Purpose: Teach students how to use the comprehension strategy of visualization to aid in the understanding of the epic poem, Homer’s The Odyssey, using the gradual release of responsibility model. Project: 4 sessions, roughly 30 minutes each, structured as a sequential flow through modeling, guided practice, collaborative practice, and independent practice. Students were taught to visualize in their minds, and then to translate those mental images onto paper through drawings, captions and labels. Subjects: 2 10 th grade students from a Montgomery County Public School: India (female) and Adam (male).

I modeled the visualization process by reading the first few stanzas (Book 1, Lines 1-12) aloud, stopping to share my thinking process about what I was seeing, and why (my interpretation). After I had read enough to get a picture going in my mind, I modeled transferring the mental image to paper. I added labels and descriptors because “I’m not an artist, and this isn’t just an art activity.”

For the guided practice, I read aloud, (Book 1, Lines 13-52) and then led the students in a discussion about the meaning of the text. Students were to focus on seeing their mental pictures while I read. After we discussed meaning, I led the students in a discussion of their visualizations. I found the students to be the most creative at this point, really able to let themselves go and get deep into their mental images.

After guiding the students through the visualization process, I wanted to give them some time to work together. The students read a section of text aloud to each other (Book 3, Lines 1-13), and then stopped to discuss what they were picturing in their minds. The students were instructed to work together on the illustration, and they decided that the best way to do this would be to divide up the illustrations after their discussion revealed the focus areas of their visualizations. The illustrations on the next slide show the results of this collaborative effort.

India’s VisualizationAdam’s Visualization After reading a section independently, India provided this illustration as demonstrative of the text. Adam read the same section (Book 4, Lines 1-42), and provided this illustration. Notice how the students, though working independently, made similar visualizations.

I shared the process with an intervention teacher in my building, who decided to adjust the specifics to fit a group of 5 th graders. My colleague taught the strategy over the course of 2 days, for minute sessions. She did not use the collaborative practice portion of the lesson, because, “the students would not have stayed on task and would have argued over the illustrations.” The fifth grade students used a portion of the text “Lewis and Clark” to practice this strategy.

I met with my colleague after her final session to get feedback as to what worked well and what didn’t. She reported that she didn’t feel the students were actively engaged enough during the modeling portion of it, but did feel that the guided practice went well. She felt that “leading the students in a discussion about their visualizations helped them focus on the important parts of the story.” She expressed this sentiment in contrast to her view that the students’ illustrations weren’t completely based on the text during the independent practice.

I wanted to try this strategy with high school students because I felt like it was largely viewed as an early- elementary activity, and not as a legitimate comprehension strategy that could be used in a variety of situations. I felt validated in my belief that visualization is an effective strategy to use throughout life. I would have liked to try the strategy with a nonfiction text, such as a chemistry textbook. The instructional model I followed allows for easy replication and/or adjusting. Visualization is a strategy that can be conceptualized with a wide range of artistic materials, and is an effective comprehension tool for an even wider range of texts.