Running head: USING ILLUSTRATION TO ENHANCE READING

COMPREHENSION

Using Illustration to Enhance Reading Comprehension

Elizabeth Jankowiak
St. Bonaventure University

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Abstract
This paper seeks to explore an intervention to improve reading comprehension for a
student that is gifted artistically, but has been struggling with understanding text. Through
the use of texts supported by illustration and student-generated drawing, this intervention
sought to implore strategies to appeal to the students gift and also enhance her ability to
comprehend texts. The student was first exposed to visual literacy techniques and then
the intervention proceeded in two phases: phase one consisted of using texts supported by
illustrations to increase comprehension and phase two consisted of using texts supported
by illustration and student-generated drawing to increase comprehension. The strategies
used within this intervention are supported by research in the field. The findings from the
intervention suggest that gains could potentially be made with use of texts and
illustrations and that using text supported by illustration and student-generated drawings
provided a benefit to increasing comprehension.

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Introduction
Teachers often strive to meet the needs of all learners. Differentiation has been a
topic of much discussion in the educational world, as the country continually grows
increasingly diverse in terms of race, sexuality, gender, gifts/talents, and disability. Where
one student excels, another may struggle. In times of such diversity educators must
consider differentiation and techniques they can use to capitalize on a students strengths
to allow that student to achieve success.
With this is mind, I decided to host an intervention with a student whom is
artistically gifted, but struggles to achieve success in reading comprehension. It was
important to consider strategies to maximize the students artistic abilities as well as one
that would improve their reading comprehension abilities.
The selected student is a nine-year-old female who is enrolled in the third grade at
a local school for students with developmental disabilities. Lily (a pseudonym) grew up
in a family of four in a mostly white, middle-class suburban neighborhood. She currently
receives supports in speech and occupational therapy. Lily is diagnosed with autism. She
is verbal and considered high functioning. She is a very bright student, but she has
recently been showing a slight decline in her comprehension ability as she progresses in
complexity in the level of texts she reads. Lily has been an active participant in school
sporting events and in an after school art program at her local recreation center. She loves
to read, but often struggles to understand the big idea of what is happening in the text.
Lilys classroom and home are both positive learning environments that promote reading
and literacy as well as creativity.

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Considering Lilys gifts, it was important to create an intervention that would
build on the skills she displays. In the past decade there have been numerous studies
addressing the benefits of using illustration to aide in reading comprehension, which
seemed like an appropriate intervention to host with Lily.
Literature Review
There has been an increasing amount of literature and research that supports the
use of illustration or drawings as a means to improve reading comprehension. Text
supported by illustration or drawing provides students the opportunity to connect the
words to an image, therefore, supporting comprehension and recall of the material. Levin
and Carney (2012) stated that illustrations hold several valuable purpose when supported
with text, to (a) establish the setting, (b) define/develop the characters, (c)
extend/develop the plot, (d) provide a different viewpoint, (e) contribute to the texts
coherence, and (f) reinforce the text. (p.206). The inclusion of relevant pictures and
illustrations to texts allows students to get the story twice, both verbal and pictorial.
According to Levin (1981), there are five functions pictures serve alongside text;
decorational (decorating the page, holding no true relationship to the text),
representational (representing parts or all of the text, most common function),
organizational (useful information regarding the texts content, e.g. a map, a series of
steps for instruction, an explanatory illustration for a process), interpretational
(illustrations that help clear up dense texts), and transformational (mnemonic based
illustrations designed to enhance memory and improve readers recall of the information).
This study involving the differing functions of illustrations within texts suggested that
decorational illustrations provided little to no beneficial gains in comprehension, whereas

