Visual Learning

Visual Literacy aided by the Internet

Visual literacy is critical to the learning process. Students need to see what they are learning about and how it applies to what they are being taught. Often teachers believe that if they have more words displayed on the Smart Board that students will learn more about the material, but in most cases the opposite is actually true. Students can learn more from pictures that do not contain words or have little wording then items that are only words and no pictures.  The use of the Internet is a great way to get visual literacy into your classroom. The internet allows you to find images quickly and easily to display for all students to see while you are teaching them a new skill or concept. After the lesson has been taught there are many educational internet programs that students can use that will help them fully understand the material that was just being taught to them. These educational programs have lots of visuals that help aide in the learning process for students. As 21^st century learns are in my classroom I want the role of the Internet to be more and more. The Internet is not going away anytime soon and my students should be exposed to it in as many different ways as possible. The internet aids my teaching and should be used to its full potential when appropriate for all different subjects being taught.

Two strategies I would use in my classroom would be when starting a new topic with my students I would put up a picture that is related to the new material or story we are going to be learning about. I would not explain the picture to them, I would only ask them to look at this picture for a minute and think about what you see.  After the minute was up students can share with their partners, group, and whole group their thoughts on the picture. After a 5-10 minute discussion on the picture then I would explain to them the meaning behind the picture and how it leads into the next topic or book we are going to be talking about. Another strategy that can be used is showing a picture on the board to the students and allow them to write down as much as they can about this picture in 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes is up allow the students to share in their teams what they wrote about, this can be used as a quick write and allows the students to focus and get their brain flowing with ideas. It allows for creativity and the practice of writing.

 

 

 

Implementing a Variety of Strategies

Students learn all different ways; visually, aurally, and hands-on. As a teacher you have to make sure you are meeting each and every one of your student’s needs. This can easily be done if you are using a variety of ways to provide your instruction, always sitting in front of the class and lecturing your students is not going to reach each and every one of them. But using projects they can use their hands on and visuals that are colorful and full of meaning will help reach all of your students.

Students of the 21st century need a variety of instructional strategies to keep them focused and involved in their education. There is so much technology to be used and if teachers are not using this technology and interacting with their students, the students will not focus and want to learn. Technology allows the teacher to have tools to aid him or her in their instruction that holds the student’s interest and willingness to want to learn. Technology not only allows the students to want to learn but it keeps the teacher on their toes, making sure the newest technology available is being used and implemented in the classroom.