Creating Visuals
Overview
When students express information visually, they are activating more cognitive processes while problem solving and increasing their experience with alternate texts. Artistic expression allows learners to exhibit what they know in ways that respect their out of school literacies and Background Knowledge, increasing Motivation and retention of information. Creating artistic representations of knowledge helps learners fully immerse themselves in content knowledge and allows teachers to differentiate instruction to reach their learners.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch how this high school history teacher uses visual storytelling to reinforce student understanding of historical concepts. Students are given examples and are expected to create a script and storyboard to guide their projects. They create and manipulate paper images to explain different historical concepts. Starting at 6:57, the video breaks down how to physically set up this project with students and culminates with the finished product.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
See how Google drawings can be used to create visuals individually and collaboratively. Teachers can build interactive assignments that involve visual responses. Students can also visually depict their understanding by drawing things like mind maps, infographics, and diagrams with the provided shapes and images.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Active Learning Strategies
Physically acting out a text or enacting major themes from texts enhances reading comprehension, particularly as texts become more complex.
For adolescent learners, the Composition process can become more robust, as learners begin to express ideas through multiple media, which includes visual, audio, and digital production.
When preparing for and debating with peers, students analyze, form, and express verbal arguments, fostering their critical thinking and literacy skills.
During reading, giving students the opportunity to explain their thinking process aloud allows them to recognize the strategies they use, solidify their comprehension, and move knowledge into their Long-term Memory.
Visiting places connected to classroom learning provides opportunities to deepen understanding through firsthand experiences.
Games help students practice their literacy skills in a fun, applied context.
When students write from a non-dominant or marginalized perspective, they consider and give voice to points of view that are often missing.
Project-based learning (PBL) actively engages learners in authentic tasks designed to create products that answer a given question or solve a problem.
Response devices boost engagement by encouraging all students to answer every question.
