Details and the Bigger Picture

While reading chapter 12 of Zull’s book, I was intrigued about the section, “How the Brain Remembers Stories”. What I got out of the chapter was that while reading lengthy passages, students can get bored. The excitement is found in the details. When the students are just focusing on the end result, they are missing out on so many learning opportunities within the details. Something I would like to see my students do in the future is to focus of minor details of the story and create their own story, or character study, about what is happening. For example, in the novel, The Westing Game, readers are mostly focused on what will happen in the end. Trying to find out who is the murderer. I think in order to see the big picture, and engage the students, the students need to see what is going on with the other characters in the book. An example of this could be allowing the students to complete character studies for each character in the story. I would make it a physical learning experience by allowing students an opportunity to act out their findings for each character. This gives the students an opportunity to focus on the details as they read. Details they will need in order to see the order to figure out the ending. By allowing students an opportunity to focus on the details and traits of each character, they are able to remember the story better because they got to become engaged in the “big picture”.