We live in a visual world and learning to communicate and to learn by using images & visuals is a skill we all need. Our students consume visual media daily, they communicate with each other via images (Snapchat, Insta, TikTok) and when given a chance to draw or doodle students tend to remember more information.
I have collaborated with several teachers to create projects that combine research + visual literacy, for example, with social studies students selected a pre-colonial civilization and had to create a flyer with 3 unique elements from that culture. See a bad sample and a good sample. With this activity students not only needed to complete research on 3 unique elements they had to figure out how to be selective with the information they were sharing since they had limited space. They had to find images that were appropriate and connected with their topics. They had to use visual literacy and make sure they used fonts/colors that complemented each other. I have also used a combination of images & text to create book reviews. See Sample. We have also done a quick lesson on using mindmaps to take notes. See How to Mindmap. See sample.
Lately, I have been using Adobe Spark to create flyers using their templates because I’m normally not that creative but having something to react to is a great way to help me get started.
Inma,
ReplyDelete"We live in a visual world and learning to communicate and to learn by using images & visuals is a skill we all need." I love the opening comment you posted. Today's world is focused on technology and how we can utilize it for our gain. In education, students can learn so many new skills of how to implement technology to show they understand information, as well as use types to gain higher level knowledge in a specific content. Reading about you teaching typography and awareness to the visual effects of font is such an important task. Students understanding how to show information as well as reading it can come in handy in the future. We continue to drive student lead instruction and focus on their learning through each other. This process is better done with technology and all the collaboration it allows. I enjoy using Adobe Spark for flyers; great tool? What are some other applications you have used?
Sorry Forgot to leave my name: Mike Marotta
DeleteHi Mike,
DeleteThank you for your thoughtful comments. I enjoy using Lucidpress and Lucidcharts. I find Lucidpress relatively easy to use and the end product is really nice. I just started using Adobe Spark to create book trailers and love it because it is so simplistic- minimal editing- which sometimes can be a blessing because students will want to spend hours finding the perfect image. I have been trying to emphasize students the importance of summarizing the information they wanted to share and how they paired that up with images.
Inma
Hi Inma,
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of a visualized book review! Sometimes it's hard to get out of the rut of assigning writing assignments for everything. Finding out the students' takeaways from a text and their opinion of the work is something that is essential in showing us, the educators, that we're projecting the author's work in a successful way. Your Google examples were blocked so I requested permission, but I still love thinking about the idea of applying visuals to textual interpretation. Having students create a collage of their opinion of a text - i.e. having onomatopoeias, images of the text mixed with visual examples of their reactions, with a short write-up (can never fully escape it) sounds like a blast!
Andy Wilhoit
Hi Andy,
ReplyDeleteSorry my samples were blocked, I'll try to solve it and give everyone access.