Reading Strategy: Visualising Compiled by M. Siwak

“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 BC

What is visualising? Visualising involves picturing in your mind what is happening in the text. You create mental images. The text may be read, heard or viewed.

Visualising narrative text involves making movies in your head as you read.

When you are visualising narrative text you use sensory images like sounds, physical sensations, smells, touch and emotions described in the story to help you picture the story.

Visualising is important because it is how the brain “sees” in order to store and process information. You remember more of what you read when you visualise.

Imagery is a primary sensory connection in the brain . Visualization is directly related to language comprehension, language expression and critical thinking. The motivation to read and the pleasure of reading is increased by visualisation.

When you visualise….. You create pictures in your mind of settings, situations, events, characters and their features. You create images that elaborate or add details to a story. You see a character or a setting in more detail than it is described. You may feel emotions when you visualise. You may visualise yourself in a scene or imagine meeting a character. You may use images of your own experiences to make connections to a text.

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White Activity 1: visualise and draw the following “The barn was very large. It was very old. It smelled of hay….It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows…. It smelled of grain and of harness dressing and of axle grease and of rubber boots and of new rope. It was full of all sorts of things that you find in barns: ladders, grindstones, pitchforks, monkey wrenches, scythes, lawn mowers, snow shovels, axe handles, milk pails, water buckets, empty grain sacks, and rusty rat traps. It was the kind of barn that swallows like to build their nests in. It was the kind of barn that children like to play in.”

Alice in Wonderland Activity 2: Visualise and draw the following Alice in Wonderland Activity 2: Visualise and draw the following. Sometimes not a lot of detail is provided and you need to elaborate on what is given, imagine and make connections between what you already know. The Mad Hatter is a character from the book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll (1865). He is a crazy, wacky hatter who meets Alice when she shows up in Wonderland. He loves having tea parties with his best friend, the March Hare, and the Doormouse.

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