Two short, easy passages to use to assess student skill with visualizing.

1. Visualizing Passages and Assessments
by Emily Kissner
Contents
-Directions for Teachers
-2 short, easy passages
-2 assessment guides
Directions for Teachers
Visualizing is an important skill for primary readers. This skill
can be difficult to assess, however, as we can’t see inside a
reader’s head. Looking at student drawings is one way to see
what readers are thinking to help us plan further instruction.
Step 1: Model drawing a picture based on what you visualize
You can use a paragraph from a guided reading text to
show readers how to do this. Display the text for students, and
create a drawing to show what you “see” in your mind.
Emphasize that drawing skill is not necessary—if you are having
trouble depicting an item, you can always just label it. Show
readers how you are making inferences to add elements that
may not be explicitly in the text.
Step 2: Use Passage 1
Depending on the skills of your readers, you may choose
to read this aloud, or you may choose to have students read
this independently. Make sure that they have access to
crayons or colored pencils to show the colors mentioned in the
passage.
Even in this very short snippet of text, readers have to infer
to build their visual image. The term “pet store” is not used in
the text. Readers can also infer that Anna is a little girl, and that
the green fish is the one that is the “prettiest” to Anna.

2. Step 3: Use the assessment sheet to focus on what children
represent in their drawings and plan further instruction.
Few elements represented in drawing: If the child does
not represent many ideas from the text, try reading aloud the
passage to see if visualizing improves. If not, work on reading
with retelling figures to help the reader match words from the
text with images. (See the work of Dr. Arthur Glenberg for more
research on this.)
Drawing contains literal components only: This child is
having trouble with making inferences to build a mental model.
Try working with mystery passages, in which the reader has to
infer what the item or setting is from some clues. Work with the
reader to think about what is in the text, and what he or she
can imagine by combining text clues and background
knowledge.
Drawing contains misinterpretations: These readers are
tricky to deal with. In some cases, it’s worth a conversation with
students to figure out where the misinterpretations came from.
Often, a misinterpretation might arise from a reading miscue or
a misunderstanding of a multiple meaning word.
Step 4: Use Passage 2 to check for progress
How are students progressing? Use the second passage to
see how students are doing.

3. Visualizing 1
Directions: Read the passage. In the box, draw a
picture to show what you visualize.
Anna looked at the tanks of fish. She saw a
green fish, a yellow fish, and a red fish. In the
corner, a crab was hiding behind a rock.
“What do you think, Anna?” Mom asked.
“Would you like to buy one?”
Anna grinned. “I want the green one!” she
said. “It’s the prettiest.”

4. Visualizing 2
Directions: Read the passage. In the box, draw a
picture to show what you visualize.
“I want it!” TJ whined. He squirmed in his
seat in the shopping cart. “I want the Lego
toy!”
“Mom said we aren’t buying any toys
today,” Lexie told him. She pushed him down
the long row of toys. “You’ll have to wait until
your birthday.”

5. Assessment Sheet: Passage 1
Student name
Date
Passage 1: This passage describes a girl at a pet store with her
mother. She is looking at the tanks of fish.

6. Assessment Sheet: Passage 2
Student name
Date
Passage 2: This passage describes a boy and a girl in the toy
department of a store. The boy, TJ, is in a shopping cart. He
wants a toy. Lexie is pushing the shopping cart.
Literal Components: These Inferential Components: These
elements are explicitly stated elements are implied in the
in the text. text.
Does the drawing somehow
_____TJ represent these ideas?
_____TJ sitting in the cart
_____Lego toy _____ Lexie is older than TJ
_____Lexie _____ TJ is unhappy
_____ row of toys _____ They are in a store
_____TJ does not have the toy
______TJ is a baby/toddler
Misinterpretations: Make a note of elements in the drawing that
show a misinterpretation of the text.
Exceeds Meets Working toward Does not meet
expectations: expectations: expectations: expectations:
The drawing The drawing The drawing The drawing
shows a clear shows an shows a basic does not show
understanding of understanding of understanding of an
the passage by the passage by the passage by understanding of
including both including most including literal the text.
literal and literal and some components.
inferential inferential
components. components.

7. More on visualizing
The Forest and the Trees by Emily Kissner
A chapter on visualizing discusses how readers use details to
build visual images.
Visualizing Powerpoint and activities
This folder includes a Powerpoint to introduce visualizing and
several stories that you can use with readers in grades 2-5.
($3.00 from TeachersPayTeachers)
Visualizing Lesson: Story and ActivitiesThis lesson includes
retelling figures to help students connect text with images.
($2.00 from TeachersPayTeachers)
Chronological Order Texts for Teaching Text Structure See the
text “Making Apple Butter” for a visualizing activity to help older
students visualize complex text. Seven other texts with text-
dependent questions included ($3.00 from
TeachersPayTeachers)
Retelling Nonfiction This text includes retelling figures to help
students retell and visualize nonfiction text (free from
TeachersPayTeachers)