Visual Teaching Alliance

All Blog Posts (756)

Resource List for Visual Spatial Learners

Books

Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual Spatial Learner by Linda Kreger Silverman, the pioneer of the Visual Spatial Learner concept. Published in 2002, this book provides vast amounts of information, checklists and strategies for Visual Spatial Learners.

Right Brained Children in a Left Brained World: Unlocking the Potential of Your ADD Child by Jeffrey Freed 1998 - Specific techniques for teaching visual spatial learners reading, writing, spelling and… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on September 30, 2009 at 10:31am — No Comments

Visual Blooms

Reposting Links and Resources originally posted on my blog at http://digigogy.blogspot.com

Digital Bloom's Visual

I was playing around today trying to create a visual representaion of a Digital version of the new Bloom's hierarchy. I'm either going to link the images in this illustration directly and publish on a wiki or I will come back here and provide all the links in a list format, separated by Bloom's level. If you're… Continue

Added by Michael Fisher on September 28, 2009 at 2:12pm — No Comments

Visual Learning Style: Verbal/Nonverbal

The Visual/Verbal Learning Style

You learn best when information is presented visually and in a written language format. In a classroom setting, you benefit from instructors who use the blackboard (or overhead projector) to list the essential points of a lecture, or who provide you with an outline to follow along with during lecture. You benefit from information obtained from textbooks and class notes. You tend to like to study by yourself in a quiet room. You often see… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on September 28, 2009 at 11:11am — No Comments

Picture This: Visual Literacy Activity #4

Create a Portrait that Tells a Story

Make an environmental portrait of a person important to you.

Overview

A good portrait reveals aspects of a person's character to the viewer. In an environmental portrait, the person portrayed is placed in a setting that shares information about the person's life and/or interests. The person may also be holding objects related to their professional trade or interests and hobbies. In this activity, students will… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on September 25, 2009 at 10:54am — No Comments

Picture This: Visual Literacy Activity #3

Sunprints:

Make photographs without a camera!

Overview

Sunprints are photographs made with sunlight and special paper that changes color when exposed to sunlight. Because the paper is light sensitive, objects placed on top of the paper will leave a magical shadow image on the paper when exposed to sunlight. No photo chemicals are needed to develop sunprints. Simply rinsing them with water completes the process!

Length of… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on September 24, 2009 at 10:09am — No Comments

Picture This: Visual Literacy Activity #2

WRITING

Secret History

Unearth your own history in a photograph!

Overview

Would how you think about a photograph change if you knew you were related to people in the photograph? Students will explore family photographs that previously may have been unknown to them and learn new stories about their family. By using old family photographs in this activity, students will learn the history of their own families. In addition, they… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on September 22, 2009 at 10:07am — No Comments

Picture This: Visual Literacy Activities

"All of us are watchers - of television, of time clocks, of traffic on the freeway - but few of us are observers. Everyone is looking, not many are seeing."

- Peter M. Leschak

Why is visual literacy important?

We live in an increasingly visual culture. We are surrounded by images everywhere in our lives. By looking at and studying photographs with your students, you will help them better understand the complexities of their world.

Visual… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on September 21, 2009 at 10:19am — No Comments

The Essentials of Visual Literacy Learning Practice

Abstract: Research indicates that the use of visuals in teaching leads to a higher level of learning. Understanding the basic concepts of pedagogy in visual literacy is essential in order to effectively and efficiently design curriculum. Instructional designers need awareness of the following points to allow for good practices.

Effects of Instruction

Pedagogy

Thomas, Place, and Hillyard advocate a university curriculum “that facilitates… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on September 16, 2009 at 12:30pm — No Comments

Visual Literacy and 21st Century Skills

What does it mean to be visually literate?

Can students interpret, use, appreciate, and create images and video using both conventional and 21st Century media in ways that advance thinking, decision-making, communication and learning?

enGauge 21st Century Skills for 21st Century Learners

Visual literacy skills are part of a larger skill set known as 21st Century Skills. This skill set is comprised of skills that embody 21st Century Literacies,… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on September 14, 2009 at 10:25am — No Comments

Painting Poetry: Using Visual Representation as a Response to Literature

Overview

Interpreting a poem using visual representation encourages students to think critically about what a poet is trying to say and the means he or she uses to convey these ideas. It also helps students better understand their own beliefs about a poem. As students create visual art and then write interpretations of the completed pieces, they enter into a relationship with the poem and construct meaningful connections by integrating personal experience, language, writing,… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on September 11, 2009 at 9:53am — No Comments

Drop That BlackBerry! Multitasking May Be Harmful

Ever find yourself chatting via instant messaging while checking your e-mail and surfing the Web? Well, don't pat yourself on the back for your super-productive behavior.

