♦Something interesting to note is that although this video solely discusses VISUAL LITERACY, at least 90% of the video is in WRITTEN FORM with some images throughout.
♦I liked the message and information that this video had to share, but since a majority of it was text based, I found myself rewinding the video at times to remember what the author was conveying to me as the viewer.
♦I am a VISUAL and HANDS ON learner. Does this mean I do not like reading and writing? No, It just means that I prefer to present my work in various ways rather than just reading an article/ book and answering questions
**YOUNG STUDENTS MUST BE GIVEN THE TOOLS & EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION TO UNDERSTAND MEANING**
“All visual materials, activities, words and pictures have meaning. Whether or not a learner can use the meaning depending on two factors: (a) how the person learns meaning; and (b) the level of meaning the visual has for the learner”
(p. 18 Arwood, Kaulitz, & Brown (2009).
♦GRAPHICS ARE STRONG WHERE WORDS ARE WEAK♦
♦WORDS ARE STRONG WHERE GRAPHICS ARE WEAK♦
{Page 10, Moline}
The two things complement one another and that is why VISUALS & TEXTS are used in schools & are used TOGETHER as well.
A teacher must recognize that making meaning with visuals is going to be different for each student as a learner. As a teacher you must teach the concepts relating to understanding visuals in multiple ways as well.
2: Emojis Emoji representing a female teacher on Apple.
Using pictures to take the place of words
Students can interpret these pictures
Can be used across all languages (History, Literacy, Reading, Math, Foreign Language, Science, Art, and Music) since there is a wide variety of images at use
*** Me and My Girlfriend Texted Only in Emoji For a Month***
This podcast served as a way to communicate a story that auditory learners might like. A way to turn this podcast into visual literacy is to recreate other emoji text message examples between the couple for the visual learners.
Lesson Example: Challenge your students to write a story with JUST PICTURES and no words. Then swap with a partner and see how accurately or inaccurately they can understand the message you wanted to convey.
Lesson Example: A class will be given a few different snapshot pictures. They must create a story with a beginning, middle and end SOLELY using the image they are given.
Challenge to fit all you have to say into a certain amount of characters
Lesson Example: Students have to think carefully about what words to choose and what words to leave out when ‘sending’ their Tweet when they only have 140 character space to use. This will help students pay close attention to word choice, word use, word length, synonyms, antonyms and more.
Lesson Example: Students will be presented with one of two tasks. 1- Create a powerful story using only six words. 2- Create a powerful story using only six images. Both tasks present a challenge but are asking students to think beyond the surface to create a story in this minimalistic way, although it should leave a lasting impact.
“People need skills to be able to interpret those messages and have thoughtful responses”.
Allison Reid- Deputy Director of New Orleans Museum of Art
The previous six examples of student lessons and how to use visual literacy in the classroom all relate back to the theme of this quote. Teachers need to teach students the skills of how to interpret images, thoughts, messages, books, and stories they read. Students will gain a stronger understanding of how to do this when presented with a multitude of ways to practice this. It is not easy to write a Tweet encompassing everything you want to say in 140 characters, to communicate solely via Emoji pictures, or to tell a powerful story in only six words. These challenging lessons and exercises help strengthen students creativity, thought processes, and critical thinking.
Students should be able to: ANALYZE, MAKE MEANING, ASK QUESTIONS, EXPLORE, EXAMINE & UNDERSTAND.
My personal belief about literacy is that a person cannot just be literate in ONE single way. Hence, why a person having and being able to be multiliterate is essential. Some examples given in the Dousay article are reading literacy,visual literacy, and media literacy (Page 29).
This picture clip is appropriate here because even when using a simple word, like “Pie”, there are variations on how a person hears, sees, smells, etc. the word.
Student #1 is auditory and hears the word pie and thinks of how the word is spelled as P-I-E.
Student #2visualizes a picture of a pie in her mind.
Student #3 is using their senses to think about how pie tastes.
MULTILINGUAL AND MULTIMODAL:
Design activities:"It is reasonable to think that approaches which provide hands-on
opportunities to practice and apply concepts may find the most success"
(Page 30, Dousay). These design activities are powerful learning tools
in the classroom, especially if that is how a student learns.
There can be differentiated ways students support and show their ideas.
> >>Digital storybooks, and comic books are just two of the types of design activities that can be beneficial in a classroom. <<<
The use of a multimodal blog, creation of a board game, video, audio report, interview, art project, oral or written speech, play, or musical song are further examples of design activities students can be engaged in within their classroom community.
This is an example of a design activity that my peers and I used when implementing a lesson in ECEL 408, Social Studies and the Arts. We used an engaging and interactive starter activity for our lesson plan on Earth Day. If there is dancing, singing, or something that students are not used to seeing on a regular basis as an introduction to a lesson they might be more interested in the topic going on.
As a teacher, I would give my students a task to….
