what is visual representation in language arts

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Common Core in Action: 10 Visual Literacy Strategies

Do you wish your students could better understand and critique the images that saturate their waking life? That’s the purpose of visual literacy (VL)—to explicitly teach a collection of competencies that will help students think through, think about, and think with pictures.

Standards Support Visual Literacy Instruction

Visual literacy is a staple of 21st century skills, the idea that learners today must “demonstrate the ability to interpret, recognize, appreciate, and understand information presented through visible actions, objects, and symbols , natural or man-made.” Putting aside the imperative to teach students how to create meaningful images, the ability to read images is reflected in the following standards.

Common Core State Standards

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.7 : “Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.”
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.7 : “Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.”
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.6 : “Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.”
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.1 : “Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.”

National Council of Teachers of English Standards

• Standard 1 : Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts.

Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning Standards        

• Standard 9 : Uses viewing skills and strategies to interpret visual media.

On their own and without explicit, intentional, and systematic instruction, students will not develop VL skills because the language for talking about images is so foreign. Ever heard kids debate the object salience and shot angles of a Ryan Gosling meme? To add to the instructional complexity, visuals come in an assortment of formats, including advertisements, cartoons (including political cartoons), charts and graphs, collages, comic books and graphic novels, diagrams and tables, dioramas, maps, memes, multimodal texts, photos, pictograms, signs, slide shows, storyboards, symbols, timelines, videos.

How to Teach Visual Literacy: Visual Thinking Routines

The VL strategies described in the sections that follow are simple to execute, but powerfully effective in helping students interpret images.

Think-alouds : The think-aloud strategy—typically used to model how adept readers make meaning from a text (demonstrated in the following short video)—can be adapted for reading a visual artifact. After you model how to do it, have learners try this approach with a partner. Encourage elaborate responses. If you need a crash course in visual grammar before implementing this strategy in class, build your background knowledge with Discovering How Images Communicate .

Model Think-Aloud strategy from Derek Fernandez on Vimeo.

Visual Thinking Strategies:  Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is a specific approach to whole-class viewing and talking about art that primarily uses these questions:

• What do you notice?
• What do you see that makes you say that?
• What more can we find?

VTS encourages students to think beyond the literal by discussing multiple meanings, metaphors, and symbols. Used with all ages—elementary students (see the video below of kindergartners at Huron Valley Schools) up to Harvard medical students—implementation is simple. The weekly VTS lessons from The New York Times are a good place to start.

Visual Thinking Strategies

Asking the 4 Ws:  Inspired by Debbie Abilock ’s NoodleTools exercises, I developed the 4 Ws activity to help students make observations, connections, and inferences about an artist’s agenda and develop ideas about a work’s significance:

Five Card Flickr:  In Five Card Flickr , players are dealt five random photos. To promote VL, have students follow these steps:

• Jot down one word that they associate with each image.
• Identify a song that comes to mind for one or more of the images.
• Describe what all the images have in common.
• Compare answers with classmates.

During a subsequent discussion, ask students to show what elements of the photo prompted their responses.

Image analysis worksheets:  To promote analysis of key features specific to different formats, pick an appropriate tool from the National Archives:

• Photo Analysis
• Cartoon Analysis
• Motion Picture Analysis
• Map Analysis
• Poster Analysis

Step-by-Step: Working With Images That Matter

The following lesson is partially based on Ann Watts Pailliotet’s notion of deep viewing, a process that occurs in three phases:

• Literal observation
• Interpretation
• Evaluation/application

Remember the 1957 photo of Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan ? Eckford was one of the first African American students to attend the newly desegregated Little Rock High School. In the photo, you see her entering the school grounds while a throng of white students, most prominently an enraged Hazel Bryan, jeer. The photo was disseminated worldwide within a couple of days, uncorking new support for civil rights.

Here are the lesson procedures:

Literal observation phase:  Give students a hard copy of the Eckford and Bryan photo. To help them internalize the image, tell them to study it for one minute before turning it over and doodling a version of it from memory. Next, have students write what they observe—what is pictured, how space used used, etc.—in a shared Google Doc.

Interpretation phase:  Copy all the student-generated descriptions from the Google Doc, paste them into Tagxedo , and then project the resulting collaborative word cloud for the class to view. Invite students to interpret the word cloud while periodically re-examining the photo. What are the most important words? Which words do they have questions about? What other images are they reminded of, past or present? What messages are implicit and explicit? How did they analyze the photo? What do they understand now that they didn’t before? Then have students help you summarize the conversation.

Evaluation and application phase:  Direct students to write about the image’s relevance on notecards. Does the implied purpose of the photo convey ideas that are important? How? Is the image biased? How so? Take the postcards and pin them around the Eckford and Bryan photo to create an instant bulletin board.

