Professional resources – visual literacy.

In Monday’s post I wrote about infographics as illustrated in How to Land a Jumbo Jet. However entertaining or inspirational this book is, understanding and creating graphics falls within the broader concept of visual literacy.  Many of the ‘skills’ needed to analyze, interpret and create pictorial representations of information are embedded within the curriculum.  Critical thinking, classification, sequencing, deductive and inductive reasoning, hypothesizing and critiquing are skills found in the all the content areas.

Following are a few recommendations for books that will help you develop your understanding of visual literacy and the potential that it has in the classroom to engage students.

Teaching Visual Literacy: using comic books, graphic novels, anime, cartoons, and more to develop comprehension and thinking skills edited by Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher (372.6 FrT 2008).

            Well, the subtitle pretty well covers it.  This book is a collection of essays that will give some basic background information, with chapters focussed on specific aspects of visual literacy.  Besides the formats listed in the subtitle. there are chapters about using picture books, films, and political cartoons and about how students with disabilities can be supported in their learning through visual literacy.

Visual Impact, Visual Teaching: using images to strengthen learning by Timothy Gangwer (2^nd ed.) (371.3028 GaV 2009).

            This one provides a solid overview of the different types of learning and how visual learning fits into almost any teaching environment.  Gangwer is very big on using photos and having kids do the picture taking. He provides many examples of classroom situations to illustrate his points. Half the book is activities that will engage students in different ways.in all content areas (language arts, math, science and social studies) and also in arts and humanities, environmental education, life skills, enhancing self-esteem and global holidays.

Visual Tools for Transforming Information into Knowledge by David Hyerle (2^nd ed.) (371.3028 HyV 2009)

            This one gets a lot more specific, focussing on specific tools. As listed in the book, these include: brainstorming webs for fostering creativity and open mindness; graphic organizers for fostering analytical content and process specific learning; conceptual mapping for fostering cognitive development and critical thinking; and Thinking Maps, a unique synthesis language of visual tools.

Developing Visual Literacy in Science K-8 by Jo Anne Vasquez et al. (507.1 VaD 2010).

            Though this one does focus on science it also provides an overview or ‘primer’ about visual literacy. The authors touch on the best known tools such as graphic organizers, conceptual maps and brainstorm webs but also delve into ‘3-D graphic organizers (foldables).

However deserving teachers are of their summer breaks, many also will get caught up on professional reading.  It may be that one of these titles will help you further your understanding and add to your instructional practices for visual literacy.

Journal entry #6 - Legacy wrap-up.

So, I met with the teachers from Nellie McClung last week, feeling a little trepidatious.  With all the reading and selecting of books I’d done over the past two months, was I going to be able to offer anything concrete?  My own ideas about legacy made me see how personal an idea like legacy can be.  Also, that in using the word legacy, humans construct what it is that is being left for future generations.  For example take the legacy of 9/11 – What is the legacy of 9/11? When do we decide what it is – 1 year after the event, 5, 10 or more?  Does it change over time?  Legacy is something we make up to denote that something is being left behind, something important.

I presented the teachers with a rough draft of an Inspiration mind map as well as an outline organized into broad concepts, not organized by grade.  I did this to accommodate the overlap between the grades on particular points that the teachers had given me in June from their brainstorming sessions.  Some examples are interconnectedness, nature/natural world, inspiration, intention, and mindfulness.  I made a distinction between the natural world and humans.  Under the heading Human World, I further distinguished between the individual, the family and then the community.  Community started with Calgary went to Alberta, then to Canada and finally to the world.  There were many subtopics under these headings as well.  This allowed me to organize the resources into some kind of logical frame.  Well, it was logical to me, at any rate.

In terms of resources – let’s just say I had heaps and heaps of books (probably close to 300) from every section of the library.  I had both new and older materials but tried to focus mostly on the newer ones.  There were so many great resources to share.  I don’t know how many times I told them “You have to read this” or “You really must take a look at this one.”  I know, I know. Pushy, pushy…but at least I’m enthusiastic.