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transformational illustrations demonstrated substantial benefits for gains in
comprehension. Students that took part in the study in the mnemonic condition
outperformed the other participants in the study. Gajiria, Jitendra, Sood, and Sacks
(2007), also noted that mnemonic illustrations serve as beneficial content enhancement
that allows students to help remember the content (p.213). Further the authors explained,
Mnemonic devices facilitate learning by making unfamiliar, difficult-to-understand
information more concrete and memorable by adding meaningful connections and linking
the information to students prior knowledge. (Gajiria, Jitendra, Sood, & Sacks, 2007,
p.215). In other words, by having a concrete, visible illustration to observe, students can
connect more abstract text to these concrete illustrations to enhance their abilities to
understand the content.
In a more recent study, Hibbing and Rankin-Erickson (2003), gathered qualitative
data regarding students thoughts on the use of illustration and pictures to support
comprehension. Students with greater levels of comprehension typically have the ability
to create a mental image of the text as they read. Students who struggle with this level of
metacognition have found the use of illustrations to be beneficial. One student said, In
my textbooks when they show pictures it helps me see what they are talking about.
(p.758). This quote and others similar to it demonstrate the students understanding that
pictures can help aid in comprehension. For struggling readers, a lot of time may be spent
on decoding words or phrases instead of creating this mental image, which more
proficient readers do. To provide a text with an illustration can allow struggling readers
to bridge the gap and spend less time decoding and more time comprehending with the
dual use of text and picture.

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Orrantia, Munez, & Tarin (2013) studied the use of illustrations to facilitate
comprehension amongst elementary students and concluded that the illustrations did
indeed allow students to make connections between characters actions and their goals.
Further, the study suggests that having illustrations alongside narratives reduces the
processing load of the working memory by allowing students to gain comprehension and
understanding through visualization (p. 165).
Teacher generated and student generated drawings to guide comprehension can be
just as beneficial as illustrations provided alongside the text (Hibbing & RankinErickson, 2003, p.761). When checking for comprehension, it is important to consider the
content of the students drawing. If the drawing is related to the topic, but not related to
the text that is being read, it alarms the teacher that there is a break down in the
comprehension of the details. It is important that drawings are relevant to the text and
accurate in order to ensure a gain in knowledge and understanding (Hibbing & RankinErickson, 2003, p.761).
De Koning and van der Schoot (2013) draw attention to the reading process as a
sensory experience. As previously mentioned, these authors discuss the notion that
readers not only look at the words, but rather, as they read they create a mental image,
what is referred to as a non-verbal representation (De Koning & van der Schoot, 2013,
p.262). This is likely to increase the chance that the reader has comprehended the text.
So, how might a reader with poor non-verbal visualization skills adapt to create greater
understanding of the text? This is where the use of external visualization is beneficial.
External visualization can be reader-constructed or other-constructed; either the reader or
another person (e.g. teacher) draws what they believe they comprehend the text to be

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saying. External visualization can be considered an aid to help struggling readers work to
develop that internal visualization when they read (De Koning & van der Schoot, 2013,
267). The authors go on to state the importance of visualization, Drawing to support
text comprehension is a productive learning activity focused on building an accurate
mental model from text. (De Koning & van der Schoot, 2013, p.275). Rakes, Rakes,
and Smith (1995) support the idea of reading as a sensory process by discussing the
benefits of student-generated drawings to bring personal meaning to the content and to
enhance learning (p.51).
Allowing students to draw their interpretation of the text provides them the
opportunity to express their comprehension in a manner suitable for them. Providing
students with multiple means of representation is an idea that comes from the Universal
Design for Learning (UDL). This is not the only principle of UDL, however, this one
best pertains to the idea of allowing students to use drawings and illustrations to show
comprehension (Narkon & Wells, 2013, p.233).
Another widely discussed topic associated with illustrations facilitating
comprehension was the idea that graphic literacy must be taught in order for students to
truly make meaning of the illustrations. Graphic literacy is defined as, visual literacy
the ability to interpret visual messages accurately along with the ability to create such
messages. (Rakes, Rakes, & Smith, 1995, p.46). Visuals can be anything along the lines
of graphs, maps, pictures, drawings, photographs, or charts. Graphic literacy is highly
emphasized throughout the literacy and research in this field because of the high
importance and potential benefits the use of visuals has to offer to comprehension. A text
with visuals has the ability to reinforce the content, if the student knows how to properly