To extend the lesson, show the following six-minute video, which narrates how Bryan, as a 20-year-old, apologized in person to Eckford. The video features a contemporary photo of both women, mature now, arm in arm, smiling in front of the once infamous Little Rock High School. Ask students: Does the video alter your reactions to the original image? How? Will you approach other socially charged photos differently? Why?

Final Frame

When reading was taught the traditional way, with printed texts, students accepted the authority of the author and received his or her message as a window on reality. In the 21st century, students need to respectfully question the author’s authority, articulate what is represented and how, and infer what has been excluded and why.

Teaching Visual Literacy and Visual Texts in the Classroom

VISUAL LITERACY DOMINATES THE INFORMATION ERA

For many people, the word ‘literacy’ conjures up an image of a library filled with dusty books. This is unsurprising given the importance the written word has played in all our lives, especially those of us who are too old to be considered ‘digital natives’.

Despite the importance of the written word in our schools, it is not the only means of widely sharing our thoughts and ideas. We are constantly bombarded with static and moving images in this Internet age. It is more essential than ever that our students develop the necessary visual literacy skills to navigate this image-intense world we all inhabit.

Screens of all shapes and sizes dominate our attention span; YouTube and various social media platforms have replaced the book as the primary source of entertainment in the blink of an eye, and this is unlikely to change.

In this article, we will examine some approaches to help you devise activities using visual texts and teaching visual literacy in the classroom. We will also suggest fun and meaningful activities you can use with your students today.

Firstly, however, we need to get to grips with precisely what we mean when we use the term ‘visual literacy’. We can consider the term as a general working definition referring to interpreting and creating visual images. Visual literacy is about communication and interaction, as with other types of literacy. While it has much in common with those other forms of literacy, it has some unique aspects that students will need to explore specifically.

What is Visual Literacy?

The basic definition of visual literacy is the ability to read, write and create static and moving visual images. This concept relates to art and design but has much broader applications. Visual literacy is about language, communication and interaction. Visual media is a linguistic tool with which we communicate, exchange ideas and navigate our highly visual digital world .

Luckily, when introducing visual texts to students, there is no shortage of options and examples, as can be seen below.

The term was first coined in 1969 by John Debes, who founded the International Visual Literacy Association:

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What Aspects of Visual Literacy Should Be Taught?

Visual literacy is more than just recognizing images or understanding graphics; it’s about comprehending, analyzing, and effectively communicating through visual means. As educators, fostering visual literacy among students is paramount in preparing them for a world saturated with visual stimuli. Here, we delve into the key components of visual literacy and explore how educators can cultivate these skills in their students.

1. Interpretation: Decoding Visual Information

Interpretation lies at the heart of visual literacy. Teaching students how to analyze and interpret visual information equips them with the essential skills to make sense of the visuals they encounter daily. Whether deciphering complex infographics, decoding symbols in artworks, or understanding the message behind advertisements, interpretation enables students to extract meaning from visual texts. Educators can facilitate interpretation by engaging students in activities that prompt them to analyze images, charts, graphs, and diagrams critically.

2. Creation: Empowering Students to Visualize Ideas

Encouraging students to create their own visual representations is a powerful way to enhance their visual literacy skills. By engaging in the process of creating visuals, students not only deepen their understanding of concepts but also develop their ability to communicate ideas effectively. Whether designing posters, crafting digital presentations, or producing multimedia projects, creation fosters creativity and empowers students to express themselves visually.

3. Critical Thinking: Evaluating Visual Messages

Critical thinking is essential for navigating the vast sea of visual media with discernment and scepticism. Educators play a vital role in developing students’ ability to evaluate visual messages critically. This involves teaching students to question the credibility of sources, recognize bias, and consider the creator’s perspective. Educators cultivate a generation of critical consumers and creators of visual media by engaging in discussions and activities that prompt students to analyze the intent and impact of visual content.

4. Ethical Considerations: Navigating the Complexities of Visual Representation

In an age where images can be easily manipulated and misrepresented, discussing ethical considerations is crucial in visual literacy education. Educators must guide students in navigating the ethical implications of using and creating visual content. This includes addressing issues of representation, authenticity, and the responsible use of images. By fostering conversations around ethical dilemmas and encouraging students to consider the ethical implications of their visual creations, educators instil values of integrity and respect in their students.

Incorporating these critical components into visual literacy instruction empowers educators to nurture students adept at interpreting, creating, and critically evaluating visual content. By equipping students with these essential skills, educators prepare them to thrive in a world where visual communication reigns supreme, enabling them to navigate and contribute meaningfully to an increasingly visual society.

Why is Visual Literacy Important?

Much of the information that comes to our students is a combination of both written text and images. Our students must be fully equipped to process that information in all its forms.

