making connections
The above clip contains a short clip of a longer TED talk by Daniel Pink illustrated with an RSA Animate. If you would like to see the full TED animation, click here or for a full TED talk on this topic, click here.
As we teach visual literacy, it is worthwhile to consider how we are giving students the sense of control and purpose that Daniel Pink describes. If we don’t connect this learning to something meaningful, students are apt to wonder what the point of this learning is. Once students have mastered the basic skills of visual literacy, it would be meaningful to ask them to use visual literacy to learn more about a topic of interest so that they can feel a sense of purpose as they continue to develop their digital literacy skills. If students are able to connect visual literacy with topics of interest, or real world situations, a stronger sense of purpose will develop.
Connecting Visual Literacy With Students' Lives
Identity Day
Participate in "Identity Day" and ask students to share visual representations of themselves with students across the school. Identity Day is like a Science Fair but, instead of sharing experiments, students share something about themselves. While some students do include writing with their presentations, the emphasis is on visual connections to themselves and oral language. The original intent of Identity Day was to build a sense of community within schools but a strong visual literacy connection is prevalent. With an intentional goal of using Identity Day to explore Visual Literacy, teachers could encourage students to explore the most effective visuals to represent themselves, predict things about one another before conversing, and reflect on the effectiveness of the visual displays after the event. While this event seems to take place at more elementary schools than secondary schools, it could easily be integrated in a secondary school, class or grade. The act of making connections between visuals, and the people they represent, could be quite powerful in senior grades. For more information about Identity Day, please have a look at the following links.
Prezi from Identity Day 2012 at Kent Elementary in Agassiz
Video from Identity Day 2011 at Kent Elementary in Agassiz
Video from Identity Day 2012 at Kent Elementary in Agassiz
Video from Identity Day at Bear Creek Elementary in Surrey
Blog Entry from Forest Grove Elementary in Alberta
Identity Day at Webster’s Corners Elementary
Infographics
Dig deeper with the information presented in an infographic and connect it to other information. The series of activities linked below encourages students to use infographics as a starting point for higher level thinking. Through these activities, students will investigate infographics and make connections with other information.
10 Ways to Teach Math and More Using Infographics
Encourage students to use visual literacy in order to make connections with a variety of subject areas and important events in their lives. The link below includes hyperlinks to a wide variety of topics to get your students started as they explore a variety of topics through infographics. Giving students a sense of purpose, and meaningful connections outside of the infographic that they are exploring, will enhance their comprehension of the task.
Teaching with Infographics
Art History
Using visuals from a particular time period can be an effective way of exploring history with students; an exploration of art history would encourage students to take on an investigative role as they learn about, and interpret, art. Students can explore connections between art, artists, and the society in which the art was created.
Websites to explore:
Egyptian Book of The Dead
Greek Pottery Stories
The Met Museum: Lesson Plans
National Gallery of Canada
As we teach visual literacy, it is worthwhile to consider how we are giving students the sense of control and purpose that Daniel Pink describes. If we don’t connect this learning to something meaningful, students are apt to wonder what the point of this learning is. Once students have mastered the basic skills of visual literacy, it would be meaningful to ask them to use visual literacy to learn more about a topic of interest so that they can feel a sense of purpose as they continue to develop their digital literacy skills. If students are able to connect visual literacy with topics of interest, or real world situations, a stronger sense of purpose will develop.
Connecting Visual Literacy With Students' Lives
- Ask students to use visuals to make connections between a text and themselves, other texts, and/or their world then organize these in a logical manner.
- Have students create a biography made up of symbols or images on a poster, in a multimedia presentation, or in another visual format. Have them share these, then ask other students to predict or explain what they see before students share.
- Connect visual literacy strategies and tasks to a wide variety of subject areas and tasks, allowing students to see the purpose of visual literacy in their lives.
Identity Day
Participate in "Identity Day" and ask students to share visual representations of themselves with students across the school. Identity Day is like a Science Fair but, instead of sharing experiments, students share something about themselves. While some students do include writing with their presentations, the emphasis is on visual connections to themselves and oral language. The original intent of Identity Day was to build a sense of community within schools but a strong visual literacy connection is prevalent. With an intentional goal of using Identity Day to explore Visual Literacy, teachers could encourage students to explore the most effective visuals to represent themselves, predict things about one another before conversing, and reflect on the effectiveness of the visual displays after the event. While this event seems to take place at more elementary schools than secondary schools, it could easily be integrated in a secondary school, class or grade. The act of making connections between visuals, and the people they represent, could be quite powerful in senior grades. For more information about Identity Day, please have a look at the following links.
Prezi from Identity Day 2012 at Kent Elementary in Agassiz
Video from Identity Day 2011 at Kent Elementary in Agassiz
Video from Identity Day 2012 at Kent Elementary in Agassiz
Video from Identity Day at Bear Creek Elementary in Surrey
Blog Entry from Forest Grove Elementary in Alberta
Identity Day at Webster’s Corners Elementary
Infographics
Dig deeper with the information presented in an infographic and connect it to other information. The series of activities linked below encourages students to use infographics as a starting point for higher level thinking. Through these activities, students will investigate infographics and make connections with other information.
10 Ways to Teach Math and More Using Infographics
Encourage students to use visual literacy in order to make connections with a variety of subject areas and important events in their lives. The link below includes hyperlinks to a wide variety of topics to get your students started as they explore a variety of topics through infographics. Giving students a sense of purpose, and meaningful connections outside of the infographic that they are exploring, will enhance their comprehension of the task.
Teaching with Infographics
Art History
Using visuals from a particular time period can be an effective way of exploring history with students; an exploration of art history would encourage students to take on an investigative role as they learn about, and interpret, art. Students can explore connections between art, artists, and the society in which the art was created.
Websites to explore:
Egyptian Book of The Dead
Greek Pottery Stories
The Met Museum: Lesson Plans
National Gallery of Canada