Visual Literacy

Carol VaageB.Ed, Ed Dip, M.Ed.February 2006

Notes and Reference Links

http://www.k-3learningpages.net– Professional Development

Visual Research– Telecollaborative Projects

Electronic PortfoliosMeeting Our StudentsMovie MakingSeaZoo School – Primate EnvironmentsBugsBirds – Sculpting, Models

As teachers, we know…

A picture is worth a 1000 words.

All of us are watchers - of television, of time clocks, of traffic on the freeway - but few of us are observers. Everyone is looking, not many are seeing. Peter M. Leschak

If I can't picture it, I can't understand it.Albert Einstein

Why is Visual Literacy important?

We live in an increasingly visual culture. We are surrounded by images everywhere in our lives. Visual literacy is a universal grammar: preverbal, sophisticated, intuitive, and cognitively challenging.It is a key element to communication – to create, use, and evaluate images.

Value of Visual Literacy

Young people learn more than half of what they know from visual information, but few schools have an explicit curriculum to show students how to think critically about visual data. Mary Alice White, researcher, Columbia Teacher's College

The majority of information absorbed by human beings is collected with our sense of vision. It seems logical the we emphasize the development of visual skills as a way of preparing for successful and satisfying lives. page 4, A Guide for International Visual Literacy Association Board Members and Officers

Curriculum Benefits

Better readers and writersAddresses learning styles, multiple intelligencesAccessing primary sources of data for authentic learningMakes learning come alivePromotes constructivism and higher level learning

What does Visual Literacy include?

facial expressionsbody languagedrawingpaintingsculpturehand signsstreet signsinternational symbolspicture book imagesemotion, feelings colorgraphicscartoons

layout of the pictures and words in a textbookthe clarity of type fontscomputer imagesphotographssequencesmovies or videoweb sitesuser friendly equipment designcritical analysis of television advertisementsconcept mapscards

What is Visual Literacy?

Visual Literacy can be defined as the ability to understand and produce visual messages.

Keith Lightbody

Implications

Visual literacy skills can be taughtTeachers can create environments and materials that encourage visual literacyStudents encouraged to create their own visual messagesVisual tools provide base for constructivist learning and collaborationDigital literacies offer opportunities for visual learning

Verbal Literacy vs Visual Literacy

mastery of knowing and manipulating the basic components and genres of written language: the letters, words, spelling, grammar, syntax

Mastery of knowing and manipulating the basic components and genres of visual text: structures (foreground…), elements (line…), genre (collage, photo…)

Teaching Visual Literacy in Research

Guided “reading”Shared “reading”Independent “reading”Paired “reading”Read-Around-the-RoomRetellingsResponse to “reading”Character, plot, setting

What do kids know when they start school?

Read facial expressions and body languageRecognize M in MacDonald’s and other symbolsHow to retell a story using the pictures in favorite story booksHow to recreate real world scenarios in their dramatic play

Reggio Emilio

to help children express their knowledge through representational work to organize materials to help children make thoughtful decisions about the media facilitate children's construction of "his or her own powers of thinking through the synthesis of all the expressive, communicative and cognitive languages"

Reggio (cont)

Representational Development: Consistent with Howard Gardner's notion of schooling for multiple intelligences, the Reggio Emilia approach calls for the integration of the graphic arts as tools for cognitive, linguistic, and social development. Presentation of concepts and hypotheses in multiple forms of representation -- print, art, construction, drama, music, puppetry, and shadow play -- are viewed as essential to children's understanding of experience.

Start early

Children can interpret and read the illustrations in a book long before they can read the print text.Once they read print, we gradually move them away from image dependency. We should be enhancing this skill, spending time every day to build on this strength.

Hands-on Learning

Real objects PhotographsStimulating and colorful environmentMaterials accessible and organizedProps and materialsExperiential

Genres in Visual Literacy

Non-fictionPhotographsIllustrations and ArtDiagrams, drawingsMultimedia; digital

Non-Fiction

Information Texts

Visual texts accessible to all Visual texts are complex and multilayeredCertain information better portrayed with imagesElectronic media widely uses imagesVisual texts can help with comprehensionVisual texts can assist with planningVisual literacy is a life skill

Non-fiction texts

My classroom has over 3,000 books – half of them are non-fiction. Texts, encyclopedias, coffee table books, simple texts, science magazines, catalogues, Big Books, reference anthologiesBrowsing time favorite stories and non-fictionChild choice – read the pictures? Or 1 page?

