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Using IdeaChain Outside the Lesson

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Using IdeaChain Outside the Lesson

Lesson 1

Daily Communication
When your student is getting frustrated trying to tell you something that you don't understand
Bringing In Other Family Members Or Friends
Describing secret objects
When driving
'Blind' exercise
Have the student entertain a 3 to 5 year old sibling
Writing
An idea to help jump-start a writing assignment
When a student has a writing assignment that is stumping him or her
For high school or college students or adults with long writing assignments or reports
The student has a written assignment already started, but you recognize that the writing is too bland, nondescript, repetitive (the "And then … And then … And then …format)
Studying With Images
Social studies, health, or other subjects that use textbook pictures to expand understanding
Science diagrams and pictures

Daily Communication

When your student is getting frustrated trying to tell you something that you don't understand:
Tell him or her,

"Let's try to do this another way. Stop for a minute and make a picture of what you're trying to tell me. And then describe the picture to me just like we do in our lesson."
You may need to coach the student through the process. "Picture what things would look like when…(whatever) happens." Give the student a minute to do this. "OK, now describe the picture to me."

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Bringing In Other Family Members Or Friends

Describe secret objects:
1. Have the new person describe an object in the room, without naming it. The description continues until the student (in partnership with the instructor, if necessary) can guess what the object is. In many instances the student will recognize that he or she has better strategies for describing things than the new person.

2. Turn the game around and have the student describe an object in the room, without naming it, until the other person can guess what it is. The other player may need to leave the room to allow the student to take a long look at the object before beginning. It may also be necessary for the new person to close his eyes while the student takes intermediate looks at the object being described.

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When driving:
1. As you are approaching a billboard, say, "Take a good look at that billboard." After you have passed it, describe the picture. The student can do this alone or every person in the car can contribute. It is fun to check your description the next time you pass the same billboard.

It is also fun for the student to be able to request the same from you - that you describe a billboard that you are passing.

2. As you approach a person or thing, say, "See that (whatever it is.) Take a good look." After you have passed, describe the person or thing.

As before, also play the game with the student allowed to make this request of you.

3. Recall pictures you described during the lesson. See how much the student, or both of you, can remember.

4. If you have used mental pictures to study school material, recall those pictures. (See Studying With Imaging)
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'Blind' exercise:
One person pretends to be blind and closes his eyes or is blindfolded. This person stands at the entrance to a room. The other person directs the 'blind' person through the room with words only. The 'blind' person does exactly what they are told to do. This exercise conveys the idea that the words a person uses are important to getting a message across to someone else.

Have the student entertain a young, 3 to 5 year old, sibling:
Have the student describe pictures in a magazine or book to the younger child. The student looks at the picture while describing. For example, the student would say, "See the boy with his dog. The boy is about my size and he has brown hair. He's wearing blue jeans and a red shirt …."

Writing

An idea to help jump-start a writing assignment
Tell the student to pretend that she is building a picture in the teacher's mind. Combine this with the next idea.

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When a student has a writing assignment that is stumping him or her:
  1. Have the student build a mental picture. Use the key questions (and hand signs) to get some detail. This is not your lesson so don't make it too long. Use the hand signs that will give you the needed amount of detail.
  2. Use a tape recorder to record the student describing his or her mental picture to you. Ask questions about what you can't 'see'. Again, don't make this too long, just what you need.
  3. Transcribe the description from the tape recorder. The transcription doesn't have to be exact, just what the student needs.
  4. Edit the transcription. Let the student know that since we frequently speak a little differently than we write editing is a must.
This separates the four parts of the task: creating the idea (building the mental picture), verbalizing the idea, writing down the words, and editing. It is particularly difficult for many students to organize thoughts as they write. Many times a student can handle each part of the task, but is overwhelmed by having to do them all at once.

Keep this process, creating image-recording description-transcribing-editing, as simple as possible. Then the student gets the idea that this is no big deal, and gradually he or she can handle the steps independently.

