Visual Literacy and the Internet in the Classroom (GCU TEC 538)

Visual Literacy, 

Use of Instructional Strategies and 

 The role of the Internet in Mrs. Rodgers classroom.    

Visual literacy is just one piece of the pie that teachers use to engage students in learning.  

What is Visual literacy? It is the ability to understand, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image. Visual literacy can be used in any content or subject area.

This YouTube video on visual literacy in the classroom titled Visual Literacy Across the Curriculum gives teachers a good look at how visual learning can impact their students and help to create critical thinkers and problem-solving learners.  https://www.youtub e.com/watch?v=XQNbAtK3c3g

The second piece of the pie that plays a key role is teaching strategies for visual literacy. There are many strategies.  I will only be sharing my top three favorites.

Number One: Graphic Organizers; Graphic organizers are visual structures that can show relationships, between concepts or ideas. They can be used across all content areas and subjects.  I use them to help define a concept, categorize and classify, sequence, and compare and contrast. I use Thinking Maps. You can learn more about them at http://thinkingmaps.com .

Number Two: Think Alouds:                         

Think Aloud is a method used by the teacher to model how he or she gains understanding from text or visual representations.  This method requires the teacher to explain their thinking processes they are using as they are attempting to understand different areas of the text or visual.  Once the teacher has modeled this method, it is important for students to practice it. For more information on Think Alouds you can visit Education Week from Teacher Vision https://www.teachervision.com/skill-builder/problem-solving/48546.html

Number Three: Deep Viewing:

Deep viewing is a strategy that I have not used before; I am however planning on using this strategy with this year’s class.  Deep viewing consists of three levels of observation. The teacher will show students a visual and then the students will do the following three steps.  

1   1.  Students study the visual, then they recreate it from memory, finally, students write about what they remember about it.

     2.  Students describe the emotions and memories evoked by the visual.

     3. Students evaluate the visual for relevance, importance, and bias. 

For more information please visit Understanding Visual Information through Deep Viewing     http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED370560

In today’s classroom the Internet is one of the best resources we as teachers have.  The more I learn about all that can be done with technology and the use of the Internet I want the role of the Internet to change in my classroom.  I want it to not only be a research tool but also a place where my students can start to become a part of a global community.  I want my students to start blogging about class projects and other happenings in the classroom.  My main goal is to have a classroom that can collaborate with other students around the world.  This will take a while for my classroom to get to but I will continue to take steps toward my main goal.