The teacher reads a description and asks the students to turn on their Mind's Eye, picturing the details and filling in the missing elements with their own imaginations.

Pick a section from Coal Creek Rebellion that has strong description (http://fno.org/coalcreek/coalcreek.html)

The teacher stops from time to time and asks students to supply details not mentioned by the writer.

• What colors do you see?
• How tall are the trees?
• What kinds of trees are there?
• What kind of clothing do you notice?
• Is anyone wearing a hat?

Click to enlarge.

Ask students to create a map showing the steps they took to explore a question or an issue.

How did you get there?

What questions did you ask?

Where did you look?

When did you encounter dead ends and blind alleys?

Provide a list of articles on a topic that matches the curriculum and ask students to pick one, then map the key points, main ideas and major sections.

Here's one on acid rain at http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/what/index.html