VISUAL LITERACY By Kayla Skaggs WHAT IS VISUAL

VISUAL LITERACY By Kayla Skaggs

WHAT IS VISUAL LITERACY? v The learned ability to interpret visual messages accurately and to create such messages. Kayla Skaggs

IMPORTANCE v. It is important to know about visual literacy because students learn best if visuals are used in an effective manner. Students need visuals in many forms to understand the material they are learning. Kayla Skaggs

VISUALS IN INSTRUCTION v You should use visuals in instruction because they can work well for many lessons. v The value they add to the learning process is to help students more easily remember the content being taught, show something real to show abstract thoughts, motivate students, direct students’ attention to what is being taught, help them to recall prior learning, repeat information visually, and help to reduce the effort students have to put into learning. Kayla Skaggs

DESIGNING VISUALS v Visuals can be designed to influence student learning by making sure the arrangement fits a pattern so the students know what to expect next, the objects in the visual are balanced , the color combinations used go well together, the visual is legible to everyone, it captures their attention, and it is universal. Kayla Skaggs

TEACHING VISUAL LITERACY v Two General Approaches to teaching visual literacy are… • Decoding – being able to read visuals by practicing visual analysis skills • Encoding – being able to write visuals to express yourself and communicate Kayla Skaggs

TYPES OF VISUALS v Pictures: photographs of people, places, and things; Ex: photograph of the Rocky Mountains v Drawings: drawn by a person to represent people, places, and things, Ex: drawing to show the process of condensation v Charts: tables and flowcharts to share relationships in information, Ex: Periodic table v Graphs: bar and line graphs share numerical data, Ex: bar graph showing the cost of cars over ten years v Posters: share a variety of information with visual combinations, Ex: Safety Poster v Cartoons: drawings of people, animals, and events, Ex: comic strips Kayla Skaggs

PRESENTATION SOFTWARE v Presentation software can be used in instruction by creating a Power. Point of slides to present, allowing students to create their own presentations using it, and printing out note pages of the information in the presentation for students to use during lectures. Kayla Skaggs

ESSENTIAL QUESTION v Qualities of an essential question are: • • • Importance Requires making a choice or decision Cannot be answered with a yes or no Can change with time Can be unanswerable May be frustrating but requires the learner to think beyond a simple answer Kayla Skaggs

REFERENCES Smaldino, Sharon E. , Deborah L. Lowther, and James D. Russell. Instructional Technology and Media for Learning. Tenth ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print. Kayla Skaggs