Visual Literacy
“Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be ‘read’ and that meaning can be communicated through a process of reading.” (12) Students live in a picture-saturated world where images are everywhere and can be taken with you electronically. So to learn how to read a picture they need strategies to help them discover and access meaning for themselves.
Analysis
We will work with the art teacher to focus on analyzing the artists’ technique and analyze why this technique, medium, and materials were used to communicate an image. Who are the audiences for each of these paintings or art work? What are the clues? What are one or two adjectives that could describe each image? We will chart this discovery on large charts for the students to use for future reference when they are creating their own art. These reflections and adjectives will propel students into creating their own art when working on the tapestry creation.
Read an image quad
This is a technique which will help students to work through some steps that will allow them to be able to interpret an image. Students will study the image and note some descriptive words. Then they will try and connect it to other images or experiences to create a sense of meaning. One way to accomplish this is to just draw a simple representation of the image(s) in the center of your notebook page, divide the surrounding page into quadrants, and then jot down your ideas in each of the four corner areas. This will allow for thoughts in each quadrant about that section of the art. What did they see, notice or wonder while viewing this piece, those are the ideas that will be written on this note-taking sheet. This exercise could even be color-coded by quadrant to helps students to access their thoughts and ideas at a later time period.
Comments: