Proficient readers spontaneously and purposefully create mental images while and after they read. The images emerge from all five senses, as well as the emotions, and are anchored in a reader's prior knowledge. ... Proficient readers use images to draw conclusions, to create distinct and unique interpretations of the text, to recall details significant to the text, and to recall a text after it has been read.

   Key elements to assess are images that are central to understanding key points in the text rather than peripheral detail; images that are detailed and richly descriptive; images that extend and enhance the text; images that come from all the senses and the emotions; images that are adapted and revised as the child reads or on the basis of conversations with other; and images from text that find new life in the child's writing.

   Imagery, the ability to create a mental image from the words read, is taught by developing students' abilities to add details present in single sentences to ongoing events and descriptions that authors portray. ... Many students require repeated instruction, using a wide variety of genres and hands-on manipulative exercises, before they can visualize concrete and, later, abstract concepts as they read.

   When we visualize, we create our own movies in our minds. We become attached to the characters we visualize. Visualizing personalizes reading, keeps us engaged, and often prevents us from abandoning a book prematurely.

   The primary literacy of the 21st century will be visual: pictures, graphics, images of every kind. ... Our students must learn to process both words and pictures. They must be able to move gracefully and fluently between text and images, between literal and figurative worlds.