VISUAL LITERACY

(PELINA, CARLOS JADE & CAPAROSO, RACHEL)

Learning Outcomes:
1. Describe what is Visual literacy and enumerate different visual-teaching strategies.
2. Demonstrate different techniques and strategies in teaching through Visual literacy.
3. Value the importance of Visual Literacy in teaching on 21st century learners.

What is Visual Literacy?

Visual literacy is the ability to make sense of a whole range of visual information
essentially to be able to ‘read’ visuals, appreciating and being able to interrogate or analyze both
literal and inferred meaning. It also refers to effectively using images to communicate meaning.
Just as spoken and written language have receptive and expressive elements, so does visual
language.

Visual literacy skills include the ability to:

 Interpret images.
 Analyze the meaning of images.
 Evaluate images and their sources.
  Use images and visual media effectively.
 Design and create meaningful images and visual media.
 Understand the wider context surrounding the creation and use of images and visual
media – including ethical, legal, social, and economic issues.

Visual Literacy Tools

 Narratives - Visual narrative includes the photos and videos we see in front of us every
day.

 Question asking - Ask to develop their students' visual literacy skills.

 Spoken-word poetry - Visual poetry at its best foregrounds its materiality, calls attention
to the conditions of its production, reminds readers that they are reading a poem

 Drama - Drama provides the context to improve writing skills, develop realistic
dialogue, and extend vocabulary.

 Writing - Writing is the

ability to compose text effectively for various purposes and audiences.
 Digital communication - The
ability to critically read, understand and analyze and to produce meaning from
information and messages presented in visual, digital texts, to communicate and transmit
visual messages effectively, to create and produce presentations expressing visual
messages, by consideration and selection of how to present them.

 Images - These learners can quickly remember faces and places as they manage to
recollect details by picturing them in their minds.

 Videos - Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback,

broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video is a medium that presents audio
and visual images to an audience live, recorded or a hybrid of both.

Example video:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hYYl1vkNBE

Elements of Visual Literacy

 Salience - Salience is how the viewer's eye is drawn to what is important in the image.
An aspect of an image can be highlighted by placement in the foreground, size of the
object, and contrast in tone or color.

 Vector - A vector is a line that leads your eye from one element to another. A vector may
be a visible line or an invisible one. It can be created by such things as against, pointing
fingers, or extended arms.
 Text style - Visual literacy involves closely examining diverse visual texts across a range
of text types. Text types include non-fiction, textbooks, picture books, art,
advertisements, posters, graphic novels, comic strips, animations, film clips, web pages,
and more.

 Symbols- the use of symbols to represent ideas, feelings, or qualities. Visual literacy is
the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the
form of an image.

 Positioning - To make something look powerful and commanding the eye or the camera
is positioned below the subject in a low-angle shot, looking upwards. To create a sense of
equality between the subject and the viewer, the camera is positioned at eye level.

 Omissions - The technique of omission and suggestion is based on the omission or

deletion of a subject due to the object of the advertising, or a proposal for a new purpose
that can be used by the subject of the advertising.
 Layout and Composition - the creative activity of placing objects within a frame. When
painting a picture, we are choosing where to place shapes and dots, and lines on a two-
dimensional plane.

 Framing - “Framing” in this context refers to using elements in the scene to surround
some parts of the image to draw the viewer's attention to the subject.

 Color - Color can be used to express and develop ideas in images, for interacting and
relating with others through images, and for composition and structure of images.

 Body language and Gaze - Facial expressions, gestures, stance, or position – can convey
the attitude, feelings, or personality of the individual shown. Take note of the direction of
the subject's eyes.

 Angle and Perspective - Angle is often used to convey a point of view. To make
something look powerful and commanding the eye or the camera is positioned below the
subject in a low-angle shot, looking upwards. To create a sense of equality between the
subject and the viewer, the camera is positioned at eye level.