Do you see What I see?


Reading to Learn: Visualization

Rachel Bowman





Visualization is using mental imagery to understand text. In order to enhance comprehension, children must put images together (visualize) in order to picture what the text is portraying. One strategy that readers can use to increase this comprehension is representational imagery (also known as visualization). In this lesson, I will demonstrate instruction for teaching visualization. My techniques for teaching visualization will be through student drawings of what they read. 




Descriptive sentences (written on board, or displayed somewhere for class to see)

'I love red, glue and yellow jellybeans.'

'I have a gray cat with green eyes'

'My mom reads my favorite book to me in her old brown chair.'


A copy of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' abridged poem, Clement Clarke Moore, for each student


Small teacher made booklet with one line of the poem on each page. This can be made by folding 3 sheets of paper in half and stapling or binding on side.






1. 'Today we are going to practice visualizing what we read.  What do we think visualize means? Can we turn on our picture minds right now? 'Click' Now what if I asked you to think about an orange balloon? Then what do you see in your mind? Really? You see an orange balloon? Well, how about that? Now, do you think this happens when we read something? Well, lets see. I am going to try to visualize first. You all watch and see how it goes. Hmmm, this sentence says, 'I love red, blue, and yellow jellybeans.' I need to close my eyes and think hard about what that sentence told my brain. Let me see if I can draw a picture of what I see in my mind. 'draw red, blue, and yellow jellybeans plus stick figure smiling' When I read this sentence 'I love red, blue, and yellow jellybeans' my brain immediately made this picture! How neat! Now you guys try with me. Let's look at this sentence.'


2. Remind students of important tools during reading. While reading to yourself, accuracy is important. Students must self check their reading should they misread a word in a sentence. Review cross checking skills and how they keep the meaning of our reading on track. Reread the model sentence again, while performing a cross check. 'I love red, glue and yellow jellybeans. Hmmmm, red, glue, and yellow. That can't be right--red, blue and yellow.. ahh, yes, its blue.'


3. Now pass out the short copy of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' poem 'Now, lets pull out our favorite poem. Yes! That's right! The one that tells all about all of the excitement the night before Santa lands his sleigh on the roof. It tells us about sweet children tuck in their bed, waiting for the sound of Rudolph to clanking on their roof. But, there's a twist! While you read the poem, you are going to make our own book! I want my book to be a surprise for you, and I want you to surprise me with your book, so you can't tell me what you're thinking--you must draw it! So just like we did at the board, when you read the sentence, you draw what you see after reading it. I'm going to make one, too!'


4.) Allow the children time to read through and illustrate 'visualize' each line of the poem. Afterwards, allow children to share their 'books'.


5.) After the children have shared, meet with each one on one to have the children personally display their book.




Here, one to one, you may assess whether the children comprehend the story through visualization. Example, The children were nestled all snug in their beds, a picture of a child sleeping, or a bed, pajamas, or zzzzzz would be an acceptable translation of this passage. A picture of a monkey would not. Approach this assessment through observation and conversation so that you may not deny the meaning of the child's art.




Reading Genie Website


'Twas the Night before Christmas'


Santa image


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