Strategies for Helping Readers

Using Imagery

Recreating in one's mind the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches described by an author.

Watch a Video About This Strategy

Video Link

Suzanne Clewell

"Mental imagery is the same as thinking about pictures as we're reading and using those pictures to help us remember. I know so many times I can remember a book by its cover or the way that that picture is displayed on the front piece of the book. I might not be able to remember the title, but the picture is what's foremost."

"Many students don't make the connections between the visuals and the text. They think about the text and they don't think about looking at the picture to help them elaborate on what they're reading. Or maybe it's just focusing on one detail. But pictures and making pictures in your head when you’re reading helps to facilitate understanding."

When Can It Be Used?

Before, during, and after reading.

What You Can Do to Support This Strategy:

Choose materials that support this strategy. Identify texts rich in words that can evoke images (adjectives, adverbs) that occur in setting and character descriptions.

Model this strategy by asking sensory questions as you read texts aloud to your students? . What do your students see? What do they hear?

Encourage students to sketch as they read. What does the scene look like to them?

Find Out More

This resource from the Florida Instructional Technology Resource Center contains information about using visualization to enhance reading

This synopsis of recent research into the use of imagery in reading is presented by the International Reading Association.

 

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