Expert: "The findings suggest there may be a cost associated with becoming an expert multitasker."

A new study suggests that people who often do multiple tasks in a variety of media -- texting, instant messaging, online video watching, word processing, Web surfing, and more -- do worse on tests in which… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on September 10, 2009 at 11:10am — No Comments

A Global View of Strategies for Visual Spatial Learners

I have been following the development of Linda Silverman’s model of the visual spatial learner (as distinct from auditory sequential) since the article “Invisible Gifts, Invisible Handicaps “was published in April 1994. The model proposes that some gifted children show the characteristics of a gifted visual spatial learner but have problems that prevent them from being good auditory-sequential learners. The model has become well accepted because many parents of gifted children who were… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on September 8, 2009 at 10:35am — No Comments

An Open Letter to JS Bach on Visual-Spatial Music

Dear Mr. Bach:

Thank you for taking time from your day to read my letter. I assume the subject of music continues to be of interest to you. If I am wrong, please feel free to toss this aside.

First, I would like to thank you for all that you have composed. Your music is of great importance to me. To give just one example, in 1991 my wife and I attended the Christmas Eve Concert at Carnegie Hall. A string orchestra played your Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. Throughout the… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on September 2, 2009 at 3:13pm — No Comments

Visual Learning Tools: Using Poster Prints in the Classroom

Educational research estimates that visual learners make up 65% of the population, while auditory learners and kinesthetic learners make up 30% and 5% respectively. Teachers should always keep this in mind when they are teaching in the classroom. Custom poster prints can be a great way for educators to integrate visual learning elements into the classroom. Here are 5 great ideas on how to utilize poster prints in the class room.

Science Example:

Conduct a visual… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on August 31, 2009 at 10:08am — No Comments

The Natural Honesty in Visual Communication

As teachers, we are constantly in search of that one modality we can best plug-in to. Some students are auditory learners…others, tactile, while many are visual learners. The challenge is to find the best approach in identifying that strength, then finding many ways to tap into it.

Visual learning is often the strength behind the success of the student. Using photography as a tool to enhance this strength is a wonderful way to captivate and motivate these students. Photography is a… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on August 26, 2009 at 10:03am — No Comments

Museum Education Strategies

In a museum setting, students and educators have a wonderful opportunity to look at original artwork up close and talk to museum staff who may have additional information about the artwork.

Follow an inquiry-based methodology in which they pose questions to inspire responses and thoughtful study of the artwork. This encourages viewers to spend an extended period of time studying and discussing a selection of photographs. As the guide facilitates the discussion, students make… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on August 24, 2009 at 9:57am — No Comments

Strategies for Building Visual Literacy

Active learning is key to the development of visual literacy skills. While students learn best through creative hands-on projects, discussing and reflecting on images deeply informs their image making and builds their understanding of how images communicate. Discussing images is an opportunity for learning interactively with peers and teachers and for making clear one’s ideas by talking through them.

To hold active discussions, educators need to develop their own questioning… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on August 21, 2009 at 11:17am — No Comments

Visually Literate Detectives

In London by Ernst Haas, we see many expressions of seeing: a glance, a stare, a regard, a study, and non-seeing—averted eyes, the backs of heads. We see pictures within pictures, each offering limited glimpses of life on London streets in 1951. At the same time that these mirrored reflections offer bits of information, the photograph withholds. The photograph invites and challenges us to see.

As visually literate detectives, we detect, decode, and synthesize the information from the… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on August 19, 2009 at 6:25pm — No Comments

Reflecting on Images

Spending time looking at and thinking about images is an activity that needs to be encouraged. In The Intelligent Eye, David Perkins proposes doing a “seeing,” or writing for 10 minutes a stream-of-conscious response to art. Part of this process involves asking yourself questions that focus more and more on specific attributes of the artwork, describing what you see—from the literal subject to the formal qualities—and then interpreting what you see. As Perkins says, “By looking longer and in… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on August 18, 2009 at 7:03pm — No Comments

Developing Visual Learning Skills

Visual imagery can play a powerful role in accelerating human learning. Complex verbal explanations can often be simplified through visual support – now made more accessible through new technologies. And organised learners use a range of low-tech techniques to make sure that their notes are well-ordered and easy to navigate. These include colour coding, post-it notes, highlighters, etc, to help categorise, prioritise and make the work user-friendly. Many of our students also use a range of… Continue

Added by Timothy Gangwer on August 15, 2009 at 11:36am — No Comments