A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!!

Visual Literacy Facts:
•Our brain process images 60,000 times faster than text. (3M)

•Our children are more visually literate than previous generations:
many express themselves using images. They are able to weave together images, text, and sound naturally. From Educause. . . Transforming Education through Information Technology

•Transfer (actual learning) improves 89% when images are integrated into the instruction Lynell Burmark Ph.D.

•Images are stored in long-term memory. Lynell Burmark Ph.D.

Understanding
Visual Literacy
Skills

The nature of information on the Internet requires students to use visual literacy skills in order to comprehend all of the information being presented in the web page. Students will need to critically analyze and interpret messages within images. Inferencing skills will be necessary for students to gain information from the images that they encounter.Visual literacy relates to a person's ability to interpret and create visual information to understand images of all kinds and use them to communicate more effectively.

Visit the enGauge website to learn more about this 21st Century Skill!

For more ideas and information check out these articles by Jamie McKenzie
Wondering With and About Images

Images can make powerful slam dunk lessons

Title This Lesson (click to download)

Evaluating a Photo Lesson

Notice it Name it Lesson

Synthesizing Example (click to download)

Who is the Leader? (click to download)

Photo Foolery by National Geographic

Real or Hoax Picture Website

10 X 10 Website

Ideas for Visual Literacy - Questions to consider (click to download)

Sites to use to find photographs for your lessons:

FlickrStorm - a website where you can find creative common copyrighted photos and create a tray of photos you choose.

Flickr Toys - a website where you can create trading cards, movie posters, picture cubes and lots more with your photographs

Flickr Related Tag Viewer - a website that offers ideas of other tag words for the word that you type in

DK Clip Art This mini site will help support class and homework activities with downloads of DK's famous photographs that can be included in your school projects. They can also be used just for fun!

KidsClick Image Search Tools

Library of Congress - Digital Memory Collection

NOAA Photo Library The NOAA collection spans centuries of time and much of the natural world from the center of the Earth to the surface of the Sun.

Civil War Images contains 1,118 photographs. Most of the images were made under the supervision of Mathew B. Brady, and include scenes of military personnel, preparations for battle, and battle after-effects. The collection also includes portraits of both Confederate and Union officers, and a selection of enlisted men.

Berlin Wall No other photographer has worked longer on the Berlin Wall than Jürgen Müller-Schneck. His photographs begin in the seventies and end in the early nineties, during the construction boom. Many photographs belong to the turbulent period of the fall of the Wall in November 1989.

Astronomy Picture of the Day Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

How to's

Click here to download a sheet that explains how to create a tray of photos (click to download)
Click here to download a simple how to for Comic Life (click to download)
Click here to download some sample Comic Life Projects (click to download)
Click here to download a how to add an image to Word document (click to download)
Click here to view a movie that explains how to create an iPhoto Slideshow

**Turn to a partner at your table and share at least one idea you will try in your classroom that integrates visual literacy.