Historically, comics have been viewed as a "debased or simplified word-based literacy," explains Dale Jacobs, who considers comics to be complex, multimodal texts. Examining Ted Naifeh's "Polly and the Pirates," Jacobs shows how comics can engage students in multiple literacies, furthering meaning-making practices in the classroom and beyond.

In a one-week voluntary summer course, students aged twelve to seventeen eagerly take ownership of their composing processes, learning to connect terms such as focus and point of view to the visual and verbal acts of photography and writing. High school teacher Mike Stracco grapples with how to channel the vitality of his summer course into…

Dawnene D. Hassett and Melissa B. Schieble contend that literacy instruction must include attention to the multiple ways in which print and visual images work together. They propose ways to update accepted reading strategies "with visual texts and new literacies in mind." Using examples from picture books and graphic novels, they expand our…

More than two decades ago, a well-known study pointed out that despite the marked increase in images of women in secondary history textbooks, the narrative emphasis on political, diplomatic, and military history had not changed. While this study raised awareness of gender balance in the social studies curriculum, little attention has been paid to…

This paper reviews two studies of color preference and the relationships between color and legibility. The Gustin study in 1991 dealt with the legibility of and preference for projected slides with colored backgrounds and white text. The order of background color preference was cyan, blue, green, yellow, magenta, and red. The follow-up study by…

One possible explanation of the differences between blind and sighted persons (McKinney, 1964; Attneave & Benson, 1969; Warren, 1970) is that vision is the primary spatial reference, and inputs from other modalities are fitted to a visual map. Several criticisms of this theory are adduced. (Editor/RK)

An attempt is made to discuss current models of information processing, learning, and development, thereby suggesting adequate methodological strategies for research in visual literacy. It is maintained that development is a cumulative process of learning, and that learning and memory are the result of new knowledge, sensations, etc. over a short…

This student manual is part of a kit that is designed to teach the use of visual language as a means of communication and self-expression. It provides space for note-taking and information the student needs to execute the practice projects assigned by the teacher. Three appendices in it offer a glossary of terms, bibliography, and brainstorming…

Behavioral objectives for visual literacy experiences are briefly delineated. The objectives concern skills related to: informative visual communication, persuasive and/or visual communication, general visual communication, visual concepts, and reading visual materials, as well as aesthetic and/or recreational skills. For example, the behavioral…

An update on multimedia resources about mass media for use with students or for teachers' own information. (DD)

Discusses visual and verbal literacy, how they relate to each other, and the role of visual literacy in communication among people. (JEG)

In interactive media, it is the spaces between the text that are as important to read as the text itself. Visual literacy is a vital form of reading in an increasingly pictorial world. This paper examines the grammar of visual literacy by analyzing the discourse of a group of adolescents and the way they interpret multi-layered, seriated, and…

A background review of the three major current approaches to the study and teaching of film set in the context of a specific course in film study. (CH)