Visual Literacy

The Senior Library was established by Richard Wilde, the chair of the graphic design and advertising department at the School of Visual Arts in New York. The intent of the Library was to showcase the best work done by the graduating seniors as well as to give a long-standing senior-portfolio teacher the opportunity (and gift) of designing the book with total creative freedom.

This primer is designed to teach students the interconnected arts of visual communication. The subject is presented, not as a foreign language, but as a native one that the student "knows" but cannot yet "read." Responding to the need she so clearly perceives, Ms. Dondis, a designer and teacher of broad experience, has provided a beginning text for art and design students and a basic text for all other students; those who do not intend to become artists or designers but who need to acquire the essential skills of understanding visual communication at a time when so much information is being studied and transmitted in non-verbal modes, especially through photography and film. Understanding through seeing only seems to be an obviously intuitive process. Actually, developing the visual sense is something like learning a language, with its own special alphabet, lexicon, and syntax. People find it necessary to be verbally literate whether they are "writers": or not; they should find it equally necessary to be visually literate, "artists" or not. This primer is designed to teach students the interconnected arts of visual communication. The subject is presented, not as a foreign language, but as a native one that the student "knows" but cannot yet "read." The analogy provides a useful teaching method, in part because it is not overworked or too rigorously applied. This method of learning to see and read visual data has already been proved in practice, in settings ranging from Harlem to suburbia. Appropriately, the book makes some of its most telling points through visual means. Numerous illustrated examples are employed to clarify the basic elements of design (teach an alphabet), to show how they are used in simple syntactic combinations ("See Jane run."), and finally, to present the meaningful synthesis of visual information that is a finished work of art (the apprehension of poetry...).

Visual Literacy examines how teachers can use visuals to improve learning for all students. It provides teachers with a foundation in visual literacy, defined as the ability to read, think, and communicate with visually presented information. Results of studies of students’ using visual information indicate that most students are clearly lacking in the tools needed to use visuals effectively. The book orients teachers to visual literacy and the world of visuals. It discusses various classroom tested strategies and activities for all students, including second language learners, and students with special needs. Stressing visual literacy skills helps students understand a visual more deeply so they can master the content they are learning. Teachers will learn to employ a literacy triad of reading, thinking, and communicating to aid students in their study of visuals. First, they inquire into the visual, reading it for content and context, including assessing the authenticity of the document. Second, they think about the document by analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating it to come up with answers to their inquiry. Graphic organizers help students decipher the content and understand the meaning of the visual document, connecting it to prior and future instruction. Third, they communicate their findings using visuals.

A collection of nine essays that describes strategies for teaching visual literacy by using graphic novels, comics, anime, political cartoons, and picture books.

What does it mean to be visually literate? Does it mean different things in the arts and the sciences? In the developed West or in developing nations? This groundbreaking collection explores what impact the new concept of "visual literacy" has on art history.

People today are constantly bombarded with a wide variety of visual images. How do we interpret them? What causes us to respond to them emotionally? And how does this response differ for visual devices such as close-ups, camera angles and flashbacks? The book addresses these and other questions.

Reading the Visual is an essential introduction that focuses on what teachers should know about multimodal literacy and how to teach it. This engaging book provides theoretical, curricular, and pedagogical frameworks for teaching a wide-range of visual and multimodal texts, including historical fiction, picture books, advertisements, websites, comics, graphic novels, news reports, and film. Each unit of study presented contains suggestions for selecting cornerstone texts and visual images and launching the unit, as well as lesson plans, text sets, and analysis guides. These units are designed to be readily adapted to fit the needs of a variety of settings and grade levels.

The signs are everywhere--for those who can read them. Because of television, advertising, and the Internet, the primary literacy of the 21st century will be visual. It's no longer enough to read and write text. Our students must learn to process both words and pictures. They must be able to move gracefully and fluently between text and images, between literal and figurative worlds.--Page [4] of cover.

Teaching Visual Literacy in the Primary Classroom shows how everyday literacy sessions can be made more exciting, dynamic and effective by using a wide range of media and visual texts in the primary classroom. In addition to a wealth of practical teaching ideas, the book outlines the vital importance of visual texts and shows how children can enjoy developing essential literacy skills through studying picture books, film, television and comic books. Designed to take into account the renewed Framework for Literacy, each chapter offers a complete guide to teaching this required area of literacy. Aimed at those who want to deliver high quality and stimulating literacy sessions, each chapter contains a range of detailed practical activities and resources which can be easily implemented into existing literacy teaching with minimal preparation. In addition, each chapter gives clear, informative yet accessible insights into the theory behind visual literacy. Containing a wealth of activities, ideas and resources for teachers of both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, this book discusses how children's literacy skills can be developed and enhanced through exploring a range of innovative texts. Six chapters provide comprehensive guides to the teaching of the following media and literacy skills: picture books film and television comic books visual literacy skills genre adaptation. Teaching Visual Literacy in the Primary Classroom is an essential resource for all those who wish to find fresh and contemporary ways to teach literacy and will be useful not only to novices but also to teachers who already have experience of teaching a range of media. Students, primary school teachers, literacy co-ordinators and anyone who is passionate about giving pupils a relevant and up-to-date education will be provided with everything they need to know about teaching this new and ever-expanding area of literacy.

This book will give you an understanding of how images fit into your critical practice and how you can advance student learning with your own visual literacy. The importance of images and visual media in today's culture is changing what it means to be literate in the 21st century. Digital technologies have made it possible for almost anyone to create and share visual media. Yet the pervasiveness of images and visual media does not necessarily mean that individuals are able to critically view, use, and produce visual content. This book provides you with the tools, strategies, and confidence to apply visual literacy in a library context. You will learn ways to develop students' visual literacy and how to use visual materials to make your own teaching more engaging. Ideal for the busy librarian who needs ideas, activities, and teaching strategies that are ready to implement, this book shows how to challenge students to delve into finding images, using images in the research process, interpreting and analysing images, creating visual communications, and using visual content ethically provides ready-to-use learning activities for engaging critically with visual materials offers tools and techniques for increasing one's own visual literacy confidence gives strategies for integrating, engaging with and advocating for visual literacy in libraries. With this book's guidance, you can help students master visual literacy, a key competency in today's media-saturated world, while also enlivening your teaching with visual materials. Visual Literacy for Libraries will be essential reading for librarians, information professionals and managers in all sectors, students of library and information science, school and higher education teachers and researchers.