Visualization Reading Comprehension

Good morning fellow knights. Today our mission is to Camelot. Let’s saddle up and enjoy the journey back through time. There will be many things to observe on this trip so be sure you pay close attention to what is around you. Ready? Here we go! If you notice to your right, we’ve only been gone a few seconds but it seems like there are more trees around us. On your left you will see the great castle we know as Camelot. Alright, we’re getting close. Here we are. You can dismount now. Look at the landscape. Notice how very different it is from North Ogden. Think about the things that make it different. Look over there…..the original knights of the round table. Let’s go closer. Observe what they are doing, how they are dressed, and how they speak. What would you talk to them about?

Take two minutes to discuss with your neighbor what you saw in your head.

Does anybody know what we call it when we picture things in our head?

Visualization is something that we do in our brains. When we hear things, we have the ability to see things in our head. When I say “there is a horse in the pasture,” in your head you might visualize an appaloosa. Or you might visualize a mustang. Visualizing is fun, because we get to use our imagination. When I visualize a horse, it may not look the same as the horse you visualize.

Even though we may visualize things differently, visualizing can help us to see the same thing. Listen to this description of a horse: In the green pasture under a blue sky rears a black horse with white patches trailing down its neck. It has stocking feet and a white tail tipped with black. Now, I’ll bet everyone’s visualizations are a little more the same.

Visualizations also helps us to find things and figure things out. If I asked one of you to go to my desk and get the purple three ring binder with a yellow post-it on top, you would visualize that in your head. When you get to my desk, you would look for what it you had visualized.

Visualization can help us to become better readers. When we read a sentence we can see the description in our heads. Have you ever seen a movie after you have read the book it was based on and thought, “that isn’t how that characters look or sound” or the setting isn’t the way you thought it should be?

What’s fun with reading is your background and experiences get to help shape what you see. If I read the sentence “He had seen the bearded, one handed, unkempt figure almost as soon as he arrived,” I visualize a big Viking warrior with dirty blond hair that hasn’t been washed in a while, with a scarred stump where his hand that had been cut off in battle once was, wearing leather and fabric that are worn and dirty. Now I’m pretty sure that your visualizations of Gort’s description of Thorn from “The Outcasts” by was a little different especially if you haven't read this book.

Now, take out your reading book. Pick a paragraph and pay close attention to all the details. Pull out a piece of paper and draw in as much detail as you can, the character(s), the setting, or a specific scene. Use as much detail as you can. Share your drawing and see if your picture helps your neighbor to know what you are reading about.