What is

visualizing?
 Visualizing is…
• A reading strategy
• A way to help you understand what you
read
• An important tool for reading fiction and
nonfiction

• Making a picture in your mind

 How do you visualize?
• You use the words in
the text to make a
picture in your mind
• It’s like seeing a
“movie in your mind”
• Visualize this:
A green tractor
Your mental image
• How was your mental
image different from the
one on the screen?
• We use our background
knowledge to help us
visualize what is in the
text
• Different people bring
different background
knowledge, and so they
visualize differently
 Try this:
The purple flowers bloomed, lifting their
petals up to the sun. They were surrounded
by the bright green lily pads that covered
the surface of the pond.

Can you picture this scene in your mind?

Did your mental image look
like this?
The purple flowers
bloomed, lifting their
petals up to the sun.
They were surrounded
by the bright green lily
pads that covered the
surface of the pond.
 More practice!
• Make this picture in your mind:

A grassy path led into a garden of tall grasses,

black-eyed susans, and purple coneflowers .
Was your mental image like
this?
A grassy path led into a
garden of tall grasses,
black-eyed susans, and
purple coneflowers .

If your mental image was

different, why? What did
you add or change? How
did your background
knowledge affect your
mental image?
 Now try this!
• The sleek, modern museum rose at the end
of the parking lot. A tower that looked just
like an airport control tower glistened in the
center. To the right curved a silver, round
building. A tree was to the left.
How did you do?

•Which details were

probably most
important?
•Which were the
easiest to visualize?
Which were the
hardest?
 The right picture?
• Because each person has unique
background knowledge, everyone will
visualize differently
• However, you need to make sure that you
are using the text clues to visualize
For example…
• This picture would not
match the details of
the paragraph at all!
• The sleek, modern museum
rose at the end of the parking
lot. A tower that looked just
like an airport control tower
glistened in the center. To the
right curved a silver, round
building. A tree rose to the left.
 This is neat, but why?
• Why visualize?
• Here are three reasons:
– Visualizing helps us to process text more
actively. Because we have to use our prior
knowledge to visualize, we are reading more
carefully
– Visualizing can help you to figure out what is
going on in the story
– Visualizing is fun!
 Using prior knowledge to
visualize

• Visualizing is making a picture in your

mind based on the text. But authors
don’t explain every single detail.
Sometimes, you need to fill in with
your background knowledge.
 What do you have to fill in with
your background knowledge?
Try visualizing the scene below:

Far in the distance, a group of ponies huddled

in the surf, flicking away the biting insects
with the swishing of their tails. Excited
visitors watched them from the further up
the beach, taking pictures and chatting.
Here it is!
• Did you picture sand?
Even though it wasn’t
mentioned in the text, your
prior knowledge of the
beach helped you to make
an accurate mental picture.
• If you’ve been to
Assateague, you were
probably able to picture the
ponies. If you haven’t,
your mental picture was
probably different.
 Pay attention to an author’s clues!

• Sometimes what we read will not match our

prior knowledge. Read this:

The fences and fields of Shelburne Farms

stretched down the gentle slope toward the
barn.
 But…
• The fences and fields of Shelburne Farms
stretched down the gentle slope toward the
barn.
• But this was not a regular barn. Instead, it
looked more like a palace. One round turret
towered over the side wall.
 Here is the clue!
• The fences and fields of Shelburne Farms
stretched down the gentle slope toward the
barn.
• But this was not a regular barn. Instead, it
looked more like a palace. One round turret
towered over the side wall.
What a difference!
• Notice that this barn
does not look like the
barns that you have in
your prior knowledge.
If you kept on thinking
about a regular red
barn, you would miss
out on an important
detail
 You can visualize whenever
you read
Try sketching what you visualize based on the dialogue
below.

• “What a day for a class trip!” Ricky said.

• “I know. I can’t wait to get back in the
boats and go canoeing some more,” Ana
replied.
• “I just wish it weren’t so cold,” Ricky
sighed.
 What are some things that
you drew in your picture?
• Based on your prior knowledge and the
clues in the text, what did you put in your
picture?
• Canoe
• Lake
• Forest
• Students
 Here’s one idea
• Does this
look like the
scene you
pictured?
• What
elements are
similar?
Different?
 What have we learned?
• Visualizing is an important reading strategy
• We need to use the author’s clues and our
own prior knowledge to build a mental
image
• Everyone builds unique mental images
• Authors leave clues to let us know when
our prior knowledge will not be a help