Visual Literacy

Visual Literacy
In today’s society there are many different styles of learning. Three different learning styles that are presented in today’s classrooms are: Auditory, Visual, and Kinesthetic. Auditory learners learn when they hear the information. Visual learners retain information when they view pictures, graphs or read the material. Kinesthetic learners retain the material through a “hands-on” approach. Visual literacy is a new approach to learning. Visual literacy is and should be presented in every lesson. Students with and without difficulties reading will benefit when visual literacy is implemented in the lesson. Coincidentally, teachers, without realizing it, are presenting visual literacy in their classrooms. For instance, visual literacy is implemented when a history teacher displays a map, a driver’s education teacher uses street signs, a science teacher intertwines the usage of measurements cups with the text, or an English teacher presents pictures from a novel the students are reading.
Inadvertently, many of these visual “clues” help students decipher and understand information in our classrooms. Visual literacy is a crucial factor for many students when learning any subject. It helps with life skills, reading comprehension, and planning essay writing. Working with special education students, picture prompting or any visual clues are extremely useful during instruction. Also, visual literacy is a tool that can be used from the very beginning of a classroom lesson when completing the daily “Do Now” to the main objective of the lesson by warming the students up for writing five paragraph essays. One visual literary tool that is particularly helpful when instructing lower level students is a picture dictionary. I feel the most effective way visual literacy is used is when students create PowerPoint presentations with images, videos, captions, quotes, and short text bullets because students are engaged and teaching themselves when creating the presentations. This has been noted as the best way to acquire and retain information. Furthermore, it allows students to teach other students what they know.
Evidence has shown that implementing visual literary tools can provide only positive outcomes. Admittedly, the concept is new and, for some teachers, it will be a challenge to consciously and consistently implement them into their lessons. However, many teachers have been using such tools in their classroom for years but were not aware of its importance. Educators need to embrace what the future holds and “turn key” these valuable tools to other educators because assessment scores are improving tremendously. Eventually, the educational system will be up to date and using the most effective learning tools for our students.


                                       


                                                                                          
Work Citied
Black Cockatoo Publishing. (2010) What is visual literacy? Retrieved from http://k-8visual.info/
Learning Rx. (2010) Types of Learning Styles: The Three Main Types. Retrieved from http://www.learningrx.com/types-of-learning-styles-faq.htm
Riesland, E. (2005) Visual Literacy and the Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/literacy/riesland.htm