Visualizing and Verbalizing Practice

Visualizing and Verbalizing Practice

Read the passage below. As you read, try to create pictures in your mind. After reading, you will answer questions about what you visualized and verbalized.

The Secret Garden

Mary Lennox was a pale, sickly girl who had lived in India all her life. When her parents died, she was sent to live with her uncle, Mr. Craven, at Misselthwaite Manor in England. Misselthwaite was a huge, old house with hundreds of rooms, most of them locked. Outside, there were vast gardens, but one garden, Mary heard, had been locked up for ten years. No one was allowed inside. Mary was a lonely child, often grumpy and stubborn. She spent her days wandering the grounds, exploring the hidden corners of the estate. One day, a friendly robin showed her a patch of freshly dug earth. As she looked closer, she saw a rusty old key half-buried in the soil. Nearby, almost completely hidden by ivy, was a small, green door. Could this be the entrance to the secret garden?

1. What did Mary Lennox look like in your mind as you read?

2. Describe Misselthwaite Manor and its gardens based on your visualization.

3. What did the rusty old key and the small green door look like in your mind?

4. When I read about Mary being 'pale' and 'sickly', I pictured her with  .

5. The description of Misselthwaite Manor made me imagine a   house.

6. The phrase 'almost completely hidden by ivy' helped me visualize the door as  .

7. Good readers create pictures in their minds as they read.

8. Visualizing means reading the words out loud.

9. Think of your favorite story or a book you've read recently. Describe one scene from it in detail, focusing on what you visualized.