Week 4: Visual Literacy

ü  Reflect on Feldman & Yenawine

·      Consider the two authors’ comparison of visual & verbal literacies.

·      Consider where your own students as a group and as individuals fall on this continuum.

·      How does this translate into aesthetic stages?

Reflect on Walker Chapter 6 & discuss your strategy/rationale for the sequencing of VTS images, artmaking, and other instructional activities in the unit you are developing.

Visual literacy is as Yenawine said: ‘’the ability to find meaning in imagery.” In the 21^st century, the world is becoming  “a world picture”, so understanding visual images has become essential skills even for those who can read and write well in the language of words. Everyone must learn to read images because our culture is increasingly represented and perceived in visual terms. It is interesting by comparing visual and verbal literacies. As Housen said: “Today, words do not resemble the ideas or objects they stand for.” We read verbal literacy as symbols and pay attention to the arrangement and syntactic meanings. Visual literacy actually is based on the same operation. However, “Readers of images have more sequential options than readers of sentences.” It makes it possible that all viewers at different levels can get information from the same image based on their previous knowledge and background. The most important thing is that there is a language of images and that it can be learned. So to teach visual literacy is crucial for our art educators.

My students, according to Housen, are between Stage I and II. As “pre-literate”, they see things through their own life experiences and also want to be able to make more informed. So I always select images that encourage a narrative reading and relate to familiar contexts and activities. I also challenge them by using some contemporary artwork. When they are curious about the artist’s intention, they begin to compare and contrast, try to read the concepts behind the image. My unit plan is based on the big idea memory. The idea is easy to understand even for young kids. I want them explore their own memory and relate artworks from professional artist that present the idea memory. I hope they could find their own way to present their memory visually.