Below you will find a collection of resources I have used to support the development of student reading and comprehension. Many of the learning experiences are scaffolded using thinking routines adapted from the work of Ron Ritchhart and templates from Sheena Cameron and Louise Dempsey. Please visit the thinking routines tab to find out more about each of the routines.

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VISUAL LITERACY

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Every picture tells a story.

Visual literacy is being able to make sense of what we see in pictures through interpreting, understanding and evaluating visual messages.

As so much information our students encounter on a daily basis is communicated visually, it is important that our students learn what it means to be visually literate. Those who create visual images do so with a purpose in mind, using certain techniques. In order to read or analyse an image, the audience (students) must be able to understand the purpose and recognise the techniques. 

For younger students or students beginning their journey of explicitly analysing visual images, start with using the thinking routine See Think Wonder to support them as they begin to piece together key pieces of information and messages found within a visual image. When students are becoming more confident using this structure combine it with the routine What Makes You Say That? to help them form an explanation for their thinking. 

Useful Sources:

There are some great websites you could access to help support visual literacy. Here are the ones I recommend:

What's going on in this picture?

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