Brain Kennedy, Director, Toledo Museum of art says that “Visual Literacy is the ability to construct meaning from images. It’s not a skill. It uses skills as a toolbox. It’s a form of critical thinking that enhances your intellectual capacity.”

Here I share an activity example that we can use in our lessons.

Lesson: English

Topic: Movies

Grade of students: 9th

First we show poster of a movie and ask students to answer these questions.

1) What can you see?

2) How does it make your feel?

Subject Matter: What is the topic of the movie? Who and what are in the image? What is the image about?

Color: How is color used in the image? What effect do the colors chosen have on the viewer?

Angles: Are we looking from above or below? What is the camera angle? How does this affect what we see and how we feel about it?

Symbols: What symbols are used in this image? What do you think they represent? Are the colors that were chosen symbolic?

Vectors: Can you see the major lines in the image? Are they broken or unbroken? How do the lines create reading paths for our eyes?

Lighting: Can you describe the lighting used in the movie. How does it affect the ‘mood’ of the movie?

Gaze: What type of look is the character giving? Where is their gaze directed? What does this say?

Gesture: What type of gestures is the character giving? What is communicated by these gestures?

Shapes: What geometric shapes can you recognize in the image? Do they repeat? Is there a pattern? Is order or chaos conveyed?

3) What is the image trying to tell us?

Importance of Visual Lİteracy in the classroom

- It is more memorable

-It is transferred faster

-It enriches Understanding

- It increases enjoyment

source: https://www.literacyideas.com/teaching-visual-texts-in-the-classroom