Asserts that picture books offer a unique opportunity for children to develop visual literacy because they are able to return to the visual images in books to explore, reflect, and critique those images. Reviews 71 works of children's fiction in which the main characters engage in meaning making through art. (PRA)

Describes how alphabet books may be used to develop children's visual and verbal literacy. (DD)

A playful series of activities using the "Yellow Pages" as a resource. (Editor)

Notes that new literacies use computer graphics to tell a story, demonstrate a theory, or support a definition. Offers a functionality framework for assessing the value of computer graphics for early literacy learning. Provides ideas for determining the value of CD-ROM software and websites. Concludes that graphics that give text meaning or…

Suggests that the teacher who wants to lead children toward visual literacy and eventually to reading and writing skill must help children explore what they themselves perceive and how and why they perceive it. (TO)

Specific learning activities to increase the visual literacy of elementary students by involving them in the production of their own materials are described. (DE)

Presents students' drawings that resulted from a discussion of literary works and their illustrations. (RL)

Guidelines for talking about art with elementary students are presented. A critical factor in developing children's art talk experiences is an organized, well rounded, and well developed plan that recognizes the differences between talk about student art and more general talk about professional art. (RM)

A discussion of television advertising's impact on children and what teachers can do to guide children in their viewing of television. (DD)

In an interview, designer and filmmaker Saul Bass discusses the nature of creativity and the creative process and his work in the visual arts and their implications for education. (HTH)

Explores students' understanding of the visual aspects of their own multimedia presentations. Suggests that students need access to a metalanguage in order both to explain their own visual designs and to develop more sophisticated and critical understandings about how visual texts are constructed. Contends that teachers require an understanding of…

Considers that in order to be successful offering visual art lessons in the classroom, pre- and inservice teachers must develop a deeper more conceptual understanding of the power of art to communicate meanings, beliefs, ideologies, and experiences. Suggests teacher enroll in a high-quality arts course, create some authentic works of art, use…

Describes two hours in the life of an eight-year-old to demonstrate that children acquire information and develop language skills from multiple sources. Argues that the conceptualization of literacy must be broadened from reading and writing skills to a definition that recognizes the layering of information and that includes all forms of the…

Presents annotations of 29 children's books that provide multiple perspectives that range from the viewpoint of the character to stories from a culture, information garnered from extensive research, insights from history, and interpretations of art. (RS)

Finds the current emphasis on technical accuracy and neatness in handwriting limits the role of drawing in children's construction of text. Suggests this has adverse consequences for development of pupil confidence, particularly in boys. Argues that teachers need to be more understanding of differences in the modes in which pupils choose to make…