Teaching Students, Not Just Standards, With Visual Literacy

from ASCD: author Lynell Burmark (Visual Literacy: Learn to See, See to Learn) blogs about the importance of the visual world of students in this blog post.

Drawn Into Manga

Reading manga is different than reading a book, even different than reading comics, but manga can get kids reading. NCTE Commission on Media member Peter Gutierrez is quoted here.

Literacy Accountability in a New Media Age

A middle school teacher's commentary in the current issue of Education Week urges his fellow educators (and test producers) to consider the kinds of texts young people attend to today. "Reading video, images and other multimodal texts," he says, "demands just as much critical thinking and analysis as a challenging excerpt from Moby Dick."

Media Literacy & The Fog of War

Two professors at Teachers College, writing in an Education Week op-ed, make a compelling argument for media literacy education in the nation's schools. They write: ".. now, more than ever, we must teach students to read between the lines—to become media critics who understand who controls and shapes the information and images we see."

Visual Literacy: Comparing Obama Magazine Cover Images

As we all know, the news depends on visual images, as much as the written word, to communicate. With that in mind, I have gathered together three recent current events/news magazine covers, all of which represent President Obama as a doctor. I have created a simple one page handout that you might decide to use with your students. Let me know what you think.

Using Visual Literacy to Help Adolescents Understand How Images Influence Their Lives

This article, from the July/August issue of "Teaching
Exceptional Children," provides educators a six-step strategy to teach adolescents about visual literacy, or how to read images and think critically about what they see. This strategy is designed for students both without and with physical disabilities.

Bringing Visual Literacy into the Classroom

NCTE's weekly blog offers educators a host of resources for incorporating "visual literacy" into instruction. This blog was also referenced. Thanks NCTE !