PART 1
We are a visually illiterate society. … Three R’s are no longer enough.
Just like the other two professional development programs I attended this summer, this one also focused on primary source documents. Mystic Seaport has a wealth of historical artifacts related to maritime history.
FREE TECH TOOLS: A sampling of technology tools which would enable students to share their thinking as they analyze images. Keep in mind, any digital storytelling app would work well.
We are a visually illiterate society. … Three R’s are no longer enough.
Our world is changing fast—faster than we can keep up with our historical modes
of thinking and communicating. Visual literacy—the ability to both read and write
visual information; the ability to learn visually; to think and solve problems in the visual domain—will, as the information revolution evolves, become a requirement for success in business and in life.
—Dave Gray, founder of visual thinking company XPLANE
Visual Literacy was the focus of my summer professional development.
What is Visual Literacy?
Visual literacy has been defined as the “ability to understand, interpret and evaluate visual messages” (Bristor & Drake, 1994). According to Wikipedia (2011), “Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading."
WHERE AND WHAT I LEARNED....
In July, I spent a week in Washington, DC at the historic
Library of Congress, learning how to teach with primary source documents. The resources available through www.loc.gov are extraordinary. As a school media specialist, pointing teachers and students to this resource is essential. Integrating primary source documents into my instruction and locating resources to support content areas will be a priority this school year. Sharing with my colleagues the teaching strategies I gained from this experience will be critical to impacting students' engagement with primary source documents.
In August, I attended a weekend workshop by the Eric Carle Museum which was hosted by the Highlights Foundation in Honesdale, PA. It was a delightful, retreat-like experience which beautifully complimented my studies at the Library of Congress. The essence of my learning at this workshop was using visual literacy strategies with picture books in order to deepen students understanding of a text. Not only did we learn many strategies from the Eric Carle Museum staff, we were also treated to workshops led by award-winning authors/illustrators Vera B. Williams and Floyd Cooper.
And there were even more surprises... To satisfy our appetites...a gourmet chef who prepared delicious meals. And...we were gifted with six exemplary picture books to take back to our libraries/classrooms. One of these books was just perfect for my first class with this year's first graders.
Knowing that the first grade teachers kick-off their readers' workshop with wordless books, I had the perfect title from this workshop to teach visual literacy strategies with my first class in the media center. The Girl and the Bicycle by Mark Pett is simply perfect for visual literacy as students must "read" the illustrations in order to extract the meaning of the story. It's a great tale of persistence and generosity. It carries a message of selflessness and a sweet surprise ending. Seeing the students engaged in the illustrations and observing how they dissected the illustrations, which were projected on a large screen using a document camera, was exhilarating. Hearing the students gasp and then squeal with delight when certain illustrations were revealed was more than satisfying as a teacher. This lesson builds the skills necessary so students can eventually meet the Connecticut Core Standard: RL.1.7: Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events. In addition, providing the students with an interactive read aloud experience builds speaking and listening skills particularly SL.1.4: Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.
Utilizing the "Whole Book Approach," another strategy I learned through this workshop, allowed the students to integrate the book jacket, board cover, and end papers into the main body of work and then synthesize their observations into deeper meaning. This was a terrific way to start the school year in the media center!
Also in August, the last professional development opportunity of the summer was held right here in Connecticut at Mystic Seaport. I spent time with a group of 15 CT teachers over three days engaged in a variety of hands-on workshops, and for two nights we slept aboard the Joseph Conrad.
—Dave Gray, founder of visual thinking company XPLANE
Visual Literacy was the focus of my summer professional development.
Visual literacy has been defined as the “ability to understand, interpret and evaluate visual messages” (Bristor & Drake, 1994). According to Wikipedia (2011), “Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading."
WHERE AND WHAT I LEARNED....
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| Library of Congress |
In July, I spent a week in Washington, DC at the historic
Library of Congress, learning how to teach with primary source documents. The resources available through www.loc.gov are extraordinary. As a school media specialist, pointing teachers and students to this resource is essential. Integrating primary source documents into my instruction and locating resources to support content areas will be a priority this school year. Sharing with my colleagues the teaching strategies I gained from this experience will be critical to impacting students' engagement with primary source documents.