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read the visual. Sensokossoff (2013) gives detail to how teach visual literacy, by
drawing attention to the color, shapes, styles, shading, and lines within the illustrations.
Students must be taught how to interpret the features of illustrations to maximize the
benefits of text supported by illustration (p.215). Further, Sensokossoff (2013)
emphasizes the benefits of picture books as a scaffold for struggling readers to generate
internal visualization (p.217). Many picture books offer sophisticated content and
illustrations suitable for all ages and all readers. Having such books, with such vivid and
meaningful illustrations can prove to be extremely advantageous to support reading
comprehension.
If it is the case that the text students are confronted with is dense and wordy,
providing illustrations or the opportunity to create illustrations still proves beneficial. A
study Reid and Beveridge (1990) conducted provided results suggesting that when faced
with more difficult topics, students spent more time looking at pictures. This study also
concluded that struggling readers spent more time looking at the pictures than more
advanced peers. Although this study may be outdated, the information provided from the
results correlates with more recent studies findings; students who lack that internal
visualization can use illustrations to compensate and in return, attempt to comprehend the
text. In a more recent study on the effects of illustrations on sentence recall, Cherry,
Dokey, Reese, and Brigman (2010), concluded that evidence deemed pictorial
illustrations to have a positive effect on sentence recall in both younger and older adults
(p.366). Increased benefits were seen amongst the older adults for the use of pictorial
illustrations and sentence recall, however, this study emphasized that both age groups

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benefited from the use of illustrations in comparison to their text-only counterparts
(Cherry, Dokey, Reese, & Brigman, 2010, p.367).
In summary, numerous studies showed the potential benefits and uses of pictorial
illustrations. Whether the illustrations are provided alongside the text or teacher/studentoriginated, both serve to benefit reading comprehension of struggling, and even advanced
readers. The important considerations to be deduced from this literature review are as
follows; the purpose of the illustration should be to support the text, students must be
taught how to be graphically literate, allowing teacher or student-generated drawings can
help aid in comprehension, and the use of illustrations can be positive for all complexities
of text and all levels of readers.
Intervention
Data collection for this intervention was done using discrete trials. Lily would
receive a + for a correct trial and a - for an incorrect trial. Each session conducted was
done so with a total of ten trials. A percentage was then taken to determine the success of
the student. For a student to reach the criteria for success he/she must be capable of
reaching 80% success for 3 out of 4 consecutive sessions. Prior to intervention, Lilly
participated in three sessions worth of baseline to collect data on her initial reading
comprehension abilities. Her scores consisted of a 20%, 30% and 20% success rate over
a course of three sessions (see Appendix A). In comparison to her peers and to criteria for
success, these scores were relatively low. Lily is a fluent reader, however, she lacks the
comprehension necessary to fully understand the context of the material she is reading.
With a thorough review of literature and the knowledge that Lily is a gifted artist,
the intervention that took place utilized both evidence-based practice and Lilys abilities

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as an artist to increase her comprehension levels. Using pictorial supports through
illustrations and student-generated drawings, this intervention sought to maximize Lilys
talents in order to increase her reading comprehension.
Based on Levins (1981) five functions of illustrations, this intervention employed
the use of text supported by representational pictures, or pictures that mirror the content
of the text. The use of representational illustrations took part during the first phase of the
intervention. Before beginning the intervention, Lily had practiced visual literacy skills
by reviewing illustrations and describing what she thought was taking place, without text
to support the illustration. According to De Koning and van der Schoot (2013), the use of
illustrations allows students who struggle with metacognition skills and internal
visualization skills to use an external aid to help support their ability to create an internal
visual and to make meaning of the text (p.271). She was then asked questions that
promoted higher level thinking and that elaborated on her initial answer. For example,
one illustration depicted a girl who was upset because her ball was stuck in the tree. Lily
was asked, What do you think is happening in this picture? She answered, The girl
looks sad. To promote elaboration and deeper thinking, she was then asked, Looking at
the picture, what makes you think she was sad? She was then prompted to look closer at
the illustration and soon came to the conclusion the girl was upset because her ball had
been stuck.
Following practice with analyzing illustrations, Lily was given an age-appropriate
picture book that utilized representational illustrations to support the content of the text.
Author of childrens books, Patricia Lee Gauch, had once said, Art, when its really
good, doesnt imitate or mirror the text. Rather it adds a new dimension that goes way

