Visualizing - Making a Brain Movie

Visualizing has always been a fun activity to work on reading comprehension in the classroom.  I always try to pick read alouds and books that have detailed and interesting language that will help students visualize and make a movie about what we are reading. 

The article at http://www.edutopia.org/blog/brain-movies-visualize-reading-comprehension-donna-wilson describes this strategy as a way that "can help students make sense of complex nonfiction subject matter and "see" the characters, setting, and action in stories."  I have found that students enjoy visualizing when they get to draw what I am reading.  During whole group activities, when we're first discussing visualizing I provide the students with a worksheet where they can draw what they picture in their mind every few pages.  They are doing their own after we have done examples in class.  Students pair their images with a list of words that made them see the "movie" that they have created in their mind. This is a strategy that I use often in small groups reading and in different content areas. 

Image retrieved from http://www.smekenseducation.com/visualizing-while-reading-with-mind-movies.html