Research

Choose topic based on interest and choicePrepare a pile of non-fiction books and magazines; search and stackTell me what you see and know from this pictureBuild knowledge and compare photos and drawingsCompile informationApply knowledge; represent

Gorilla Research

BooksMagazinesNon-fictionPhotosRepresent through drawingsCompile informationCreate and manipulate

Drawing and Representing

One of best ways to help children see, is to have them draw what they know.Reggio Emilio – 100 languages of childrenFine black line markers (no erasing) and chances to do more than one drawing.Show different samples of how children tackled the problemLook critically at other artists’ renditions, compare, judge

Shadow Experience

Shadow Drawing

Lion Research

Non-fictionFictionPhotosVideoRepresent – drawing, painting, building

Questions and Guiding Statements

Tell me one thing you notice…What can you tell me about the shape of the eyes? Color?Who can tell me about the habitat or place where he lives?Can you see any food sources nearby?How would we begin to draw this animal? The shape of the head? Nose? Legs? Body?

Photographs

Photographs – Visual Elements

light and shadowvaluefocusspaceshapelinescalecolortexture

angleframingdominancecontrastrepetitionvarietybalance

Photos -

What mood or feelings does the photo create?What viewpoint or message did the photographer want us to notice?No such thing as an objective photo – each comes from the perspective of the photographer

Learning to Read a Photo

Look for main subjectVisible featuresEnvironment/habitat/surroundingsOther subjects in the photo – why are they there?Foreground objects? Background objects? Can you determine location?What time of day is it? Lighting, shadowsWhat mood or emotions are being communicated?

Illustrations and Art

Picture Books

A picture book is any book in which the message depends upon pictures as much or more than text. The pictures must be accurate and synchronized with any text, but they extend the text, giving the reader information or interpreting the text in a way that would not be possible from the words alone.

Sequential images

A picture book conveys its message through a series of sequential images. We are exposed to the verbal story (the text) a little at a time, remembering and associating its elements as we read or hear them, but we see each picture first as a whole, and then notice individual details that make up the whole. Unlike many other media, however, we can turn back and forth through a book at our own pace.

Art object

The impact of the total book creates the art object known as a picture book. Every aspect of the format (the book's physical characteristics and design) affects the story and the book must be designed as a whole. Aspects of the format which affect the book's impact and contribute to the book's quality as an art object include the size and shape, cloth cover, dust jacket, endpapers, title page, spacing of text, margins and white space, size and spacing of pictures, colors used for pictures and text, color and texture of paper, choice of typeface, type of binding.

Art

ColorProportionFormDesignComposition

DotLineShapeDirectionValueHueSaturationTextureScaleDimensionMotion

Illustrations: Style

Realism ImpressionismExpressionismSurrealismPrimitive or Folk ArtNaïve ArtCartoon StyleCollage

Illustrations: Artistic Media

Painting – acrylic, gouache, oils, watercolorDrawing – pencil, chalk, pastelCollage – assemblage, collage, cut paper, fabricPhotography, digital art Printmaking – etching, linocut, woodcut, monotypeMiscellaneous – plasticine, mixed media, reproductions

Reggio – art media

explore first: what is this material, what does it do, before what can I do with the material should have variation in color, texture, pattern: help children "see" the colors, tones, hues; help children "feel" the texture, the similarities and differences should be presented in an artistic manner--it too should be aesthetically pleasing to look at--it should invite you to touch, admire, inspire

Diagrams, Drawings

Using Diagrams to Represent

Graphic organizers and visual mapping tools enable students to make sense of complex subjects by exploring linkages, relationships, similarities, and differences between phenomena, and visually representing interplay among system components.

Types of Visual Information

MapsDiagramstables or chartsGraphstime linestree diagramscutaways and cross sectionsflow chartsweb diagramsVenn diagrams

Ideas

Use visual mapping to organize ideas visually: categorize, Venn Diagrams, cause/effect, before/after Create a visual field trip: use drawings, maps, directions, and highlights Create drawings of Native artifacts PowerPoint presentation on the topic of nutrition. Students scan labels in this project; identify the location where the item was produced.