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beyond the words (Raymond, 1995, p.64). Since art was Lilys passion and gift, the idea
was that art would expand her abilities to internally visualize text to create meaning of
the content as she read. Lily read aloud the text and was asked a series of WH
questions (who, what, where, why, when). Data was collected during the first phase over
four consecutive sessions. On the first session Lily scored a 30% success rate, second
session a 40% success rate, third session 20% success rate, and fourth session a 40%
success rate (see Appendix A). The data suggests minimal improvement of her
comprehension levels, and although her baseline scores had never reached 40% success
prior to intervention, the results seemed too inconclusive to determine that this strategy
would be successful for Lily.
Phase two of the intervention involved the use of text with representational
illustrations to support and allowing Lily to generate her own illustrations based on her
understanding of the text. Having the opportunity to draw during school was reinforcing
for Lily because of her artistic abilities, it was a passion of hers. Hibbing and RankinErickson (2003) discussed the importance of student-generated illustrations or drawings
as an aid for information retention; however, they warn that drawings need to be accurate
with minimal superfluous detail, which may distract from the overall concept (p.762). In
tandem with the idea of internal visualization, Hibbing and Rankin-Erickson (2003)
found within their work that the use of sketches and drawings help struggling readers by
building those internal images essential for reading comprehension (p.769). Lily, once
again, read aloud an age-appropriate text that was supported with illustrations and was
then asked to draw what she thought was happening within the text. After she had
finished, she was again asked a series of WH questions to gauge her level of

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comprehension. Lilys data from the second phase of the intervention resulted in 50%,
50%, and 70% success rates. This suggests that gains were made with the use of both
text supported with illustration and student-generated drawing to improve
comprehension, which supports the findings of Hibbing and Ranking-Erickson (2003).
Lily will continue to receive this instruction after the intervention based on the
positive effects and gains she is beginning to make with reading comprehension. Other
noticeable effects were an increased interest in reading. Once Lily was aware that there
was a drawing component to the reading instruction she became more motivated to read
because she enjoyed drawing out what she read about. She also enjoyed looking at the
illustrations associated with the text. Lily seemed to make emotional gains as she became
more comfortable with reading and found more enjoyment with reading from having the
illustrations and opportunity to draw. With the increase in her comprehension abilities
during a brief time of intervention, it is predicted she will continue to make gains as she
continues with this instruction further.
Conclusion
Both research and the results from this intervention support the idea that text
accompanied with illustrations and drawings benefits the readers ability to comprehend.
Using illustrations and drawings to motivate and enhance Lilys comprehension abilities
through an intervention seemed logical based on her artistic talents and her poor reading
comprehension scores. By pairing illustrations and drawing, something she truly
enjoyed, to engage her in her reading provided minimally beneficial results. Based on the
brevity of this intervention there was a time component that did not allow to see further
growth and if the intervention had truly been beneficial. Lily did show small growth from

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baseline to phase two of the intervention, but not necessarily enough growth to call this
intervention successful. Further considerations should be taken to allow more time for
each phase of the intervention and to allow more time to teach visual literacy prior to
reading text paired with illustration. Given more time, I do believe Lily would have
demonstrated more growth in her reading comprehension abilities once she had more
exposure to illustration and drawing as a means for supporting internal visualization of
the text. Lily did show increased motivation and desire to read after the intervention had
begun. She looked forward to reading and drawing, being able to use her giftedness and
apply it to her reading. This intervention was supported by recent literature in the field
and if given more time, Lily may have been able to shown a greater increase in her ability
to understand the text.
Throughout the Differentiated Instruction Masters program at St. Bonaventure,
we are constantly reminded that we must try to meet the needs of all students, appeal to
their interests, and accommodate their learning styles as much as possible. I approached
this intervention with that very idea in mind. How could I best use Lilys talent to
improve her reading abilities? Some sort of illustration often accompanies text, whether
it is a diagram or a cartoon. I wanted to capitalize on Lilys skills and gift of art by
incorporating it into her intervention. I knew this would at least result in a greater
motivation to read, but it also yielded an increase in her levels of comprehension. The
literature review allowed me to gain insight on evidence-based practices that had worked
to improve other students reading abilities, which I had used during the intervention with
Lily as well. Once the idea for how to intervene had been set, the process itself was
simple. Lily was already motivated by art, so incorporating it in with an area in which

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she struggled gave her increased desire to participate in a less-preferred activity. Lily and
I chose texts that she thought would be interesting and the use of illustration and
drawings allowed for a greater interest.
As with Lily, I aim to find the niche that motivates every student to learn. It may
not always be a gift or a talent, but within each student is the ability to learn and the
motivation to do so, you might just need to look a little deeper. This process put further
emphasis on the desire for each student to be engaged and motivated to learn in order to
achieve success. Even when success is not seen in a giant leap and bound, small amounts
of success still show progress and should be celebrated. Within my practice, I will
continue to find and utilize that motivation, interest, or learning style to try to provide
each individual student the greatest opportunity for learning. This intervention was
enlightening and helped confirm what I felt I already knew, every student can learn.

