ENGAGE: 
Visualization Strategies

• Texts selected for rich imagery (including poetry)

• Big books to share or projections from books for viewing by whole class

• Colored pencils, markers, or crayons

• Age-appropriate movie trailer

1. CHOOSE READING PASSAGE:  Choose a reading passage or poem with rich language to read aloud. 

2. CONNECT BOOKS TO FILM:  Have students identify examples of books that have been made into movies, and then discuss the differences between reading the book and watching the movie. 

3. WATCH A MOVIE TRAILER:  Consider showing an age-appropriate movie trailer to spark creativity in students. 

4. STUDENTS CREATE MOVIE IN HEADS:  Ask students to create a movie inside of their heads as the book is read aloud. They may want to close their eyes to help with the visualization. 

5. SHARE DETAILS:  Pause and ask students to share the details of the movie that they are visualizing in partners, and then as a whole group. 

6. DISCUSS HOW AUTHOR USES SENSES:  Allow students to discuss how the author uses the five senses to create images. 

7. SKETCH VARIOUS SENSES:  Follow up by asking students to sketch various scenes from the reading.

8. GALLERY WALK IMAGES:  Conduct a gallery walk and ask students to notice the variety of images.

9. NEW TEXT AND DIFFERENT GALLERY WALK:  Introduce a new text (e.g., poetry with rich images) and ask students to use different mediums for their illustrations (e.g., pastels, watercolors, colored pencils, markers, and pencils). Conduct a gallery walk and use sticky notes to make comments about the feeling that the images create.

To adapt this lesson for primary classes:  

• Choose a picture book to read aloud and skip pages of the story. 

• Ask students to illustrate the missing parts of the story. Prompt them to think about what the story sounds like, feels like, looks like, tastes like, and smells like. 

• Partner students to compare pictures and discuss the images that they created based on evidence from the story. 

• Move on to reading aloud several short text passages with many sensory images. 

• Model an illustration of the first text passage and think aloud about what was illustrated. 

• Provide sketch paper for students to create pictures based on the passage. 

• Ask students to independently illustrate a section and share their images and ideas with partners.  

• Conduct a gallery walk so that students can view all of the ideas and images created for the same text.

• Using another text, have students role play action from the text and create dioramas to reflect a setting and characters. 

• Give small groups a different section of the text (words only) and have them create an illustration based on how they visualize the text in their heads. 

  • • • This book can be published for the classroom library.

To increase rigor: 

• Explain to students that visualizing helps with comprehending and retaining different types of texts, which also applies across different subject areas. 

  • • • English: Create a picture of the fictional characters, the setting, and the action of the story. 

      • Math: Visualize, with the aid of diagrams, the parts of the word problem to better understand and illustrate the steps in the solution. 

      • Science: Visualize, with the aid of diagrams, the steps in the procedure, the equipment required, and inferences about what the results might be. 

      • Social Studies: Visualize the clothing, the setting of the time period, and the emotions evoked by historical or cultural events. 

• Ask students to create a picture book for younger students based on a text without illustrations. They can share with a book buddy and add the picture book to the classroom library. 

• Ask students to create a book with no words based on a published piece (e.g., a memoir, science fiction, or fantasy piece). Ask them to look for sensory details in their writing by getting together with one partner reading and the other visualizing the scene. The listening partner draws images that they see when visualizing the words. These illustrations can be added to the newly created book and displayed for the class.