ee Visualizing Strategy Read text aloud to children and ask them to visualize (see a picture in their minds) what they heard read. It might be a good idea to read it more than once. Next, read the text again, showing the pictures this time. The first time you use this strategy with children, model it on chart paper, overhead, or board while you work through it together. Draw a T chart on paper. Label one column, “What I Visualized." The next column label, “Pictures from Text." Have them list the things they visualized that were different from what they actually saw later. Another variation on this is to draw a Venn Diagram, labeling the circles with the same titles above, Talk about books that were made into movies and how differently we had visualized characters and events when we read the book and then saw the movie. As children become familiar with visualizing, you can have them work into pairs to complete a T chart or Venn Diagram. Then you can have pairs report to class while you write on chart paper only the different visualizations that pairs came up with War Bictures Orya Reading Workshop Visualizing: Movies in the Mind Different readers rely on different strategies to help them gain better understanding. Well-crafted picture books can be used to teach and practice just about any strategy. Visualizing and inferring don't occur in isolation Strategies interweave. Inferring occurs at the intersection of questioning, connecting, and print. Visualizing strengthens our inferential thinking. When we visualize, we are in fact inferring, but with mental images rather than words and thoughts. Visualizing and inferring are first cousins, the offspring of connecting and questioning. Hand in hand, they enhance understanding. Visualizing brings joy to reading. When we visualize, we create pictures in our minds that belong to us and no one else. Strategies That Work, Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis