Visual Literacy:
A Text is an Image... An Image is a Text
By: Jackie DePierro
Using Visual Literacy to Communicate
Visual literacy is a great form of communication to express a story, especially for young students who may find it difficult to story tell. For those of us who use Lucy Calkin's Writing Units for Writer's Workshop, we can attest that a student's picture adds meaning to their story. It's something teachers can refer to when conferring with a student to add details or actions within their story that might be missing from the written portion. Additionally, it's a great way to differentiate for students who find writing to be challenging; it's a way for them to story tell using a different form of literacy.For older students visual literacy widens due to age, abilities, and maturity. Visual projects can range from movies to sculptures to graphic design. Most of them have a stronger background knowledge that can lead to bigger and deeper topics for a detailed visual.
Visual Reading
Visual literacy can also be used to provoke critical thinking within students. People who are visually literate have the ability to read images. By critically thinking about an image, a person is able to understand interpretations of stories and engage in the vision of an idea or story.Sounds easy right? Well this brings on the challenge to teach students how to read images by using their sense of vision. It's a process of sending and receiving images using our eyes and analyzing what is seen. It should be understood that it takes time to analyze and synthesize as a person is reading a visual. Furthermore, this activity uses many skills that enhance intellectual abilities, such as questioning:
- What am I really looking at?
- What's it made out of?
- What was intended?
- What was the purpose?
By training students to use skills they have, they will have the ability to read images and therefore transfer their understanding to creating visual literacy projects independently.
Nikki,
ReplyDeleteI agree, I believe that visual literacy is an extremely important form of communication. We may have students that learn best when there are visual aspects incorporated into the lesson. I love that you discussed how visual literacy spans across different age groups. I do feel that younger students use many drawings in their writings to help them explain their story, but as they get older, a picture may be used as a visual element, not to explain their piece. It would definitely be a tedious and challenging process to teach students how to read images using their sense of vision, but it sounds very interesting! Great post!
Hi Kristen... just wanted to make sure you knew it was me (Jackie) who did this post! Not Nikki! :)
DeleteJackie, I'm so sorry!! I figured it was Nikki's post for tonight!
DeleteNo worries! I’m a day early because I won’t have time tomorrow! :)
DeleteI loved your post Jacquelyn! I think its so great that educators are opening up to different literacies beyond typical reading /writing. I feel that visual literacy was not something that was taught or recognized when I was growing up. Acknowledgment that not all students learn the same and that there a multitude of ways to process information and show your learning is crucial to a successful education for all students.
ReplyDeleteHiiiii!
ReplyDeleteYes! Visual literacy is so, so important. In the world of kindergarten, we RELY on this skill as our students are learning what reading is all about! One of the biggest skills my students leave kindergarten with is the ability to use the pictures to help decode a tricky or unknown word. As early readers, the pictures are always a cue for both decoding, but also comprehension. I appreciate when a student is able to return to the text to use the pictures as a way to retell, describe, or explain. :)
Absolutely!!! The beginning of first grade too!! Now that I think of it, my students relied heavily on visual learning in the beginning of the year... academically and socially!!!
DeleteJackie, I was so happy to see you highlight the importance of visual literacy. I think early childhood teachers are acutely aware of visual learning, but as we move through the grades and rely more on assessments and finished products, it tends to fall off our radar. If we really want to incorporate all learning styles then we need to cater not only to visual literacy, but to other learning styles as well, such as auditory and kinesthetic. I really enjoyed the media clips you inserted in your post too.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a very insightful topic, and really instilled the fact that literacies go much more beyond the scope of just reading and writing. I feel that it is important as educators to open the doors to these type of less common literacies, such as visual literacies, at an early age in order to give students a wide range of comprehension skills. I also feel that by incorporating this type of literacy, visual literacy, would be extremely valuable for strengthening points of view, perspective, and abstractness in a student's mind.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of visual literacy because I am a huge visual learner. I think in elementary schools specifically visual literacy is a big component of learning because kids love the visual stimulation. I find it frustrating that testing is still based on standardizing testing practices and is not compatible to all type of learners. I feel like with all the new technology developing everyday students at younger ages know already how to process computer screens, phone screens and smart boards. Even with my generation we grew up with color tv and movies that we know how to process those images from a young age. In the classroom it is our jobs as educators to help the students decipher all images with all forms of tech in both print and digital.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post Jackie.
ReplyDeleteI found this information about visual literacy to be very helpful! I am currently working in a school that uses the Lucy Calkin's program, and I've never thought much about the emphasis that is placed on students drawing detailed illustrations with labels, captions, etc. While I make sure the students I work with incorporate all of these visual aspects into their writing, I've never questioned the importance. It's interesting to think of these illustrations as a way to fill in the blanks for struggling writers, or a means for differentiation.
Jackie,
ReplyDeleteVisual literacy is extremely important! We instill this in a student at a very young age in order for them to comprehend what is going on in the text. I consider myself a visual learner, by using drawings and seeing examples of something before I start helps me tremendously. By younger students drawing in their stories it helps their creative imagination and can even help them elaborate more on their writing!
I agree that visual literacy is imperative to a student's learning. I've noticed that certain teachers instruct students to write their words and then draw pictures. However, I have also noticed that there are teachers who instruct students to draw first and then write from that drawing so that their words match their picture. The latter seems to work quite well in allowing students who may not be comfortable writing or who may be stuck an idea generate that idea and write confidently and comfortably.
ReplyDeleteBeing a kindergarten teacher, I think visual literacy is so important, especially at the beginning of the year. It allows for students to communicate in a different way. Just as we teach children about the proper letter formation, we also teacher children about drawing a person (so that arms don't come out of the person's head) or drawing a house. Children need to be taught about visual literacy so that they understand things in the world around them.
ReplyDeleteJackie, I enjoyed your blog post and thought the information was very informative. I agree with your point about visual literacy and offering students the opportunity to add their own picture which brings more meaning to their story. Visual literacy is a form of differentiated instruction that I believe is essential to many learners, especially young ones.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! So many students use visual learning. It's early students first way of learning. For a great book with wonderful, meaningful pictures, I highly recommend the book After the Fall. It's even great with older students and I find something new in the illustrations every time I read it.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post! I believe visual literacy is vital - not only for young students but even adults. Even as a 25 year-old, I find visual literacy to be incredibly helpful. This also reminded me of multiple intelligences theory. There are simply some people that learn through visuals versus verbal-linguistic. The school where I am currently interning, puts a lot of emphasis on labeling their pictures, providing captions, etc. It never really occurred to me just how important it is - until reading your post. Not only is it another form of literacy, it's meaningful in learning experiences among students.
ReplyDeleteI really like this topic you choose to talk about! Many of my students heavily rely on the visual aspect of the story to make meaning to the words and text. If a student can not read the words they usually look at the pictures to help tell the story for them. Visual literacy are helpful all throughout life no matter what age you are.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great topic to write about! I feel like visual literacy is not really focused upon but it is so important! We are always teaching younger students who are beginner readers the strategy of using the picture to help decode words. It is also one of the first steps of reading. When i worked in a preschool, students were also reading by looking at the picture and coming up with their own stories.
ReplyDelete