Sketch to Stretch

Description: This strategy teaches the student to visualize the main idea and concepts and stretch their thinking.   It can be used before reading to “predict” what the student thinks will happen or during reading to emphasize keys points.  It can also be used after reading to stretch their understanding and assess what they have learned from the reading.

Target Skills:

When to Use:

Before reading or writing:

Reading: The student will draw a picture of what he or she thinks the story is about based on the title of the book.  The student shares what the picture is about to let the teacher know what the child’s concept of the book is like.

Writing:  The student draws a picture about the subject he or she wants to write about.  It should have many details to show what will be going on in the story.  The student shares what he or she drew and explains the story according to the picture.  This gives the child ideas to incorporate into his or her writing.

During Reading:

The student can draw pictures of the key ideas and concepts while listening to the story being read.  The student can use symbols and quick sketches to represent different parts and characters in the story.  This keeps the student involved with the story as it is being read.  After the story or the passage has been read, the student then shares what the pictures, symbols, and sketches mean to the student.

After reading or writing:

Reading: The student draws pictures of the key ideas, emotions, or concepts after the story has been read to emphasize certain parts of the story that he or she liked best.  The student then explains what the pictures, symbols, and sketches mean to the student and how that applies to the story.

Writing:  The student draws a picture or uses symbols to convey the emotions or main concepts of the story that they have just written.  The student shares what the pictures, symbols and sketches mean before he or she reads the story out loud.

This strategy can also be used for math as the student draws out the math problems using symbols or quick sketches to represent story problems or computation problems.  The student could draw pictures of the story problem to help him or her better visualize the problem and understand the concepts behind the numbers.