The use of images is becoming more pervasive in modern culture, and schools must adapt their curricula and instructional practices accordingly. Visual literacy is becoming more important from a curricular standpoint as society relies to a greater degree on images and visual communication strategies. Thus, in order for students to be marketable in…

Using technology to enhance literacy has been viewed in different ways by educators. Some teachers believe that new developments will fundamentally change literacy instruction; others think that technology is simply a new tool to use with old teaching methods. The question of how new technologies impact literacy instruction in K-8 classrooms is…

The purpose of this paper is to express the importance of visual/media literacy and the teaching of critical television viewing. An awareness of the properties and characteristics of television--including camera angles and placement, editing, and emotionally involving subject matter--aids viewers in the critical viewing process. The knowledge of…

The purpose of this paper is to explore another facet of visual literacy--technical visual communication (TVC)--and to discuss how this new perspective can further strengthen visual literacy as a discipline. Unlike visual literacy, which looks to a desirable state of affairs, TVC addresses the nature of actual visual communication. Both visual…

The perceptual bases of visual literacy are explored, drawing on research into the interpretation of pictures by viewers not familiar with pictorial representation. Research has indicated that inexperienced viewers do not find it difficult to recognize pictures that may be discrepant in color or shape from a familiar object, but may be troubled by…

Connecting the curriculum of the K-12 classroom with the "curriculum of the living room," this book helps teachers and library media specialists maintain a viable program of visual (or media) literacy by presenting background information on the visual literacy movement and dozens of effective strategies and classroom activities that are ready to…

This 535-page document includes more than 60 papers presented at the 20th Annual Conference of the Visual Literacy Association. Topics cover a wide range of visual literacy interests: computer generated graphics, message design, desktop publishing, photography, critical viewing skills, memory enhancement, and the development of visual…

Music can exert a positive effect on a reading program both in complementary skill development and as a means of forcing task attention. These positive effects have been documented in research. Both music and reading require skills such as auditory and visual discrimination, reception, and association; eye-motor coordination; interpretation; word…

Deconstruction is a critical literary theory which focuses on the unintentional meanings of a text and aims to achieve an unprejudiced, value-free vision of the social and political power structures in society that combine to produce the text. The development of such critical skills in advertising students will deepen their ability to judge the…

This study reviews historical thinking about visual literacy, addresses the issue of setting visual literacy's parameters, and provides a philosophy to link individual theories in this multidisciplinary movement. The report examines the roots of the visual literacy movement and the seminal literature in the field. It includes a categorizing of…

An effective way to teach literature to students accustomed to electronic media is to use prose and poetry as raw materials for the production of photography projects that translate print into more familiar and exciting forms. Studies confirm that "visual literacy" should be an important part of a modern student's education. "Picture reading," an…

High School teachers from Idaho and Utah describe several experience-oriented teaching strategies that exemplify what teachers can produce when given support to undertake sustained curriculum development. (Author/JH)

Discusses the Super-8 film format for high school classroom use. (CH)

Educating the child to be visually literate may help solve such educational problems as lack of motivation, irrelevancy and inefficient learning. (JH)

It is necessary to provide a comprehensive program of visual literacy skill development to provide a firm foundation for reading comprehension. A taxonomy of visual literacy can suggest an outline for such a program. Once the student has been made aware of the desired thought processes in familiar contexts, it is then appropriate to guide the…