READING STRATEGIES USING VISUALIZATION | LITERATURE
A lot of people or learners are capable to read but not able to understand the context or content of the text. Nevertheless, there are ways to improve the student’s reading comprehension through the use of a reading strategy.
Visualization or Visualizing is a reading strategy wherein it enhances the capability of the learners to deeply assimilate the subject of what they are reading. It can be done by being imaginative or by giving them the time to create creative scenarios in their heads. Asking the students to put themselves in the situation helps them to gain knowledge of what the text is all about.
The following are some tips on how visualization can be used as a reading strategy:
1. When you are teaching based on a text or story, you should not read it the whole time for the reason that it might bore your students. Instead, let them participate. Interaction and communication are a must. While reading the story, you can ask them to close their eyes and feel the text you are reading. It’s the time when they can actually picture the scenes or scenarios that you foretell. After that, you will see if they have learned something by asking them what they have imagined.
2. It is also a big deal and great help to know what’s running through the mind of your learners. You should exert time and effort to know their opinion regarding the topic before, during, and after reading. So before reading, it is a must to ask them about their prior knowledge of the subject for the students to have a clue about the topic. This is when visualization enters. The students should be fully aware of the scenes in the story by creating and playing vivid scenarios in their heads. Lastly, after reading the text, you should summarize the whole story in the simplest way possible. You can do this by stating the most highlighted part of the text.
3. The use of the five (5) senses, which are the sense of sight, sense of touch, sense of hearing, sense of smell, and sense of taste, contribute a lot to comprehending what the text wants to convey. It is somehow putting yourself into the actual scene; you can see the unseen things, you can hear the voices, you can touch everything, you can smell the scent, and you can taste the savory food like what you do in reality.
By following these tips, you can help your student fully understand the content of a text using the visualization reading strategy.
