Visual Literacy in the English Classroom

[Shelbie Witte]

As we continue to add to our activities in this article, we welcome your feedback and suggestions!

Abstract:
The expansion of the definition of literacy and a comprehensive use of visual strategies can strongly impact student learning. Educators can contribute to the growth and understanding of the world of non-print text by helping students learn to critically read and create visual products. By bridging popular culture to traditional texts, students become authentically motivated and engaged in their learning. This article bridges traditional literacy activities to popular culture texts of tattoos, Norman Rockwell postcards, J. Peterman catalogs, research collages, as well as other visual texts. Vignettes of visual literacy at work are highlighted through successful classroom practices.

[Ryan Goble]

Shelbie - I skimmed (I have to go back and look more carefully) but woza - great article. I would love to use this in my Media and Pop Culture class because you have such a large range of examples. For those who are not into downloading (or don't see the PDF) perhaps you could add an abstract above - if you do that I can highlight it during a week in review.

BTW you know about this book, Poetry Comics: An Animated Anthology by Dave Morice? It is from the Teachers and Writers Collaborative - might be of interest!

I'm also going to link your article to Gianna's comment on PLAYBOOK: Decoding Symbolic Language Part 1

Thanks so much for sharing your important work (and for inviting all your students to hang on the Ning!).

RRG:)

[Shelbie Witte]

Thanks for your comments, Ryan. I appreciate your feedback and will post the abstract. Also, I do have Poetry Comics....great and USEFUL book!

[Shelbie Witte]

Here's an abstract:
The expansion of the definition of literacy and a comprehensive use of visual strategies can strongly impact student learning. Educators can contribute to the growth and understanding of the world of non-print text by helping students learn to critically read and create visual products. By bridging popular culture to traditional texts, students become authentically motivated and engaged in their learning. This article bridges traditional literacy activities to popular culture texts of tattoos, Norman Rockwell postcards, J. Peterman catalogs, research collages, as well as other visual texts. Vignettes of visual literacy at work are highlighted through successful classroom practices.

[Debbie Abilock]

Just read an article by Janette Hughes and Sarah Tolley, (2010) "Engaging students through new literacies: the good, bad and curriculum of visual essays" English in Eduction 44(1) 5-26 which proposes an academic alternative to the essay. I've tried to capture the essence below:

* Focus: To explore a piece of literature or capture the human experience of social problems
* Form: Relies on images with minimal text, “entails new forms of semiotic processing of the combinations of the visual, audio, textual, gestural and spatial”(5)
* Task: Consider elements of design, choosing the most appropriate features for effectively communicating a message to an audience
* Skills: Producers must be critical readers who understand how modes work together to communicate meaning to make design and multimodal choices

A posted example, called Gavin's Visual Essay, demonstrates the concept - and they have a rubric in the article. It seems to focus on critical literacy...

Looks like this visual alternatives to essays aligns with your work Shelbie.

Debbie Abilock, NoodleTools/NoodleTeach
http://www.NoodleTools.com
"It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question

it." -- J. Brownowski

[Shelbie Witte]

Debbie,
Thank you SO much. I will take a look at the article and your website as well!!!