Read the following words and then close your eyes for a moment.
Quietly the child walked hand in hand with her grandmother down the seashore. There was no need for words – the crashing waves and squawking seabirds were carrying the conversation. This would be their last sunrise walk before Kendra headed home to Chicago.
What did you “see” as you closed your eyes? Could you picture the scene? Did you fill in details like the wet sand, the bare feet of the child or maybe some shells dotting path? Authors intentionally include details to stir our imaginations and creativity. They pull us into the story through adjectives and carefully chosen words but the real magic happens when our brains put turn these words into pictures.
For some people these pictures literally turn into a movie in their heads, other people end up with something more like a comic strip or graphic novel and then there are those that see a slowly changing still snapshot. Finally, there is the saddest group of them all, the people whose imaginations don’t grab hold of the words and create, dream, illustrate. Why is this group sad? Most of them don’t have any idea that they are missing out and therefore would not categorize themselves as sad and maybe the word shouldn’t be sad, rather a word that more closely resembles the feeling of being left out. For that is what it is, they are left out from total immersion in a story.
When our brains create pictures from words we open up more sensory elements to interact with and our entire being becomes more involved in what we are doing. While we are reading, this means that we enter into the book. We will feel more deeply, We will wonder more fully. We will appreciate more completely. Immersion means we suspend our reality and focus on what could be. It is the difference between reading a book and experiencing it.
Thoughtful readers want to experience books. They know an experience will always shape our understanding far better than simple words will. Follow with me for a moment. One of my favorite experiences in my entire life was the day that my husband and I climbed to the top of a mountain in Maine. While we were climbing we lost our way repeatedly, picked blueberries off bushes on the side of the mountain to snack on and laughed at the way the trees twisted due to the wind that tears through that part of the country. Once at the summit, we looked out over a vast ocean and to a distant lighthouse. It was breathtaking. Now, who has the more complete understanding of this experience? You or me? No one would disagree with me that I know the experience better. I did it. You only read about it. But thoughtful readers know there is middle ground between actually getting to experience a thing and only knowing it through words. There is the middle ground of visualizing and entering into the story in an immersive way.
Now, it’s time to make the jump, how do we help someone – or maybe ourselves – learn to visualize as they are reading? The first step is actually quite easy. The first step is to play a game together. This game is similar to the game we played with metacognition – thinking about thinking – but this time instead of associating words we are going to share what pops into our mind’s eye when we hear a word or phrase. The steps are super simple.
1. Choose one person to go first – I usually have this be me the first time we play. This person will say one word – nouns typically work best for when you are starting – or a very short phrase.
2. Every other person then shares the first thing their mind’s eye sees when they hear this word. You can also explain it by telling your children to pretend they are going to draw what you say – you can also have them actually do the drawings. Our first word this year was plate. The boys answered with a super wide variety of things such as a big white heavy square (our regular dinner plates), thin papery cardboard things that are round with blue designs on the outside (you know the kind you use at parties or at least we do) and round, brown, ceramic with a black boarder (the plates we use when we have company over because it is a bigger set). If we have time, I let them draw what their mind’s eye sees instead of just sharing about it.
3. Add a detail to the initial word. This year I then said lunch plates. Now they adjust their drawing – either mental or physical to fit the new information. Then you once again go around and share. This time the boys said a smaller white heavy plate with leftovers on it, a small white ceramic plate with a sandwich and veggies and a white square plate with salami, cheese and cucumbers. Is it okay that they added details? Sure. It was their version of lunch plates. They see lunch plates as something that is full.
4. Have someone else share a word or phrase.
Seem simple enough? I thought so. Can learning to visualize when you are reading be that easy? It is. By teaching your brain to make pictures out of simple words you are training it to make pictures, comics and movies out of a greater number of words and even entire passages. There are many other steps you can take as you work together to become thoughtful readers who visualize as they are reading but to get those you’ll need to check back to the blog and join us on the socials – Facebook, Instagram and Threads – even better, join our email list as they always get exclusive content to just how to raise a thoughtful reader.
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