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| Primary Source Document |
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| Fantastic experience |
In August, I attended a weekend workshop by the Eric Carle Museum which was hosted by the Highlights Foundation in Honesdale, PA. It was a delightful, retreat-like experience which beautifully complimented my studies at the Library of Congress. The essence of my learning at this workshop was using visual literacy strategies with picture books in order to deepen students understanding of a text. Not only did we learn many strategies from the Eric Carle Museum staff, we were also treated to workshops led by award-winning authors/illustrators Vera B. Williams and Floyd Cooper.
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| Vera B. Williams |
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| Our accommodations |
And there were even more surprises... To satisfy our appetites...a gourmet chef who prepared delicious meals. And...we were gifted with six exemplary picture books to take back to our libraries/classrooms. One of these books was just perfect for my first class with this year's first graders.
Knowing that the first grade teachers kick-off their readers' workshop with wordless books, I had the perfect title from this workshop to teach visual literacy strategies with my first class in the media center. The Girl and the Bicycle by Mark Pett is simply perfect for visual literacy as students must "read" the illustrations in order to extract the meaning of the story. It's a great tale of persistence and generosity. It carries a message of selflessness and a sweet surprise ending. Seeing the students engaged in the illustrations and observing how they dissected the illustrations, which were projected on a large screen using a document camera, was exhilarating. Hearing the students gasp and then squeal with delight when certain illustrations were revealed was more than satisfying as a teacher. This lesson builds the skills necessary so students can eventually meet the Connecticut Core Standard: RL.1.7: Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events. In addition, providing the students with an interactive read aloud experience builds speaking and listening skills particularly SL.1.4: Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.
Utilizing the "Whole Book Approach," another strategy I learned through this workshop, allowed the students to integrate the book jacket, board cover, and end papers into the main body of work and then synthesize their observations into deeper meaning. This was a terrific way to start the school year in the media center!
Mark Pett also created another touching wordless book titled: The Boy and the Airplane.
Also in August, the last professional development opportunity of the summer was held right here in Connecticut at Mystic Seaport. I spent time with a group of 15 CT teachers over three days engaged in a variety of hands-on workshops, and for two nights we slept aboard the Joseph Conrad.
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| Sleeping quarters |
Just like the other two professional development programs I attended this summer, this one also focused on primary source documents. Mystic Seaport has a wealth of historical artifacts related to maritime history.
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| Meeting characters |
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| The vault |
TRANSFERRING PD INTO INSTRUCTION
RESOURCES: Here are links to various resources that will be of value when integrating visual literacy strategies into content areas.
Discovery Education-search for images
Here are a few suggestions:
Fotobabble: Turn an image into a talking photo/image. Students would upload an image into Fotobabble, and then record their thinking. Share their "babble" via a web link, email, twitter, embed in blog or website. Also app version available.
Educreations: Students could sequence several images and create a video of their discussion as they scroll through and construct knowledge about the images on each slide. Since we want students to be able to connect ideas/concepts, this would be a great way to synthesize information from a variety of images. Educreations includes tools to annotate as the students discuss the details within the image. Share easily through email, link, embed on website or blog. App version also available.
PicCollage: Available through Itunes and Google Play. Teachers could use this as an initiating or hook activity in which the teacher creates a collage of images related to an upcoming topic or unit. The students would closely observe the collage. Then generate questions/wonderings which would foster ownership of the learning, since the inquiry questions would be student generated. Or students could create a PicCollage on a device, and then upload the image into one of the other tools mentioned above.
Tellagami: One of my favorite tools that all ages can utilize with ease. Available for iPhone, iPad, and Android. There is a new paid EDU version which would be worth exploring. Students could create and share a 30 second video. Students would upload the image they have been analyzing into the app, choose an avatar, and then in 30 second record new understandings. The video saves to the camera roll and since the clips are only 30 seconds, you can email them or merge them into another app like iMovie.
COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS LANGUAGE ADDRESSED WHEN UTILIZING VISUAL THINKING STRATEGIES:
- Speak audibly and express thoughts, ideas, and feelings clearly.
- Ask and answer questions.
- Write opinion pieces, supporting point of view with reasons.
- Explain how illustrations contribute to the story.
- Acquire and use accurately, grade-appropriate conversational, general, academic, and domain specific words.
- Write informative and explanatory texts.
- Write narratives.
- Use information presented visually to demonstrate understanding of character, plot, and setting.
- Engage effectively in collaborative discussion, building on the ideas of others, and expressing ones own ideas clearly.
- Determine the main idea and supporting details of information presented in divers media, including visually.
- Explain how information presented visually contributes to the understanding of text.
- Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively.
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