I do intend to publish the mind map after somehow meshing the questions and outline I generated plus attaching a bibliography of some the books I selected.  I’ll add it to the Doucette Library homepage under our Books for Big Ideas .  It’s the ‘when’ I’m less certain about.  Sooner rather than later would be good, I know.  This all depends on what else comes up this fall once the academic school year starts.  I’ll post something here when I get it up, to let those of you who are interested know.

I had a few comments as the session went on.  The one that sticks with me and I think is really pertinent, is that most of the topics I focused on were fairly dark (ie., Holocaust, poverty, residential schools, child labour, nuclear bomb, BP oil spill, Cold War, 9/11, etc.).  Not sure what to say to that except these are events that are current or big and powerful in nature, so they stick in my mind and offer lots of potential for discussion and investigation.  Not to say that there are no ‘big’ positive events.  I just didn’t think of them or didn’t have books to support them.

Overall, the teachers seemed to have enjoyed the presentation and it got them thinking about what they might want to focus on or bring into their classes around this incredible idea of legacy.  It’s a start.

Thanks to the teachers at Nellie McClung Elementary School for including me in this year’s big idea.  I hope I get a little feedback to hear how it turned out (hint, hint…).

Super Modeling – Mapping

“Makeup!”  “Hair!”  “Clothes!”  “Work it! Work it!”…

No, no, no.  Not that kind of modeling.

I’m talking about finding inspiration and models for your teaching and class activities that will have your students gripped by whatever they should be learning.  And where is this inspiration to be found?

Where to begin… There are so many fantastic resources from which you can borrow ideas, base or model your own work.

One resource I feel really stands out is Children Map the World (912 Ch 2005). 

This book shows how kids can think about geography with more insight, depth, and creativity than the typical ‘colour-in-the-countries-of-the-world’ exercises I got when I was in elementary school.

Embedded within each map/picture is a deeper understanding of some aspect of global concern perhaps touching on environmental issues or conflict or appreciation for diversity of life.

One of my favorite pictures is from an 11-year-old Polish boy entitled “Will the future look like this?”  It is a well executed drawing showing the continents outlined against a predominately placed, murky, dirty sun with pollution spewing factories placed in the foreground.  The title as a question is brilliant as there is a sense of hope that this is not a forgone conclusion that we can make a difference. There’s a lot going on here.

This book can work across the grades.

Another book, perhaps best suited to lower elementary, is My Map Book (823 F213M PIC BK).  Here the mapping is as much about geographical thinking as it is about establishing identity.  Ideal for grades 1 and 2.  This girl maps her bedroom, the schoolyard, her family, her dog and best of all, her heart showing all the things she holds dear.

If you’d like more recommendations for resources about maps, mapping and geographical thinking see the following link for an Inspiration mind map with attached bibliographies.

http://wcmprod2.ucalgary.ca/doucette2/geographical_thinking

So, ends part 1.  Over the course of the next few blogs I’ll present other resources that I think will provide great and engaging models for you to think about using in your class.

The What About Who

New year and a new mind map for the big idea IDENTITY.  http://wcmprod2.ucalgary.ca/doucette2/Books_for_Big_Ideas

Some of you may be familiar with the Inspiration mind maps that I’ve developed around big ideas or questions which are ‘exploded’ into a wide range of subtopics and then supported with resources found in the Doucette Library of Teaching Resources.

Last fall I was working with teachers around the idea of identity and realized that there was enough really interesting stuff to work with that would be worthwhile in sharing. Identity is one of the core concepts found in the K-12 social studies curriculum program here in Alberta.

PLEASE, do not take this as a fully developed unit or lesson plan. This is a way for me to show how to make a mind map, ways of developing questions, and then providing a ‘jazzy’ bibliography.

Click on Identity from the list to find out how to use the mind map and discover the lists of fabulous resources to support plus some of my behind-the-scenes thinking in developing the questions and subtopics.

Let me know what you think.