APPENDIX A

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APPENDIX B

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SUMMIT EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

LESSON PLAN
Childs Name: Lily

Date Began: 9/2015

Annual Goal: Lily will answer WH questions, such as who, what, where, why,
and when when presented with a text using any form of communication with 80%
success over 3 of 4 consecutive sessions.
Lesson Plan Name: Increased Comprehension
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Target Behavior Defined: Lily will answer WH questions when presented with a text
Instruction/Materials: Provide an age-appropriate picture or chapter book with
illustrations that have a potential for WH questions. Ask questions to Lily and point to
the appropriate answer in picture if needed for a correction.
Prompting Strategies and Corrections: Prompt most to least by modeling, visual, or
verbal cues using DTT.
Reinforcement Procedure: Lily currently uses a token system. Lily will earn one token
every 6 minutes when her timer goes off. For every five tokens she earns, she is able to
choose a reinforcer of her choice (typically computer or talking with friends). Throughout
instruction use verbal praise for correct responses.
B. Baseline Assess final step of plan without any corrections or prompting.
1. Lily will answer WH questions (who, what, where, why, when) while looking at an
illustration NOT supported by text.
2. Lily will answer WH questions (who, what, where, why, when) after she reads aloud
a text that is supported with visual illustrations.
3. Lily will answer WH questions (who, what, where, why, when) after she reads aloud
a text that is supported with visual illustrations and draws an illustration based on her
understanding of the text. Give the cue, Lily, can you draw a picture of what you think is
happening?
4. Generalize steps 1-3 with a new book.
5. Post check, run 1-2 times per week to check for maintenance of the skill.
Work Cited

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Brigman, S., Cherry, K. E., Reese, C. M., & Dokey, D. K. (2003). Pictorial
illustrations
enhance memory for sentences in younger and older adults.
Experimental
aging research, 29(3), 353-370.
Carney, R. N., & Levin, J. R. (2002). Pictorial illustrations still improve
students'
learning from text. Educational psychology review, 14(1), 5-26.
Gajria, M., Jitendra, A. K., Sood, S., & Sacks, G. (2007). Improving
comprehension of
expository text in students with LD: A research synthesis. Journal
of learning disabilities, 40(3), 210-225.
Hibbing, A. N., & Rankin-Erickson, J. L. (2003). A picture is worth a
thousand words:
Using visual images to improve comprehension for middle school
struggling readers. The reading teacher, 56(8), 758-770.
De Koning, B. B., & van der Schoot, M. (2013). Becoming part of the
story! refueling
the interest in visualization strategies for reading
comprehension. Educational psychology review, 25(2), 261-287.
Levin, J.R. (1981). On functions of pictures in prose. Neuropsychological
and

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cognitive processes in reading, New York, NY: Academic Press,
203-228.
Narkon, D. E., & Wells, J. C. (2013). Improving reading comprehension
for
elementary students with learning disabilities: UDL enhanced
story mapping. Preventing school failure, 57(4), 231.
Orrantia, J., Mez, D., & Tarn, J. (2014; 2013). Connecting goals and
actions during
reading: The role of illustrations. Reading and writing, 27(1), 153170.
Rakes, T. A., Rakes, G. C., & Smith, L. J. (1995). Using visuals to
enhance secondary
students' reading comprehension of expository texts. Journal of
adolescent &
adult literacy, 39(1), 46-54.
Raymond, A. (1995). Author, editor-in-chief, teacher: Patricia Lee
Gauch. Teaching
Pre K-8, 26(1): 62-64.
Reid, D.J., and Beveridge, M. (1990). Reading illustrated science texts:
A microcomputer investigation of childrens strategies. Journal of
educational psychology, 60:76-87

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Senokossoff, G. W. (2013). Using picture books with adolescent readers
to enhance
literacy instruction. Reading horizons, 52(3), 211-232.