Reading Strategies
Reading is a Strategic Thinking Process
Visualizing
When we visualize while reading, we create pictures in our minds. Visualizing helps us
to relate to the characters in a text. We imagine what they look like and how they act.
There are many ways to give children practice with the strategy of visualizing.
(Adapted from Strategies that Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis)
Visualizing with Wordless Picture Books
You might think that wordless picture books would take away a child’s opportunity to
visualize. While the pictures give the reader clues, there are many missing pictures. The
reader uses the pictures in the text and creates his/her own pictures to make meaning of
the story. Very young children can draw these missing pictures they have created in their
minds.
Visualizing with a Read Aloud
One way to encourage children to visualize is to hold the read aloud facing you while you
are reading the text. Too often, we read with the book facing the children so they can see
the pictures. This takes away their chance to visualize before seeing the picture. Teach
children the following guideline: When the book is facing you, it’s your turn to talk.
When the book is facing them, it is their turn talk (respond to the text).
Visualizing from a Vivid Piece of Text
When children hear a well-written text, they can mix the author’s words with their own
ideas to create a visual image. For example, a child might hear a passage from Cynthia
Rylant’s book, The Relatives Came:
“Then it was hugging time. Talk about hugging! Those relatives just passed us all
around their car, pulling us against their wrinkled Virginia clothes, crying sometimes.
They hugged us for hours. Then it was into the house and so much laughing and shining
faces and hugging in the doorways.”
The child adds his/her own experiences to the words above to create a picture of the
event. Children can describe these visual images or draw a picture to illustrate the
images.
Visualizing in Nonfiction Text: Making Comparisons
Nonfiction texts will sometimes compare the new object being studied with a more
familiar object. For example, an author might compare the size of a whale to the size of a
school bus. This helps students to visualize the size of the object more accurately. These
comparisons might be written or drawn.
Visualizing in Reading, Showing Not Telling in Writing
The use of strong verbs enable students to visualize the events in a text. Search for texts
that use strong verbs.
Creating Mental Images that go Beyond Visualizing
When we talk about visualizing, we usually talk about the pictures we see. However, all
of the senses can be used when visualizing. When an author speaks of autumn, the reader
might visualize a blazing fire and roasting marshmallows. Along with this visual image,
the reader might smell the burning logs and taste the sweet stickiness of the
marshmallows. Using all of the senses helps the reader create a more developed image of
the text.
How are visualizing and inferring connected?
When you visualize, you are adding your own thoughts to the text. For example, if the
author tells you the main character was born in New York on January 12th, you can use
your background knowledge to add to the image. You might picture the character
coming home wrapped in a heavy blanket. Maybe you picture the mother carrying the
baby into the house, walking carefully across the icy sidewalk. Perhaps you imagine the
baby at home, warmed by a crackling fire. You can infer these images because of your
knowledge of January weather in New York.