Reading Strategy: Visualize

“If I can’t picture it, I can’t

understand it.”
---Albert Einstein
“It is impossible even to think
without a mental picture.”
---Aristotle
348 B.C.
“Man’s mind cannot
understand thoughts without
images of them.”
---Thomas Aquinas
really smart dead philosopher
“All thought depends upon
the image.”
----Ferdinand de Saussure,
the father of modern semiotics
What is visualizing?
Visualizing involves picturing in
your mind what is happening
in the text.
When you visualize narrative
text, you use sensory images
like sounds, physical
sensations, smells, touch, and
emotions described in the
story to help you picture the
story.
Visualizing narrative text involves
making movies in your head
you read.
Why is visualizing so
important?
The brain “sees” in order to store
and process information.
Visualization is directly related to
language comprehension,
language expression, and critical
thinking.
Imagery is a primary sensory
connection in the brain.
Visualizing heightens
motivation and enjoyment of
reading.
Visualizing improves
comprehension of narrative and
expository text.
Being able to create images, story
worlds, and mental models while
reading is an essential element of
reading comprehension,
engagement, and reflection. In
fact, without visualization,
students cannot comprehend, and
reading cannot be said to be
reading.
Whether reading fiction or
nonfiction, visualizing is
central to reading and
to thinking with what we read.
“This visualizing stuff
sounds fascinating,
Mrs. Redman. Please,
tell me more about it!”
---North Bullitt High
School student
As you read you create pictures
in your mind of :

• events and actions

• characters and their features,
clothing, etc.
• settings and situations
Visualizing involves creating
images that elaborate on or
embellish story details.
Readers may visualize
unmentioned scenes or actions
or details, for example,
picturing characters when they
were younger or older, seeing
a setting in greater detail than it
is described, etc.
Readers may visualize
themselves in a scene or imagine
meeting a character.
Readers may feel emotions
and may visualize in ways that
heighten these emotions.
Readers may use images and
experiences from their own
lives to help them see and
experience the text.
 Reading is . . .
seeing and thinking!