19 Visualization

Making strong mental images when you read is a highly successful strategy. This will create an imprint of both the language data and the visual data in your mind (and it will link them). This makes you more equipped to understand and retain the information.

The ability to visualize links the text to a concrete experience – image, feeling, sound, small, or even taste. Making a mental picture is an important fix–up strategy that readers use when they experience difficulty understanding a text. Students can imagine what the scene or characters look like. They then describe to a peer what they see in their mind.

Emphasizing Sensory Details

• Try to use all five senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch) while reading. Focus on specific sensory details mentioned in the story as you encounter them.
• Ask questions about sensory details as you read, such as “What do you think the character sees in this scene?” or “Can you imagine the sounds in this setting?”
• Engaging multiple senses in visualization can make the reading experience more immersive and relatable.

Example from Holes by Louis Sachar

Dinner was some kind of stewed meat and vegetables. The meat was brown and the vegetables had once been green. Everything tasted pretty much the same. He ate it all, and used his slice of white bread to mop up the juice. Stanley had never been one to leave food on his plate, no matter how it tasted.

As Stanley tried to turn over on his cot, he was afraid it was going to collapse under all his weight. He barely fit in it. When he finally managed to roll over on his stomach, the smell was so bad that he had to turn over again and try sleeping on his back. The cot smelled like sour milk.

Though it was night, the air was still very warm. Armpit was snoring two cots away.

Mindful Visualization

• Pause every so often during your reading, especially at descriptive or significant passages.
• Take time to close your eyes briefly and create mental images. Pay attention to the details, such as the colors, shapes, and emotions associated with the visualizations.
• Mindfulness is being aware of the moment. This is important for your reading experience so that you can be in the reading zone more often.

Example from Holes by Louis Sachar

The lizard is from six to ten inches long and has big red eyes. In truth, its eyes are yellow, and it is the skin around the eyes which is red, but everyone always speaks of its red eyes. It also has black teeth and a milky white tongue.

Looking at one, you would have thought that it should have been named a “red-eyed” lizard, or a “black-toothed” lizard, or perhaps a “white-tongued” lizard.

If you’ve ever been close enough to see the yellow spots, you are probably dead.

The yellow-spotted lizards like to live in holes, which offer shade from the sun and protection from predatory birds. Up to twenty lizards may live in one hole. They have strong, powerful legs, and can leap out of very deep holes to attack their prey. They eat small animals, insects, certain cactus thorns, and the shells of sunflower seeds.