January 2002 • Volume 33 • Number 3 • Pages 47-54

Research Into Practice

Karen D. Wood

Aiding Comprehension with the Imagine, Elaborate, Predict, and Confirm (IEPC) Strategy

Described in this column is a new strategy designed to improve comprehension and writing called Imagine, Elaborate, Predict, and Confirm or IEPC (Wood, 2001; Wood & Endres, under review). IEPC is a whole class strategy designed to take the predictive process back to its origins in the imagination and extend it throughout the prereading, reading, and postreading stages of an instructional lesson. The article will begin with an overview of the research underlying the IEPC strategy and proceed with an explanation of the procedures for classroom implementation along with sample lessons from various subject areas in the middle school.

Overview of research and theory
Decades of research have proven that getting students to create visual images before, during, and/or after reading is a viable way of enhancing comprehension (Douville, 1999; Fillmer & Parkay, 1990; Gambrell & Bales, 1986; Peters & Levin, 1986; Pressley, 1977; Sadoski, Paivio & Paivio, 2001; Williams, Konopak, Wood & Avett, 1992). In addition, research has supported the use of elaboration to develop understanding by getting students to extend and modify their verbalizations during reading (Hartman & Allison, 1996; Roser & Martinez, 1995; Walker, 1996; Weinstein, Underwood, Wicker & Cubberly, 1979). Specifically, elaboration is the practice of forming connections between previously learned information and new content through imagery, visualization, analogies, descriptions, and details. Still another widely accepted means of improving comprehension is the process of prediction, the ability to guess or anticipate what will occur in a selection to be read, listened to, or viewed (Cooper, 2000).

However, in order to make predictions about a text, students must have prior knowledge or experiences about the topic as well as a means, or a reason, to retrieve this latent information and knowledge. Getting students to make predictions about a selection involves more than just telling them to "guess what will happen in this story." When effective, it seems likely that some sort of "triggering" of the imagination, a retrieval of images and of previous experiences is necessary to ensure adequate predictions (Wood and Endres, under review). While not all students are proficient at creating mental images before or during their reading, research indicates that students of all ability levels can be taught this strategy (Finch, 1982; Gambrell & Bales, 1986; Gambrell & Koskinen, 1982). The IEPC uses these research-based practices to help students become active participants by using what they already know to understand new information.

Procedures for Whole Class Implementation

Modeling phase:
As with any strategy, the modeling phase for IEPC, involves explicating, demonstrating, and thoroughly explaining to students what the strategy is and how it can help them learn more effectively. Explaining the "purpose" of the lesson, the "what," the "how," and the "why" is an essential part of engaging readers with the text.

Select the Material. The first step involves deciding upon the most appropriate material. This could be a trade book, basal selection, literature anthology, short story, newspaper excerpt, content area or informational text selection. It is essential that the passage have content appropriate for developing imagery.

Display the IEPC blank form. Display the blank form on an overhead projector, the blackboard, or via a handout. Tell the students that they are going to engage in a strategy designed to encourage them to use their imaginations to create pictures of what they see in their mind and that this will help aid their comprehension.

Explain the Benefits. Explain to the students that making pictures or images before, during, and after reading will help them understand and remember what they read. It is helpful to mention that this strategy has the potential to help them become better writers by helping them use their imagination and creativity.

Explain the Components. Use the transparency, board, or handout and point out and explain the four phases of IEPC. Illustrate how the first three parts will take place before they read and will be used to guide their reading and that the last part, the confirm stage, will take place after reading.

Prereading stage:
The prereading stage has been termed the most important stage of the instructional lesson. It is during this stage that prior knowledge is elicited, background information is developed, purposes for reading are established, and a general interest and enthusiasm for the lesson to follow are established.

"I"—The Imagine Phase. Tell the students that before reading a selection, they are going to explore the pictures in their heads about the topic. Tell them to join you in closing their eyes and imagining everything they can about the selection to be read. This may be based upon the cover of a book, a title, or a topic. Encourage the students to use sensory experiences by imagining feelings, taste, smell, sight, and surroundings. Use question probes to elicit their sensory imaginings such as "What smells/sounds are around you? How do you feel? What do you see?" Write these responses in the "I" column.

"E"—The Elaboration Phase. Model for the students how to use their visual images and add details, anecdotes, prior experiences, and sensory information by talking aloud your thinking. Write these responses in the "E" column.

"P"—The Prediction Phase. Talk aloud at least one sample prediction, based upon prior visual images and encourage the students to do the same. If necessary, have the students look at some of the pictures or headings in the selection or introduce some key characters (as illustrated in Figure 2) to direct the predictions to the information in the text. Write these responses in the "P" column. Tell the students to think about these predictions as they read or listen to the selection. Explain that, as mentioned previously, they will return to the predictions after the reading to either confirm or disconfirm the content.

Reading stage:
The reading stage may involve guiding students through the reading or having them read the selection on their own. Depending upon the ability levels of the students and the degree of teacher support needed, the students may be asked to read in pairs and retell segments to partners or group members, and/or read silently and engage in whole class discussions. While they are reading, tell the students to write down or make a mental note of key information to match or refute the original predictions. They may even be asked to write down the page numbers on which the supporting information is located (as shown in Figure 3). It may be necessary to model one or more examples of this type of strategic thinking for the class.

Postreading stage:
This is the stage of a lesson, after the reading is completed, when the information is discussed and synthesized and when the new knowledge is integrated with the preexisting knowledge. It is the time when purposes for reading and predictions are reexamined and analyzed.

"C"—The Confirmation Phase. After reading, return to the transparency or board and modify the original predictions to coordinate with the newly learned information. Thinking aloud some sample responses is also helpful here. New responses, not previously predicted, are also encouraged. Write down the students' responses in the "C" column of the form. To further enhance understanding, model for the students how to go back to the key parts of the text to confirm or refute the predictions. An example would be "Yes, that's true because on page 62 it says that volcanoes may appear dormant when they really are active."

The extension or follow-up stage:
This stage of the instructional lesson, although optional, can serve as means to integrate some of the other communication processes such as writing. Many teachers who have tried this strategy have found that the "E" or "Elaborate" phase helps students add more details and elaborations in their writing. Since the class has been using their imagination to think, feel, and create, it is an appropriate time to engage them in descriptive writing or other forms which are assessed through state writing tests. Depending upon the needs of the class, this experience may require more guidance and modeling.

Application to various subject areas
Figure 1 illustrates how the IEPC strategy can be applied to a science lesson on "Pollution, Smog, and Soot." The teacher told the students that they would be reading a Time for Kids article on air pollution. Next, the teacher asked the class to close their eyes and imagine a place that is overwhelmed by air pollution. The students are encouraged to describe what they see, how they feel, what smells and sounds they hear. Each relevant response is written on the board or transparency under the "I" or "Imagine" column. Next, the students are asked to elaborate, give details, about the images in their heads. As mentioned previously, the teacher may want to model or think aloud one or more examples to illustrate what is expected. More than the random, short responses of the Imagine phase, here the students put their thinking into complete sentences, elaborating on their ideas with details, anecdotes, and descriptions.

Figure 1
Sample IEPC Lesson for Science on "Pollution, Smog, and Soot"

I	E	P	C
Close your eyes and imagine the scene, character, events. What do you see, feel, hear, smell? Share your thinking with a partner.	Elaborate— tell/describe/ give details of what you "see" in your mind.	Use these ideas to make some predictions/ guesses about the passages to be read.	Read to confirm of change your predictions about the passage.
Grayish sky Cloudy overhead Air smells Chemical smells Can't see very well I feel choked. Cars, buses, lots of traffic. I am in the city. Factories with smoke coming out of them. There are cars with lots of smoke coming out of the tail pipes	They sky is so hazy, you can't see ten feet in front of you. The sound of horns and traffic are all around. Lots of people are choking and can't get their breath. There's a big industrial park with factories and smoke and schemicals getting into the water. It makes you want to stay inside all the time. The air is so bad, your eyes are burning and red and watery.	I predict some people from the EPA will try to do somehing to stop it. I think the article will talk about all of the types of pollution. It will tell about the soot that covers things in cities. And the soot that gets on you from factories. I think it will tell about different types of smog. It will tell how harmful it is to plants and people and animals, too. Something will be done because people's health is in danger. People will have to carpool more. They will have to make it against the law.	The EPA, the Enviromental Protection Agency, has changed the old rules. There are two types of pollution they are trying to change: 1) ground level ozone gas is called smog and 2) particulate matter, or soot. Smog is the haze that hangs over cities. Soot is one-seventh the width of a human hair. EPA to end pollution such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen exides, sulfur dioide and lead. Bad air can cause lung and breathing problems like asthma. Factories could get fined. Some politicians/ businessmen not happy w/ new rules—would cost factories money. Better public transportation/ carpooling New rules won't take place until 2004.

In this instance, to specifically introduce some new concepts and key vocabulary, the teacher told the students the article they would be reading will discuss a government agency called the Environmental Protection Agency or EPA. The teacher enlisted the students' aid in determining what the EPA might do to help air pollution. The teacher also pretaught the terms ground-level ozone, or smog and particulates or soot. From this discussion and their previous contributions, the students began predicting what the article would discuss. The fact that they were already familiar with the Time for Kids format, they knew the passage would be informational in nature. Consequently, their responses coordinated with the expository format. The predictions from the class were written in the Prediction column on the form.

Next, the students are told to read the article in pairs, stopping at the end of each sub-headed section to discuss, retell, and share the content with one another. The teacher can circulate amongst the dyads to listen in, assist, and help clarify the new learning. To further solidify the new learning, the students may also be asked to contribute to a whole class discussion after the partners have discussed each section.

Figure 2 is an illustration of the IEPC strategy used with a literature selection from a basal reading series. After telling the class that they would be reading a story entitled "Seventh Grade," the teacher triggered the students' imaginations by asking them to close their eyes and think about the first day of school. How do you feel? What are you looking forward to? What do you dread? For the elaboration phase, the teacher asked the students to put their feelings into sentences, elaborating and adding details where appropriate. Before beginning the Prediction phase, the teacher adds some more details about the story to keep the students' predictions on track and more text-based. Specifically, the teacher tells the class that the story takes place on the first day of school and is mostly about Victor, a seventh grader who has a crush on a classmate, Teresa. From this information, the students make predictions about the behavior of the two classmates. After recording and discussing the comments in the confirmation phase, the teacher can ask inferential questions such as, "What do you think will happen in French class on the second and third days of school?" "How will Teresa feel about Victor when she finds out he was faking his knowledge of French?"

Figure 2
Sample IEPC Lesson for Literature "Seventh Grade" (Soto, 2000)

I	E	P	C
Close your eyes and imagine the scene, character, events. What do you see, feel, hear, smell? Share your thinking with a partner.	Elaborate— tell/describe/ give details of what you "see" in your mind.	Use these ideas to make some predictions/ guesses about the passages to be read.	Read to confirm of change your predictions about the passage.
Make new friends Meet girls Meet boys Worried about grades New teachers New subjects Butterflies in my stomach Wish it was summer Miss my friends Excited Palms are sweaty Halls are crowded Classes changing	I feel anxious to make new friends. I want to meet girls. It will be great to see people you haven't seen over the summer. You have to try and brag about what you did where you have been. It's time to try and impress everyone. I feel a little scared about the new subjects. And about some of the teachers we'll have.	I think Victor will try to sit near Teresa. He'll try to show off in front of her. I think he will do something really stupid. She will ignore him. He is going to get in some trouble. They will become really good friends. Everyone will try to act really cool and try to impress one another.	Victor watches everything Teresa does. He keeps his eye on her in the cafeteria. They have known each other for awhile and he liked her then. They both take French. His friend Michael scowls to impress the girls. Victor is worried about math and she is good at it. Victor tries to impress her by speaking French in class. He just fakes it and Mr. Bueller knows it. He hopes the teacher won't let on. Even thinks to himself that he would do anything if he doesn't tell. She is impressed since she doesn't know French either. Later, he checks out 3 French books.

Figure 3 shows how the IEPC strategy can be applied to a social studies lesson. The students were asked imagine they were back in "The Middle Ages" and told to describe what they saw in "their mind's eye." In this lesson, the teacher emphasized and, in some cases "pretaught," key vocabulary terms in the context of the student contributions, while simultaneously modeling sample sentences. (Notice the "T" for teacher response in Figure 3). To further ensure that the students referred back to the selection to find support to either confirm or refute their original predictions, the teacher had them write the page numbers in the C column.

Figure 3
Sample Imagine, Elaborate, Predict, and Confirm (IEPC) Lesson for Social Studies "The Middle Ages"

I	E	P	C
Knights King Queen Servants Land Castle Dark and gloomy Green hills Knights are on horseback Poor People Farmers Moat around the castle Rather be a knight or royalty	I see knights in shining armor. They are riding on horses. They protect the king and queen. The king gave land, called fiefs, to vassals. (T) Castles are dark and gloomy—not like Disneyland. Most of the poor people were farmers. They worked mostly for the king. They are called serfs. (T) It is best to be a king or lord. I am tired of working for the rich people.	I predict that castles will not be as great as we used to think they were. I predict that serfs will have a very hard life. The lords and rich people will live on manors. They will have a lot of land and will make the serfs work for them. Castles are made of stone to protect them from the enemy. I predict the Middle Ages will have a different government than we have. I predict the knights have a hard life, too.	Castles are designed for protection, not comfort. They are drafty and damp. they were first made of wood then stone (p. 174-5). Nobleman lived on manors, large farms or estates given by the king as fiefs (p. 175). Manors had villages for 50-500 peasants—lord was in control (p. 177). Vassals granted their land to others and became lords, too. Knights worked for the vassals as military men (p. 174). Different form of government called "feudalism" (p. 174). Peasants are serfs who labored for lord of land. Had to ask permission to leave but weren't slaves (p. 175). Serfs had to present lord with gifts, bread, wine (p. 175).

Recommendations for classroom implementation
To date, the IEPC strategy has been field-tested in over 30 classrooms from the elementary, middle, and high school to the community college levels (Wood & Endres, under review). Some suggestions after reviewing these classroom-based observations include the following:

• Remind students to use their five senses in creating their mental pictures. Use a combination of modeling and question probing to help students see how to use their senses, what they see, feel, hear, taste, or touch in creating rich, elaborate images.
• Take the opportunity to preteach significant terms. While students are contributing their knowledge in the form of images and elaborations about the topic, the teacher can "think aloud" examples, using important terms to be studied. In this way, key terms are introduced, emphasized during the reading, and reinforced throughout the lesson (see the bold-faced terms in Figure 3).
• Help students add more details based on their prior knowledge and experiences. Through modeling and "think alouds," help students make connections between their own knowledge and experiences by asking them questions such as "What does this remind you of?" "Where have we read or heard about this before?" "Describe how you felt then."
• Note similarities and differences between their predictions and the actual events. An important aid for promoting understanding and recall is helping students pay attention to what actually is described in the selection and what they predicted would take place.
• Have students refer back to the selection for evidence. To help students attend to significant content, have them refer back to the selection and read the parts of the text that contain information to refute or confirm their original predictions. This practice helps them see that information can be located in a passage in more than one place and sometimes must be inferred. Page numbers can be written down for later referral (see Figure 3).
• Consider having students' preview the selection headings and pictures to aid the elaboration and prediction phase. Sometimes just having students look at the first few pictures or headings in a selection can trigger their thinking and responding and help them stay focused on the content to follow.
• Make sure the selection to be read is not too lengthy to minimize the amount of time between the predicting and confirming stages. In some instances, it may be necessary to use only part of a chapter or selection to avoid overwhelming students with the task of confirming their predictions.
• Consider having students draw their "movies" and share them with a partner. Some teachers have found great success having students draw the pictures in their heads with their partners to illustrate what their mind is actually seeing. This variation can be extremely beneficial when an English-speaking student is paired with a non-English speaking student in a tutorial capacity. In this way, the drawings of the English-speaking students can be used to convey key words and phrases and their concrete referents.
• After whole class experiences, give students opportunities to use the IEPC form in small groups, pairs, and then individually. Teachers have reported successes allowing students to use the IEPC strategy with flexible groups as a means of developing strategic and eventually independent readers.
• Incorporating writing with the IEPC lesson. As mentioned previously, the IEPC strategy can serve as a springboard for either a formal or informal writing lesson. Some teachers have students write individual responses in journals, while other teachers guide the students' in process writing in preparation for state writing assessment.

Summary

The Imagine, Elaborate, Predict, and Confirm (IEPC) strategy serves as a means to activate students' prior knowledge on a topic, elicit their thinking and images, set purposes and predictions, and motivate them to want to read the selection to follow. After reading, it helps them distinguish between fiction and fact as they read to find evidence to confirm or disconfirm their former beliefs. With repeated exposure, and with teacher guidance and follow-up, IEPC can be used with small groups of students, pairs, and even individuals as a means of focusing on the key concepts of a passage and of reading on and between the lines to determine the author's message and of discussing the content.

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References

Cooper, J. D. (2000). Literacy: Helping students construct meaning (4th ed.) New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Douville, P. (1999, December). "It's like a video camera in my head!": Reading and multi-sensory imaging within a constructivist framework. Presentation for the National Reading Conference, Orlando, Florida.

Fillmer, H. T., & Parkay, F. W. (1990, May). Imagery: A neglected correlate of reading instruction. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Reading Association, Atlanta, Georgia.

Finch, C. M. (1982, December). Fifth grade below average and above average readers' use of mental imagery in reading familiar and unfamiliar text. Paper presented at the National Reading Conference. Clearwater Beach, Florida (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. LD228-634)

Gambrell, L., & Bales, R. (1986). Mental imagery and the comprehension-monitoring performance of fourth- and fifth-grade poor readers. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 654-664.

Gambrell, L. B., & Koskinen, P. S. (1982, March). Mental imagery and the reading comprehension of below average readers: Situational variables and sex differences. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York.

Hartman, D. K., & Allison, J. (1996). Promoting inquiry-oriented discussions using multiple texts. In L. B.Gambrell & J. F. Almasi (Eds.), Lively discussions! Fostering engaged reading. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Peters, E. E., & Levin, J. R. (1986). Effects of mnemonic imagery strategy on good and poor readers' prose recall. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 161-178.

Pressley, G. M. (1977) Mental imagery helps eight year olds remember what they read. Journal of Educational Psychology, 68, 355-359.

Roser, N. L., & Martinez, M. G. (1995) Book talk and beyond: Children and teachers respond to literature. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Sadoski, Paivio, & Paivio, A. (2001) Imagery and text: A dual coding theory of reading and writing. Mahwah, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum.

Soto, G. (2000). Baseball in April. New York: Harcourt.

Walker, B. J. (1996) Discussions that focus on strategies and self-assessment. In L. B. Gambrell & J. F. Almasi (Eds.), Lively discussions! Fostering engaged reading (pp. 286-296). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Weinstein, C. E., Underwood, V. L., Wicker, F. W. & Cubberly, W. E. (1979). Cognitive learning strategies: Verbal and imaginal elaboration. In H. F. O'Neil, Jr., & C. D. Spielberger (Eds.), Cognitive and affective learning strategies. New York: Academic Press.

Williams, N. L., Konopak, B. C., Wood, K. D., & Avett, S. (1992). Middle school students' use of imagery in developing meaning in expository text. In. D. J. Leu & C. K. Kinser (Eds.), Literacy research, theory, and practice: Views from many perspectives. Forty-first yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 261-267). Chicago, IL: National Reading Conference.

Wood, K. D. (2001). Literacy strategies across the subject areas: Process-oriented blackline masters for the K-12 classroom. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Wood, K. D., & Endres, C. (under review). Imagine, elaborate, predict and confirm (IEPC): A strategy for enhancing comprehension.

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Karen D. Wood is a Professor of Reading and Elementary Education, University of North Carolina, Charlotte. E-mail: kdwood@email.uncc.edu

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Copyright © 2002 by National Middle School Association