Multimedia, Digital

Developing Technologies

Digital and still cameraDigital video cameraAudio recordingComputerInternet

Manipulate media

Technology now enables us to record and play back at varying speeds and to freeze visual language so that students can identify, describe, discuss, analyze, and evaluate the language features used in a very short section of what they view. Thus they gain experience in interpreting visual language through close reading.

Digital Cameras

Enhance quality of instructional materialsSelf-esteem and student celebration – identity photos, class photo book, labels…Assist with language teachingRecording information from field tripsProvides close-up views of any subjectEnhance presentationsEncourages effort recognition of achievement

Digital cameras (cont.)

Document student progress/process learningAnalyze physical activityRecording a sequence of eventsRecording weather, cloud formationsPhotos of natural or built environmentsDocumenting an interviewEvidence for demonstration of learningElectronic portfolios

Software

Computers and applications software programs enable users to carry out different communication tasks that require, for example, a database, a spreadsheet, a word processor, a simulation, or a drawing. Computer programs provide a range of graphics, including line graphics, animated graphics, and 3D graphics, as well as the variety of interactive computer and video games that many students know. Games can assist students to explore visual language by using such technologies to view, interact with, and present ideas. Students can describe the games' narratives, including their own interactions, change their narratives, describe their visual features, and create their own games.

Graphics programs

Kidspiration, InspirationKidPixPowerPointPaintHyperstudio

Telecollaborative Projects

Web SitesElectronic Portfolios– PowerPoints– Kid Pix– Kidspiration

Movie Making– Making class movies– Creating own movie

CD-ROM, DVD

CD-ROM not only provides interactive opportunities for computer users but also extends to multimedia viewing, presenting, and interaction through its ability to integrate moving images with sound and with computer text and graphics. DVD’s enable us to record huge video files adding in text and effects.

Scanners

Transform any media into a digital format to manipulateCapture children’s work digitallyScan unusual items for manipulating: paper, fabric, objects, covers, lights, or body parts. How about dirt, food, clothing labels, or cross sections?Scan artwork such as projects using colored pencils, markers, chalk, watercolors, and collage to have a permanent record that lasts long after the artwork itself is worn out or lost

Where to Start?

Start with what you have in your classroomBring out the real, the art, the photographsQuestion so that the children need to look closer

Teaching Visual Literacy

Look for the whole and parts of the story of the visual; subject, plot, settingGo beyond describing: understanding and explaining are higher levels of thinkingTeach how to interpret the visual - retelling, identifying, describing, explaining, and critiquing

Practicing Visual Literacy

Introduce Photo of the DayDescribe, interpret these photosCollect photos and have them accessible for student assignmentsManipulate photos on the computer

Places for Photos

Google – image tabYahoo galleryDittoFreeFoto

Astronomy Picture of the Day Kodak Picture of the Day Earth Science Picture of the Day Colorado Scenic Picture of the Day CNN Picture of the Day Horse Picture of the Day Weather Photo of the Week

Activities

Travel brochureChildren around the worldScience discussionFind photos for class poems, stories, novelsTake photos that show…Create visual representations for …

Create mapsCreate pictionariesCreate an I-Spy gameTake photos for special wordsPhotos with colors, create gameTake photos of kids working/playing –create dialogue

Activities (cont)

Write words that rhyme with photoTake photos of prosocial activities, write.Take “feeling” photos, labelUse career photos and match materials used

Create quizzes or games using photosTake photos over time – planting, weather…Photos of different angles/perspectivesPhoto a dramatic retellingPhotos from skit -reorder

Activities (cont)

Photos from field trip; retellPhotos (velcro, magnet) use in retellingsClaymation/playdoughphotos

Brainstorm the many objects you could scan or photograph in your classroom including tangrams, money, and shapes in math and science. Think about projects that mix mediums such as scanned pictures, craft foam, glitter, beads, and paper combined with computer graphics painting. Create collages using photos, cloth, ribbons, and reusable pictures and objects

Assessment

Information ToolkitShow MeRubrics built with class

Role of the Teacher

Help children to seeTeach parents how to help their children seeShow parents and community what children are learning

Train your brain to see more…