Encouraging Visual Literacy in Classroom

They say - ‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’ Complex and sometimes multiple ideas can be conveyed by a single still image more effectively than a verbal description.

When taught visual literacy to students from an early age, it develops their ability to comprehend, make meaning of, and communicate through visual means, in the form of images or multimedia.

Here are the important elements of Visual Literacy

When teaching visual literacy, teachers should encourage students to look out for the following elements while they make observations in an image/illustration:

Facial expressions

Let students look at the characters’ face, eyes, mouth, and eyebrows in the illustration to identify what mood or feeling, the characters are expressing. Teachers can start by showing students pictures of different facial expressions or ask students to act them out.

Focal point

Illustrators play with scale and proportion to draw attention to a certain part of the image for a specific reason; it can be for showing power & authority, or vulnerability & submissiveness. So, teachers can ask students where they think, the centre of activity or attention lies. When they look at the image, which part of the image grabs the attention of the students.

Clothing 

Teachers can ask students to observe the clothes that the characters in the illustration have worn, to get an idea of the traits of the characters. It helps students to understand the characters’ daily life & work. In addition, they can also try to find connections between the clothing and the setting in the illustration.

Setting

Let students examine the background of the image/illustration and try to identify a specific region/continent/ country and time of day/season shown in the illustration. 

Objects

Teachers can ask students to observe the objects in the illustration; it could be an object that the character is holding. For instance, if there is a travel bag/luggage in the character’s hand, it shows that the character is going on a trip. 

All such observations, helps students to better understand the content and teaches them how to communicate a message through images/visuals.

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