Teacher background

Reading Online: New Literacies
The New Literacies section of the International Reading Association Web site features discussions of media literacy, critical literacy, and visual literacy.

International Visual Literacy Association
The International Visual Literacy Association Web site includes information about the organization, including its annual conference and the Journal of Visual Literacy.

It's the Thought That Counts (thinking in art)
This is a handout on teaching thinking in the art classroom, from a presentation by Dr. Craig Roland, of the University of Florida, at the 2001 National Art Education Association Conference in New York City.

Arts for Learning
The Arts for Learning Web site provides a searchable database of arts programs and resources for teaching and learning, as well as online discussions.

VUE (Visual Understanding in Education)
VUE conducts educational research and develops programs for schools and museums on Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). The VUE Web site contains an explanation of VTS, sample lessons, and summaries of research.

Student Activity Sites

An Artrageous Hat and What if...?
An Artrageous Hat asks students to imagine they had a hat that would help them think like an artist. They then use their mental picture to create a hat using a paper plate and colored colored construction paper. In What If?, students choose a "What if?" question, then draw or paint a picture showing how life would be changed by this new condition.
From The Art Room, University of Florida School of Art and Art History

Comic Creator
This interactive tool invites students to compose their own comic strips for a variety of contexts (prewriting, pre- and postreading activities, response to literature, and so on). The tool helps students use visualization for a variety of purposes such as writing, summarizing a story or genre study.
From Read-Write-Think, the International Reading Association

Draw a Math Story
Students draw a series of pictures which depict adding more or taking away objects; they then write a story to go with the pictures they've drawn. Finally, equations are written which symbolize the adding and subtracting written into the stories. The exercise shows how visualizing math concepts can help students improve mathematics problem solving.
From Read-Write-Think, the International Reading Association

Every Picture Tells a Story
Students learn that illustrations can help them to understand the elements of a story, including the characters, setting and plot, and can also help them to decipher unknown words.
From ArtsEdge, The Kennedy Center

Literary Doodle
This interactive tool helps students to visualize what they are reading by combining the process of drawing with analytical thinking about a text.
From Read-Write-Think, the International Reading Association

The Radio
This site provides musical selections that show how composers visualize using music: Channel 2 features "music about things so great that they need music to describe them;" Channel 4 shows how an orchestra can sound like many different kinds of animals; Channel 5 features stories told by the instruments of the orchestra.
From SFS Kids: Fun With Music, The San Francisco Symphony

What If?
Students use a flow chart or other graphic organizer to visualize answers to a "what if" question. They learn how graphic organizers can help to show how all parts of a problem fit together, and to plan a discussion or an explanation.
From Visual Literacy K-8, Steve Moline/Black Cockatoo Publishing

Send Postcards from the Concert
You could do this lesson as a followup to the Visualizing interactive in the student area. Students listen to music written to depict weather and seasons, then write a postcard describing their response to the music.
From Read-Write-Think, the International Reading Association