Andy's New Literacies Reflection- Visual Literacy

New Literacies Reflection- Visual Literacy

Learning about visual literacy actually taught me a lot about myself as a teacher and a learner. I realize now for example why I like using different type of visual in my lesson plans so much. By seeing how I comprehended meaning much better from visuals and text than I would have with just text alone shows me how much of a visual learner that I am. I believe that having an image to back up texts makes an incredible difference in the meaning that I take away from any type of text. Visual literacy is excellent for ESL learners as well because it helps break the language barrier between teacher and student. ESL students are able to interpret meaning and build on different types of literacy skills while becoming familiar with the English language at the same time. I don’t believe that there is any doubt that the forms of media that I worked with when learning about visual literacy can’t be called a form of literacy and apart of Language Arts curriculum. Using different types of visual literacy’s in your classroom can help build up language art skills as well as help facilitate their comprehension and ability to use the skills they already possess. I could easily see how I could have incorporated more types of visual literacy into the lesson that I already gave to my third grade class. Using a voicethread or a google map would have helped me illustrate the theme of my lesson as well as build upon the lesson objectives that I had planned for the lesson which were:

Reading
Students will…
R.CM.03.01- connect personal knowledge, experiences, and understanding of the world to themes and perspectives in text through oral and written responses.

Listening/Viewing (response)
Students will..
L.RP.03.03- respond to multiple text types listened to or viewed knowledgeably, by discussing, illustrating, and/or writing in order to reflect, make connections, take a position, and/or show understanding.

Voicethreads and google maps use visuals which students can relate with their own lives, prior experiences, and understandings of the world while learning new information. Both of the examples also use multiple types of texts which they listen to, view, discuss and reflect on, make connections with, take positions, and even show their own understandings. For example students could listen/watch a voicethread about World War 2 which addresses information that they just learned in the lesson you are working on to help make more connections. Or you could assign your students to make their own voicethreads to present to the class which showcases their understandings of a topic that they are working on in your class. These understanding among others have really helped me adjust my understanding of what literacy is as well as how beneficial incorporating visual literacy in you classroom can be both for both teachers and as a students. As a teacher it allows you to vary away from the traditional Language Arts lesson while still at the same time teaching multiple skills and understandings to your students which creates a more effective literacy instruction overall. As a student, it allows them to make more connections to what they are learning and facilitates to all kids but especially students who are ESL or visual learners.

Coming into this year I thought that literacy only involved reading and writing. I associated literacy with reading books and writing papers primarily because that was what I was accustomed to working with in Language Arts before college. I now realize that literacy can be much more than just reading and writing and that it can include multiple types of media such as pictures, videos, maps, and much more. While researching and making my project I began to realize how information and ideas could be extracted from images which don’t even have any type of text on them. For example, I looked at multiple voicethreads that teachers made to make Venn diagraphs, stories, and literacy projects. I realized after watching a few of the examples that I was definitely learning something from the thread and that it was definitely more interested than just reading about it. I also realized that mashing visuals and texts with one another could further increase the amount and the authenticity of what is being learned. Having both visuals and text allow students to make multiple connections with what is being presented to them. This can help students make connections to their own background knowledge, interpret the meaning through multiple sources, and facilitate multiple types of learning styles. They also call upon using more skills and being more engaged in what you are learning as well. I learned for instance that by creating your own mini lesson through a movie maker or using videos on YouTube, you can teach a mini lesson or incorporate them into a lesson you are already teaching (such as fractions). From this project I learned that literacy involves much more than simply reading and writing, it involves listening, visualizing, and interpreting with different types of media to convey meaning.