Visual Vocabulary Dictionary

Just like the end of this chapter and when we focused on the great work that Bettina Curl did with her students to help them build their visual vocabulary for their Native American unit you can too help scaffold information ahead of time by having students build their visual vocabulary for a given topic or subject. 

Are you about to read an article about undersea creatures?

Then take a moment to work together to figure out ways to draw those items. If you know that the article will for sure talk about octopus and seahorses make sure to draw those with your students ahead of time. 

If they have a dedicated space like this print out or a section in their readers, writers, or interactive journal they can just keep adding to it and use it as a reference whenever they get stuck.