“Create your own STORY (book)”
I am careful here in the language I present the assignment with. I would present them with the task of creating the story (book) in any fashion they would like and this is why I choose not to use the word “write”, although we will see this will be a component.
The few requirements my assingment would have would be that the story has to be
Engaging
Creative
Must contain some WRITTEN LANGUAGE
Must have a clear beginning, middle and end
Some of the different ways (I would expect) my students would present their work would be: a ‘typical’ book, an Ebook or an interactive story. My hope for this assignment would be that students find their creative side in whichever way suits their needs.
I remember creating my own story book(s) as early as kindergarten and first grade, with assistance of course. They were simple bound books. One of the books was about my birthday. My teacher scribed the words onto each page and it was followed by a drawing I had created. It’s really awesome to be able to look back and remember these experiences and having this book as a memory to hold onto.
“Which ever way we look, written language is not going away” (Page 15, Cope & Kalantzis).
Even though today’s technology and media presence are ever growing and expanding, written language is still a necessity to our children in school, and is an important part of the world surrounding us.
The assignment I previously described also ties directly to students different learning styles.
These seven “modalities of meaning” are found on(Page 12-13, Cope & Kalantzis)
Written language
Oral Language
Visual Representation
Audio Representation
Tactile Representation
Gestural Representation
Spatial Representation
Young students may not be able to recognize the ways they learn and understand material best, but once students reach higher grade levels this is something they should start to understand about themself. As a teacher, it is critical to differentiate your teaching styles as well as assignments and assessments in order to reach each student as effectively as you can.
All of these definitions in my eyes are completely negative especially when reading the words used, for example:
“lack of”
“incapacity”
“handicap”
“prevents”
“disables”
“disadvantage”
Disability and handicap are phrases that are typically used interchangeably.
Many people in our society have very negative views when they hear the words “disabled” or “disability”. I know for example some people might tend to think of a person with disabilities as “having problems”.
In the word DISABILITY is the word ABILITY.
*SOMETHING I WANT EVERYONE TO LEARN AND FOCUS ON IS THE STRENGTHS OF EACH INDIVIDUAL PERSON/STUDENT RATHER THAN ON DEFICITS
*INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON A PERSON NOT BEING ABLE TO DO SOMETHING, FOCUS ON THE THINGS SOMEONE CAN DO
Literate:
lit·er·ate
adjective
(of a person) able to read and write.
-Retrieved from dictionary.com-
What does it mean to be literate?
Since the meaning of being literate CAN have multiple meanings based on who you ask, how one is measured as being literate or not can be fluid as well.
My personal definitions of the word literate would include:
>communicating, understanding
>expression in various forms
>reading, writing, listening, speaking
>identifying and understanding words and thoughts
Thesaurus.com lists the following words as synonyms to “literate”:
Different people communicate in different ways. Right now, I am interchangeably using the word communicate to be synonymous with literate. Different people are literate in different ways because they communicate in various forms.
A person who is deaf might communicate through American Sign Language.
A person who is blind might read braille by feeling the formations of each letter and word.
A person who does not verbally communicate might do so with assistive technology.
She talks about always wanting to be in “normal conventional classes with her peers”. Piper said, “It came down to the fact that my brain worked in completely different ways than others”. Instead of continuing to try to overcome her disability, Piper found things she loved to do such as working and organizing events, and she found her best way to communicate which is through her creative brain. Each person’s brain works differently and I am glad that Piper was able to recognize that about herself. She had come to realize what aspects of her life and school were important. She found that her literate self was best with her creative brain and her artistic ability, which is what she decided to go to college for.
In the conclusion from the Dudley-Marling article it states, “From a deficit perspective, the essential response to the appearance of learning failure is to ask, What’s wrong with this student? This gaze typically leads to a series of instructional moves aimed at remediating or “fixing” students through the selection and use of best methods” (Page 488). Instead of trying to “fix” what is wrong with a student, teachers, and all other professional staff MUST focus on a strength-based perspective and highlighting what is right with the student. I think it is absolutely terrible to ask the question, “What’s wrong with this student”. This is such a negative way to look at a human being and if the student happens to overhear someone asking that question about them it could be very detrimental on their self-esteem and learning.
On page 414 of the Collins article “Margaret stressed wanting to find a way to reach Christopher and explained that she was holding off on submitting additional paperwork because, ‘There is just something there, there is ability there’. Christopher’s story teaches us the importance of working against the dominant view of dis/ability. Christopher is literate through his creative brain and his expression of drawing and art. I find it great that Margaret, who was his second-grade teacher, had realized that there IS ABILITY present, instead of continuing to focus on what was not PRESENT. Going hand and hand with ability is the expectations that we as teachers place on our students. As a teacher I will have high expectations for every single student of mine despite any labeled “disability”. In schools, all professional staff including teachers should be using a strength-based approach to their students since research shows it is beneficial to the student and their learning.
Emoji representing a female teacher on Apple.
Multiliteracies and multimodailty 
