Visualisation and Imagery - Reading Comprehension

"This book explores the many dialogues that exist between the arts and literacy. It shows how the arts are inherently multimodal and therefore interface regularly with literate practice in learning and teaching contexts. It asks the questions: What does literacy look like in the arts? And what does it mean to be arts literate? It explores what is important to know and do in the arts and also what literacies are engaged in, through the journey to becoming an artist. The arts for the purpose of this volume include five art forms: Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts. The book provides a more productive exploration of the arts-literacy relationship. It acknowledges that both the arts and literacy are open-textured concepts and notes how they accommodate each other, learn about, and from each other and can potentially make education ‘better’. It is when the two stretch each other that we see an educationally productive dialogic relationship emerge." Georgina Barton PhD

Chapter 13: Using Visualisation and Imagery to Enhance Reading Comprehension

"Reading comprehension is a dynamic process that requires readers to construct meaning while they are decoding text. During the reading process readers do not normally retain verbatim text information but develop other, more flexible knowledge structures. Skilled readers do this by constructing a mental model incorporating both visual and verbal information in the form of a cohesive representation of the meaning. The construction of a mental model is formed by the integration of the reader’s prior knowledge with the text structure or story content. For example, good readers tend to make bridging inferences by incorporating their own relevant background knowledge to fill in the gaps when important information is not given in the text. When readers are taught to visualise story events they are able to make appropriate inferences because visualising enables them to draw on their own prior knowledge and life experiences. As readers visualise while reading they become more engaged with the text, enjoy what they are reading, and often imagine themselves as if they are actually in the story. Imagining story ideas during reading links information in working memory and makes the encoding and recall of information more efficient. This chapter discusses how visual imagery techniques such as drawing, manipulating objects, forming mental imagery, developing characterisations, and using story structure can improve reading comprehension performance." Dr Gary Woolley PhD

Spelling - Recalling/Re-visualizing - Pt 2

In my last blog I mentioned that spelling is more consistent visually than it is by sound. The mistake that most people make when they teach spelling is to think that you need to convert spelling to sound before you can bring the correct spelling of a word to mind. You might think that, "I just can't recall how to spell that word!" This sounds like a fair enough statement when thinking about the spelling of a word. But is it?

The notion of recall comes from Aristotle's conception of how memory functions. He proposed that when one remembers one recalls or re-says a list of associated ideas, concepts or separate items. In other words, when you recall a particular item in memory other items, such as letters in a word, are recalled one after the other in a linear or time ordered sequence.  Of course, the sounds of words are important and you endeavour to recall the sequence of letter sounds and associate each of these sounds with the corresponding graphic representation. Thus, to recall a spelling word you recall the sound units and link these to their correct letter shapes. For many children this is easy and very efficient - they are good spellers. However, not all children find this process easy, particularly learners that have a primarily visual mode of learning.

Not only is the visual mode of spelling easier for some it is much more consistent (see my previous blog).  Around the same time that Aristotle formulated his ideas about memory Plato had quite a different idea, he proposed that memory was like a wax tablet. He depicted memory as sketches in the mind's eye that could be inscribed and changed as new information came to light. When people say, "I see what you mean." they are attributing (or ascribing) this notion of visualisation of information in memory. This encoding works quite differently - to memorise a word is to visualise that word in the mind's eye. While attempting to spell a word one can re-envision  the whole word as an image. In other words one can use one's imagination to access the memory of the word. The two systems can complement each other: Alan Paivio's Dual Coding theory of cognition proposes that  memory functions more efficient when the visual and verbal systems are combined or linked.

One method that has worked well for children that I have worked with is to use slightly different spellings to write the word three times. Each time direct the child to carefully look at the word and to think about whether or not it looks right. Ask, "What part of the word does not look right? Can you think of other ways to write this part of the word? Write the word again. Now circle the one that looks right." Often this takes a few practises with some guidance. Many times the child will recognise the correct spelling and can circle the one that looks right. From this, one would assume that the spelling has been correctly encoded in long-term memory but the usual retrieval mechanism has not worked well for the child.

It may also be helpful to combine this approach with the verbal strategy of breaking the word into syllables, spelling each syllable and then viewing the word to see if it looks right. Usually one of the syllables does not look right. The child should be asked to identify which syllable is the odd one out and to write the word again with an alternative graphic representation of the same syllable.

Visualization and Comprehension Pt 9

Oral  vocabulary is one of the most important contributors to children's reading, academic development, and progress through school. It is a significant indicator of success at school. However, it has been estimated that the size off children's receptive flexibility can vary quite considerably. Children with poorer vocabularies may have as many as 4000 fewer words in their mental lexicon than children starting school from homes where parents regularly interact with their children and provide rich language experiences. As a result, children entering school with larger vocabularies tend to have less problems with reading, read more, and learn more new vocabulary through their extensive reading experiences. In contrast, children who have poorer vocabularies tend to have more difficulty learning to read, read less, and fall behind their more successful classmates in acquiring new words.

Produced using 'Wordle'

At school good readers learn a vast amount of new vocabulary incidentally as they read. They are able to use the context to help them decipher new meanings for new words and add them to their mental lexicons as they read. However, many children struggle with reading and this word learning process becomes quite difficult for them. In response to this, it is necessary for some direct teaching of  vocabulary in the classroom.

I have been working on an article for a professional journal about teaching vocabulary in the classroom.     While doing this I came across an article  by Mark Sadoski called "A dual coding view of vocabulary learning" (see below). This was very timely as it gave some insights on how 'Dual Coding' theory can contribute to the teaching of vocabulary (as well as fitting neatly into this blog series).

According to Sadoski, words are verbal labels for concepts, their meanings and even pronunciations  are determined by their connections to a variety of other words. However some words are easier to learn than others. For example, words like 'sofa', are more concrete and are generally easier to imagine than words that those that are more abstract,  such as the word 'justice'. This notion supports dual coding theory because it demonstrates that people use different coding systems to encode the words. Concrete words tend to be associated with imagery while abstract words depend primarily on the web of verbal associations for their meaning.

One particularly effective direct teaching method for learning new vocabulary is called the keyword method. This requires learners to form an interactive mental image of the definition of the new word together with a familiar concrete word that shares a similar acoustic element. In the article Sadoski uses the example of the word 'potable', which means suitable for drinking. 'Pot' is the keyword that forms part of a word potable and can be visualised as the pot containing water.  Thus, visual and  acoustic  word associations are linked to word symbols, meanings and context. Word roots, suffixes and prefixes can also used in conjunction with the key word method to enhance this learning experience.

Sadoski, M. (2005). A dual coding view of vocabulary learning. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 21, 221-238.

Visualising and Reading Comprehension Pt3

I had a look at a video presentation by Nancy Bell at
http://www.lindamoodbell.com/video.aspx and I would recommend that everyone interested in reading comprehension view this excellent video presentation.

In this video she introduces her audience to the Dual Coding Theory which is the theoretical foundation for her work in reading comprehension. It also gives the viewer a good understanding of why some children have difficulties with reading comprehension.

If you have a good theoretical understanding of reading comprehension based on an understanding of the cognitive processing then it should give consistency and be firm foundation for good teaching of reading.