Tip 1: RELEVANT QUESTIONING IS THE ESSENCE OF GOOD V/V.

The quality of your questioning is the difference between concept imagery developing quickly and accurately, and concept imagery remaining weak and unstable. Remember the Goldilocks principle: not too much, not too little, but just right. Your questions should be focused on the gestalt of the story. Be careful not to over-question for extraneous details that may cause the student to lose the gestalt. Don’t assume imagery for the most important concepts—ask just enough detailed questions for the student to prove to you that she really is visualizing the main concepts. Reminder: Read Chapter 19 in your V/V teacher’s manual—Relevant Questioning is the Difference.

Tip 2: PACING FOR AUTOMATICITY

Good pacing of V/V requires overlapping of steps. Don’t keep your student too long in grade-level material that is too easy, and don’t keep your student too long on one step or level of V/V. Rather than complete mastery of a step, look for enough competence to overlap to the next step. Good pacing also means getting the grade level of material just right to differentiate instruction–not too easy and not too difficult. Reminder: Chapter 20 in the V/V manual describes good pacing strategies in more detail.

Tip 3: STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Students struggling to process language have experienced failure and frustration in school—and often blame themselves. The steps and materials in V/V will naturally encourage student engagement. Here’s how:

• Socratic questioning—respond to a student’s response, using positive feedback, which encourages risk taking and reduces fear of making an error. With choice/contrast questions, you can meet ALL students where they are, differentiating your questioning based on their diverse skill sets.
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  “Active Student Response” strategies can include Action Response (thumbs up/down if your picture matches), Oral Response (pass out Structure Words randomly and each student verbalizes his/her word), and Written Response (use V/V Workbooks for students to write key images).

• “Think-Pair-Share” can be used after teacher prompts: “What do those words make you picture?”