This E-Book will explain what visualizing is, how to use it to help you read, and give you passages from real stories and poems to help you practice visualizing!
Here's how to use this book:
*Click on the sound icon to hear the page read if you need help reading the words.
*Click on Pedro for instructions on what to do on each page
*Click on Fiona for tips on visualizing and understanding what you've read.
*Click on Ralph to hear an example of what he visualizes when he reads the story.
Visualizing is a reading strategy where you create a mental image or make a drawing or movie in your head about what you've just read to help you remember and understand the text.
Visualizing is another way to help you understand what you are reading. Instead of just thinking about the words, you can use the words to create images, drawings, and movies that show what is happening in the text and what you think is important to remember.
Visualizing lets you to experience the story in a different way by relating words to images, sounds, actions, dialogue, and feelings in your mind.
From Secret of the Dance by Andrea Spalding and Alfred Scow:
I knelt in the prow and stared and stared at the coastline.
"I see it!" I yelled.
Father smiled and turned the wheel.
"Ghi'lakas'la," Shouted the watchers posted at the entrance.
"Welcome!" "Ghi'lakas'a," we called.
Our voices echoed along the cliffs. The inlet narrowed. The mountains were the highest I'd seen. Our fish boat seemed very small.
Here is another passage from Secret of the Dance by Andrea Spalding and Alfred Scow:
We watched through the gap between the curtains. Shadowy figures carried the blanket parcels from the boats to the Gookji, the big House.
We listened, but heard only a low murmur of voices, the wind in the cedars, and the waves on the shore.
G’naa and Tlakwetl fell asleep.
Whahta cried, “I want to go to the feast!” she tried to get out of bed.
“Be good,” I said, “or the Dzunukwa will get you."
I repeated grandmother's story.
Here is a poem from the book Water Music by Jane Yolen
Embroidery
On this green loom,
In this wet place,
The ocean makes
Fine water lace.
Each patterned wave
Lays down a thread
Upon the ground
Of ocean bed.
Enduring
It shall never be,
This water lace
Embroidery.
Here is a poem from the book Water Music by Jane Yolen
Bath
Listen to the water
Groaning through the pipes
Like an old woman
Home with her shopping.
It complains all the way.
Filling the tub,
It settles into the familiar spaces,
Like that old woman sinking into her chair.
“Ah, “she says, taking off her broken shoes.
“Ah,” it says, the level slowly rising.
Like the woman, water has its memories
In an album of white porcelain,
Where all photos are of bubbles
And a single yellow duckie.
This story is called Flying Away by Angela Johnson
It’s our last day in Hopeville. I could tell when Mama got up, looked out the window, and shook her head at the field out back. Brother and Cookie keep eating their Cap’n Crunch and singing to the radio. I wait a few minutes before I start eating. Know the food won’t go down anyway.
Mama watches the backyard with one hand on her hip and the other around a big old coffee mug we gave her last Mother’s Day. It’s shaped like a plane.
Mama loves airplanes
She always talks about one day just getting on a bus going to the airport and flying away. She says it would sure be something. All of us on the plane like that—flying away.
Mama talks about how she’d ask the stewardess for a pillow and a ginger ale even. She talks about how close we’d all be to the stars up there—flying away.
Sometimes it’s helpful to stop at key points while you are reading to create a picture in your mind about what you have just read.
Now we’ll begin reading a portion of the story, A Time to Stand up, by Elaine Marie Alphin. Note that the story continues on the next few pages.
“Too late!” Pupho cried. “Poachers coming!”
But Eric was already running. Pupho could follow him or hide again; he didn’t care. He shed his pack to run faster, measuring his progress in acacia groves and kopjes as he passed them. He was grateful he’d drunk the water. It flowed through him bringing new strength, and he lengthened his stride. He could almost hear Coach shouting at him, asking what he thought he was saving his legs for. He shut out the burn in his side and thighs, and ran faster. A sixth kopje—one more grove, then a rise beyond. He aimed for it. He heard the sound of popping again, louder than in the woods. How far behind were the poachers?A spray of bullets shattered in a thorn bush not two yards to his right, but he kept on. I’m running into the sun, he thought—they’re shooting into a ball of fire—it’s got to blind them. The popping erupted again. I’m not going to make it—how much farther can I run? Stupid to try… should have hidden…
Feet pounded beside him, and he saw Pupho’s wiry figure. Eric grinned and felt excitement flare inside. Maybe they had a chance.
The boy pointed with his spear, gasping, “Lodge—past hill--- you tell--- I stop them.”
Eric nodded, though he didn’t understand. What did Pupho mean he would stop them? Then he topped the rise, chest heaving, and pounded down the slope. Hope swept through him at the sight of the thatched roofs below. Suddenly he heard Pupho behind him, his voice high and terrible.
“M’shona dirty ones! Murderers of innocents! I lay my curse on you!”
Eric turned. Above him on the ridge, silhouetted against the sky, Pupho stood with his arms upraised, his spear clasped in one fist, and Eric realized what Pupho had meant. He had seen Eric was nearly spent, and bought him time with a challenge to the poachers that came straight from a warrior, not a boy.
Congratulations!
You've completed the visualizing exercises in this E-book. Remember to visualize, or make pictures in your mind as you read. It's a great way to understand what you have just read.
Teacher Page and Credits
This E-book is designed to teach visualizing as a reading comprehension strategy for grades 3-5 based on Thinking Reader
Asher, Sandy. But That's Another Story. Walker, 1996.
Spalding, Andrea and Alfred Scow. Secret of the Dance. Illustrated by Darlene Gait. Orca, 2006.
Yolen, Jane. Water Music. Illustrated by Jason Stemple. Wordsong, 1995