.

Features  Motivational  Empowering  Structured freedom  Develops creativity- Learn more effectively and develop their creativity by using their imaginations

Advantages  No wrong answer  Opportunity to draw on what they know both consciously and intuitively  Provides a vehicle for newly acquired information to be stored and later retrieved with greater ease  Students are working at their own levels  Can be used for interdisciplinary connections  Imaging enhances student’s self-esteem, improves self-expression, increases control over personal behaviors, increases the ability to relax, and improves listening skills

Disadvantages  Assessment – no wrong answer makes it hard to have a clear cut assessment  Hard to know if the students are imagining what is assigned or if are completely off topic  This method can be hard for students who learn best concretely  This method can be hard to make adaptations to for students with needs  Have plenty of time to take students on the journey, or else they will find the experience startling

Steps to Implementation  Giving detailed overview of how this will be different from other lessons, and how the expectation of students will be altered  Set a calming environment to encourage creativity  Get students to relax (i.e. a good yawn and stretch, smiling, and take 1-3 deep breaths)  Describe to them to focus they are to imagine, use as many senses as possible (smell, see, hear, touch, taste)  Develop an activity for students to demonstrate their understanding and express their individual images

Assessing Student Learning  Discuss that the students body language will be monitored to make sure students are engaged in the image they are creating  The teacher will examine the students’ work after the imagining and mark it based on creativity and effort  Journaling  Drawings, collage, paint  Role play, dance, mime  Literature – poem, story, write a play  Expressing ideas verbally

Examples  Memory Recall Activities:  Show a tray of objects and get students to list them when tray is taken away  Class gets into partners; put one set of partners in the hallway and get each partner to describe what the other partner is wearing  Describing Image:  Use music to lead students on an imaging adventure  Give a description of the experience students are to go on  Tell a story and get the students to visualize the images  Put out objects or images according to the topic to get students to create their own imagined scenario

Closing Activity

The End