ABSTRACT
Visual literacy isn't just a fun add-on for students after our 'regular' language arts work is done. Rather, understanding and employing visuals is a critical component of what we teach our students. When considering still images, educators such as Burmark, Kajder, Moline, and Ray give us a variety of entry points into studying visual literacy. The author shares how his students respond to existing visual content that they can find online, how they remix visual content into new projects, and how they create their own, original content using infographics. And he briefs list of the many types of visuals his students experience over the course of a year, both as consumers and as creators: photographs, slideshows, Web sites and charts and graphs. Then the author demonstrates and mentors them throughout the writing process with narrative, informational, and argument genres, he guides them through the process of analyzing existing visuals, as well as creating their own.
