We are learning to apply visualisation as a reading comprehension strategy.
I can:
use descriptions in the text to help me visualise a scene
use my senses to describe what I see, smell, taste, hear, touch
draw the scene
Visualising means creating an image in your mind while reading that reflects the characters, events, topics or information in the text.
Writers often use language to appeal to our senses (sight, sound, smell, touch and taste). This is called ‘sensory language’. Sensory language helps us to picture in our minds what is happening in the text.
To create these images, you need to concentrate on what you are reading. This can improve your understanding of the text.
Visualisations can keep evolving (changing) throughout a text. The more you practice this skill, the easier it will become!
Good readers use visualising techniques and visual representations in the following ways:
Before reading
• Visually organising your thinking, visualising the possible content, linking background knowledge and forming predictions.
During reading
• Visualising the content, comparing predictions with ideas, themes and information in the text. Readers begin to form a visual representation of what they are reading.
After reading
• Visually link new information with prior knowledge, visually represent what they have read in a graphic summary, and build new understandings.
Learning Intentions
Recognise that visualising builds comprehension by creating mental images.
Use descriptive/sensory language to create a clear mental picture.
Success Criteria
Can identify sensory words.
Can describe the image they visualise from a sentence.
Curriculum Links
🗂 read following paragraph to students:
As Mia stepped into the garden, the golden sun warmed her face. She heard bees buzzing lazily around the blooming flowers. The scent of sweet roses and fresh-cut grass filled the air. She picked a ripe, red strawberry and popped it into her mouth — it was juicy and tangy, bursting with flavor. The soft petals of a daisy brushed against her fingertips as she knelt to smell it.
Prompt for Student:
After reading the paragraph, close your eyes and picture the garden.
What do you see?
What do you hear?
What do you smell?
What do you taste?
What do you feel?
.
After reading discuss menatal imagery.
Highlight sensory language: Students underline words that appeal to senses.
Draw it: In pairs, students draw what they visualise.
Share & discuss: Compare pictures; discuss how the author’s language shaped their images
Students to read from own texts and identify imagery.
● How is the author appealing to the five senses?
● How can my own knowledge help me to draw a picture in my mind?
● How can my visualisations help me to understand the text?
Once you have answered all reflection questions, set yourself a goal for Wednesday.