An exceptional way to help your students follow a text is to have them track the important details. This helps students develop a greater understanding of how the events fit together to provide the overall structure of the text.
This example identifies six main parts:
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Student Instructions
Diagram the process of how the eyes allow us to see.
Engage your class by working together to build a 3D model of the human eye using everyday materials. This interactive project helps students visualize each part's role in how we see and reinforces learning from your lesson.
Collect items like colored paper, clay, plastic wrap, cardboard tubes, and markers. Encourage students to suggest and bring in recyclable supplies to make the project both creative and sustainable.
Divide students into groups and give each one a specific part (cornea, lens, retina, etc.) to research and build. This boosts engagement and allows each student to become an ‘expert’ on their assigned part.
Have groups present their parts and work as a team to assemble the full model. Encourage everyone to discuss how light travels through each part as they add it to the model, making the learning process hands-on and memorable.
Showcase the completed eye in your classroom. Lead a class discussion or reflection activity where students share what they learned about how our eyes work, reinforcing key science concepts through collaboration.
The 'Seeing Eye to Eye' summarization activity is a classroom exercise where students track and diagram how eyes work, following key details in a text to improve comprehension and understanding of visual processes.
To diagram how eyes work, students illustrate and label each step: light reflects off objects, enters the cornea, passes through the pupil and lens, focuses on the retina, and is processed by the brain to create an image.
Students should: 1) Click "Start Assignment," 2) Summarize each step of vision in their own words, 3) Add matching illustrations for each step, and 4) Save and exit when finished.
Summarizing helps students identify and connect key details, making complex processes like vision easier to understand and remember.
The main parts include: cornea, pupil, lens, retina, and the brain—each playing a role in capturing and processing light to create an image.