When talking about “nonlinguistic representations” the first thing most teachers think about is graphic organizers. We all use them and they work great! However, there are other types of nonlinguistic representations (as mentioned last week). One of the simplest is “generating mental pictures/images”.

As a social studies teacher this is one I use all them time. Instead of reading a passage to my students and having them just “listen” to me read, I have my students imagine I am reading about them.

For example, I may simply tell my students to close their eyes, put their head down on their desk and imagine they are living in an African tribe in 1820 when they are suddenly kidnapped and forced on board a slave ship. I tell them that while I read the following excerpts from a first-hand account of life on board a slave ship I want them to imagine that I am reading about them…imagine the smells, the taste, the sounds, and the sights….imagine what it “feels” like to be on board a slave ship during the Middle Passage.

This is an extremely effective strategy that really helps students create mental images and therefore add to their knowledge base.

The best part about this is it’s so easy to do…no preparation or copies needed

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