Lesson 8 — Activity 2: Setting and Visual Media

When an author uses words to convey a message, the reader has to draw an image or picture in his or her mind. If the words used to describe the image are not very clear or they are words the reader does not understand, an image may be hard to "see." One way to help you understand literature more clearly is to provide a picture to go along with it.

What do these images make you think about? What is the story behind each picture?

If you think of some of the stories and novels you have read in high school, you can recall that rarely are pictures given with them. A picture might be on the front cover of a novel or at the start of a short story or poem in a textbook, but images are rare throughout the text of high school reading material. This is not like the materials used in elementary stories and other print resources. The author leaves the task of supplying images to the readers to create in their minds.

The human mind is very creative! Your mind relies on your own experiences, thoughts, feelings, and memories to create images to go with the written word. Sometimes, these images are difficult to create if you have not experienced what the author is describing or if you do not understand the vocabulary. Readers might stop reading if they cannot "relate" to the story and cannot create meaningful images. The next time you read something you do not quite understand, search your mind for images that might help you make sense of it.

Self-check!

Click on the Play button below to watch a video on how to use visualization to better understand what you are reading.