I could tell you about the love I feel for my first granddaughter. Or, I could show you the photo:

Which is faster? Which is more memorable ?

Today, clearly, we live in a visual world. Our news comes to us through visual media:  illustrated magazines  newspapers,  movies and television,  streaming video from the Internet.

Thanks to televisions, Iraqi Freedom unfolded in our living rooms.

Visuals bring emotions and feelings to the learning process. And who can ever forget the planes crashing into the twin towers of the world trade center on September 11th?

The average teen has watched about 22,000 hours by the time she graduates from high school. (Compare this to the 12,500 hours spent sitting in classrooms!) Our children have grown up with television.

Our children are constantly bombarded by visuals _- - television, video games, computer graphics, digital cameras, bill boards, cell phone graphics, and movies.

Today, our children are coming to the very visual medium of computers at an earlier and earlier age… Young people learn more than half of what they know from visual information

. As Educators of 21 st century students, do we have a responsibility to teach with visuals?

As Educators of 21 st century students, should we teach how to evaluate visuals?

If a picture can stimulate the memory, and the memory becomes the learning then…

As Educators of 21 st Century students, we must take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way.

As Educator of 21 st Century Students, we must learn to become Visually Literate and teach Visual Literacy in our day-to-day classroom activities!

How do we learn which visuals to use? How do we learn how to use those visuals? Where do we start?

Let’s start at the very beginning.

How do we define Visual Literacy?. The International Visual Literacy Association defines visual literacy as: the ability to discriminate and interpret visual texts, while gaining meaning from them.

A visual text is anything with which we make meaning with images, or patterns and sequences. What is a visual text? motion pictures signs maps paintings photographs illustrations charts graphs diagrams billboards cartoons advertisements

Block Diagram with Cutaways A block diagram shows a "piece" of the subject as if it had been cut like a slice of cake and placed on a plate.

Tree Diagrams

Color key head body abd ome n leg man dible ante nna eye Key features Clear outlines Colors identify parts of the subject. Heading Color key names parts of the subject without cluttering the diagram with lines and arrows. Color Key Diagram Simplifies its subject and makes generalizations.

Comparisons can also be made with a Venn diagram. This kind of diagram helps us to find similarities as well as differences: Venn Diagrams

Exploded Diagram An exploded diagram separates the parts of a subject so that each part can be seen clearly.

Bar Graphs

Column Graph

This is a "What if?" activity. Many skills are involved: brainstorming ideas, problem solving, visualizing how all parts of the problem fit together, and planning a discussion or an explanation. explanation What if Graph?

Line Graph Bar Graph

Photographs Science History

Teach students to evaluate what are the meaning of photographs

Color, Line, Perspective, Shape, Space, Texture Value.

A storyboard can be used to show growth, change or development. Each step is a separate image that shows how the subject changes over time. Story Boards

Children’s Books

Flow Chart A flow chart is a visual text that shows a series of steps in a sequence.

Mystery webs Mystery webs are web diagrams that help with comprehension and learning. They are suitable for creating curiosity about a new topic before you begin it; revising a topic that has just been completed. You are also introducing children to the use of web diagrams, sometimes called concept maps.

Maps

Many information texts use visual elements Many visual texts are accessible to all readers Many visual texts are complex, multilayered texts Visual texts communicate certain information more clearly than verbal texts Visual texts are widely used in electronic media Visual literacy is a life skill

To recount use: Time Lines To recount use: time lines, graphs, matching, illustrations matching with purpose To explain use: pie graphs, flow or web charts, diagrams To report use: flow maps, diagrams, maps, labels, diagrams,

Visual texts bird’s eye view column table cross sections column graph context maps flow diagram how to diagramsflow chart concept maps

Organizing use: lists, bird’s eye view, timelines, labeled diagrams, cross sections, graphs using with information skills Presenting use: power points, videos, web pages, wikis Assessing use: tables, graphs,