The Power of Images

I like things to be pretty. That doesn't mean they must be feminine. I appreciate it more when things have soothing or matching colors, items are organized well, and everything has a home (i.e. clutter free). I love creating routines and analyzing situations/things to find out what works and what doesn't work. Some say I have a touch of obsessiveness, but I haven't found it to be a bad thing yet. It's more like a motivating factor that helps me refine things. Except when things take me longer because I can't stop refining ;) 

This tendency has had a big impact in how I design lessons. When we went one-to-one in 6th grade last year it opened up a door for me to create lessons that have color, engaging fonts, and images. I know it's not true for everyone, but for me, I'd much rather do work when it looks nice and not on a plain, white and black worksheet. It comes to life more when there is depth, a variety of structure, and opportunities to engage in concepts beyond writing words and drawing lines to connect vocabulary words (which are valuable tools at times, but not something that is engaging ALL the time).  

And because I like pretty things, and I like designing graphics, I try to give students the opportunity to practice this skill at times, too. I hadn't even heard of visual literacy, but I wholeheartedly agree that it is an important skill to teach our students. Images and photos are no longer just art or the documentation of experiences. According to Sara Briggs, images "are now emerging as a new language, one that promises to be both more universally understood and accessible to anyone" ("Why Visual Literacy is More Important..."). 

So we owe it to our students to teach them how to view images. And how to think critically about the pictures they are seeing. In our upcoming lesson we will be exploring the oil industry. The goal is to understand that humans use the boiling point of different hydrocarbons to create products that fit our needs. We also want to touch on how humans have impacted the world by using oil-based products. I want students to be able to create a model of this process and to create an infographic showing one aspect of the oil industry. So, I have to first teach them about infographics, visual literacy, critical thinking, and what makes an image engaging so the viewer actually wants to look at it and read the information. 

I'm planning to introduce the concept by first having students do an image search for infographics just so they know what I'm talking about when I use the word. Then we're going to watch a video that explains just how valuable they are in communicating information in our world. 

I also want to teach them about visual literacy. They need to be able to think about the images they are looking at, to be critical thinkers and not just consumers when we see images. I found a video that can help explain this and share the significance of visual literacy. 

Then I think we'll go back to the infographic image search and start picking apart aspects of infographics so students can see what makes them engaging and how information is presented. We'll discuss the power of an infographic and what they think about them and the way they view images in their life. 

Then we'll be ready to start brainstorming and working on our own infographics about the oil industry. Stay tuned for more updates on how my plan worked and student examples!