Multimodal Literacies MOOC’s Updates
Visual Literacy in classroom
Brain Kennedy, Director, Toledo Museum of art says that “Visual Literacy is the ability to construct meaning from images. It’s not a skill. It uses skills as a toolbox. It’s a form of critical thinking that enhances your intellectual capacity.”
Here I share an activity example that we can use in our lessons.
Lesson: English
Topic: Movies
Grade of students: 9th
First we show poster of a movie and ask students to answer these questions.
1) What can you see?
2) How does it make your feel?
Subject Matter: What is the topic of the movie? Who and what are in the image? What is the image about?
Color: How is color used in the image? What effect do the colors chosen have on the viewer?
Angles: Are we looking from above or below? What is the camera angle? How does this affect what we see and how we feel about it?
Symbols: What symbols are used in this image? What do you think they represent? Are the colors that were chosen symbolic?
Vectors: Can you see the major lines in the image? Are they broken or unbroken? How do the lines create reading paths for our eyes?
Lighting: Can you describe the lighting used in the movie. How does it affect the ‘mood’ of the movie?
Gaze: What type of look is the character giving? Where is their gaze directed? What does this say?
Gesture: What type of gestures is the character giving? What is communicated by these gestures?
Shapes: What geometric shapes can you recognize in the image? Do they repeat? Is there a pattern? Is order or chaos conveyed?
3) What is the image trying to tell us?
Importance of Visual Lİteracy in the classroom
- It is more memorable
-It is transferred faster
-It enriches Understanding
- It increases enjoyment
source: https://www.literacyideas.com/teaching-visual-texts-in-the-classroom