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For high school or college students or adults with long writing assignments or reports:
  1. Think through the key points using mental pictures to the best of the person's current ability. In the early stages of learning how to build mental images, an individual may need a good bit of help.
  2. Tape record the key ideas. This can become an outline for the paper or report.
  3. Transcribe the key ideas. Check the order and see if adjustments need to be made.
  4. Start with the first key idea. Build a mental picture (with help if necessary.)
  5. Record the description of the picture just as in your lessons, using key questions for support.
  6. Transcribe the description. Each key idea may be worked out, described on tape, and transcribed; or all the ideas may be imaged and described before transcribing.
If resources permit, have someone else do the transcribing.

Again if resources permit, get a dictating (transcribing) machine with a foot pedal to free up hands from all the starting and stopping of the tape. The dictating machine is a $150-$200 investment, but well worth it if an individual has much writing to do. [If you are not familiar with dictating (transcribing) machines, they are full function tape recorders with a foot attachment for starting, stopping and backing up the tape.]
  1. Edit the assignment.
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The student has a written assignment already started, but you recognize that the writing is too bland, nondescript, repetitive (the "And then … And then … And then …format):
  1. (If not already written, use whatever strategy works to get the first draft written down.) Write with plenty of space between the lines. For example, if using ruled notebook paper, write on every second or third line. If typing, type with double or triple space.
  2. Use the key questions to fill in details: sizes, shapes, colors, sounds, actions, background, time, mood, and point of view. Pencil in these descriptions right at the point where they will be inserted. For example, a sentence may read: And then the horses ran up the hill. Expand this to: And then the two black horses ran up the grassy hill.
  3. The 'time' key question can provide important transitional phrases to add variety to the writing. For example, instead of 'and then' use 'when they got back …in the morning …as soon as they were finished …or whatever makes sense' to improve sentence construction. Again, pencil in the addition exactly where it will be inserted.

    From the example above, that sentence can be further expanded to: Early in the morning the two black horses ran up the grassy hill.

  4. Discuss with the student how the added words, descriptors, bring more life to the written assignment.
Do a reasonable number of additions at a time while the student is getting the hang of the process. Gradually, add more as the student begins to understand how the filling out process works. Keep in mind that little changes over time make a big difference.

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Studying With Images

Social studies, health, or other subjects that use textbook pictures to expand understanding:
Have the student describe the picture to you or you describe the picture to the student. Talk about elements of the picture and how they back up the ideas being taught. Describing the pictures can add a little drama and emotion to the lesson.

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Science diagrams and pictures:
As you read this application, keep in mind that there is a huge range from simple to very complex diagrams. Read the suggestion for the process and adjust with the level of help your student needs. Some diagrams and pictures the student can easily describe to you, others you will need to work through together.

Using the science book, have the student describe the diagram or picture to you. Encourage much gesturing and painting parts of the picture in the air with the hands. This adds another, kinesthetic link for enhancing memory. It also provides a way to help the student describe strange shapes and parts. You may also need to help the student with associations to remember the names of various parts that need to be labeled.

For example, if the student has to memorize the parts of a plant cell:

example(The example demonstrates a process; it is not meant to be a scientific explanation of a plant cell.)

The plant cell is shaped like a big rectangle. In fact, it looks like two rectangles, one inside the other. This could be like a fence around a pasture. Two fences one inside the other. So there's a big rectangular pasture with two fences around it. The space between the two fences is the cell wall.

Then there's a big white space in the middle that looks like this (draw in the air with hands.) It's sort of a rectangle that's punched in on one side at the bottom. It looks like a big lake in the middle. This area is called the vacuole. Let's pretend that we vacuumed out the space in the middle. That's why it's empty. Then we'll remember the vacuumed space is the vacuole.

Next to the punched in part at the bottom of the vacuole is a big circle that looks like a basketball. The basketball is the nucleus.

The vacuole and the nucleus are sitting in some dotted stuff that's inside the fence. And there are some black and white spotted things in the dotted stuff. The black and white things look like milk cows inside the fence. And I can think of the spotted stuff as the mud they're walking in. The black and white things are cytoplasts and the mud is the cytoplasm. There are cytoplastic cows walking around in cytoplasm mud.

A lot more could be done to associate the names of the cell parts. Depending of the student's level of ability, you may need to help with the picture description. Have the student practice by describing his mental picture to you. Don't follow in the book and see if you get a complete picture. You may also ask the student to draw the picture as he says it out loud.

You will need time to help your student develop mental pictures from diagrams and textbook pictures. It is almost impossible to do this the night before a test.

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