Considering how visually orientated we are as humans, it is no surprise that images have a powerful impact on us. Research shows that there is a wide range of benefits derived from improved visual literacy, including:

• Visual Information is More Memorable

One of the most effective ways to encourage information to jump from limited short-term memory to more powerful long-term memory is to pair text with images. Studies show that we retain approximately 10-20% of written or spoken information but around 65% when presented visually.

• Visual Information is Transferred Faster

Information presented visually is processed extremely quickly by the brain. The brain can even see images that appear for a mere 13 milliseconds. Around 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual in nature.

• Helps Students Communicate with the World Around Them

Traditionally, we think of teaching literacy as the two-way street of reading and writing. We can think of visual literacy as involving similar processes of interpreting images and creating images. In a fast-moving world, with an ever-increasing diagnosis of attention deficit disorders, we increasingly rely on images to quickly convey meaning.

• Enriches Understanding

While images can be used in isolation, they often accompany text or audio. Images can significantly enrich the student’s understanding of a text or other media, but to interact with these more profound levels of meaning, students must possess the necessary skills to access those depths.

• Increases Enjoyment

Not only does increased visual literacy enrich our students’ understanding of the media they consume, but it can also enrich their enjoyment—especially of visual art. If you have taken younger students to an art gallery, you may have heard protests of ‘This is boring!’

However, when students have a deeper understanding of the ‘meaning’ behind the art pieces, are familiar with the context around the art, have insights into the lives of the artists, or are experienced with some of the techniques that produced the pieces, they often derive greater pleasure from their visit.

The same is true of their engagement in terms of visual literacy. As informed readers of images in various modalities, students are exposed to the exciting dimensions of shape, color, texture, and more.

Creates More Educated Image Readers

In an era of fake news and ceaseless advertising, a responsible approach to educating our students must encourage them to become informed viewers of the world, including the media they engage with. Through the teaching of visual literacy, we can help students understand how the images they consume can manipulate their emotions and persuade them to act in a given way.

Supports EAL Learners

The use of images in the classroom can be of great benefit to students who come from non-English-speaking backgrounds. As these students travel on their road to fluency in English, images can provide an effective bridge in that learning process. While using images in the forms of flashcards, writing frames, etc, to teach EAL learners may be obvious, creating images by the students themselves can also be a great way to assess their understanding of more abstract concepts and vocabulary.

What Forms of Visual Text Are Used in the Classroom?

Students are exposed to a vast array of visual media. When we hear the jazzy term ‘visual text’ we may immediately think of its expression in the digital age, but the roots of visual texts stretch deep into our history; all the way back to our beginnings. Think of the cave paintings in Lascaux!

However, today, there are many more forms of visual text to consider. From cave walls to computer screens and all points in between, students are exposed to billboards, photographs, TV, video, maps, memes, digital stories, video games, timelines, signs, political cartoons, posters, flyers, newspapers, magazines, Facebook, Instagram, movies, DVDs, and cell phone wallpaper—to name but twenty! All these can serve as the jumping-off point for a lesson on visual literacy.

The digital age has opened the floodgate on images spilling into our consciousness and unconsciousness. The implications for visual literacy stretch far beyond the limits of the English classroom into all areas of our lives. From the math student interpreting graphs to the music student following musical notation or the geography student poring over Google Earth. For a multitude of purposes, in an array of modalities, visual literacy is ever more critical.

The Evolution Of Film As Visual Media

In the mid-20th century, the impact of film and television introduced new modes of information and entertainment consumption, dramatically influencing popular culture.  For the first time, we could tell a story simultaneously to three hundred people in a cinema as a shared experience in 90 minutes that previously may have taken weeks in isolation.

Whilst we rightly should explore the contrast between books and films as storytelling tools, the impact film has had on popular culture over the last century is incomparable.

In 1902, Georges Melies released “A Trip to the Moon”, which is generally regarded as the world’s first feature film.  At the time, this creativity was probably only achievable by less than ten people worldwide.

Within less than a decade, films were being produced globally. Shortly after, the film and television “industry” employed thousands of creative storytellers in Hollywood alone. 

As a result, Visual Literacy evolved from the filming of staged plays into an immersive and engaging storytelling method that transformed storytelling from hundreds of pages of text into  “lights, camera and action.”

In the second half of the twentieth century, we saw pockets of innovative educators draw upon film as a genuine study area, introducing students to new methods of consuming and creating narratives.

Today’s students would consume visual literacy over traditional text-based literacies by a factor of ten outside the classroom. However, we are still reluctant to teach it even though it is far easier and cheaper to create a video and share it with millions via YouTube than to get a book published and printed.

Furthermore, many of our students are completely uneducated as to the principles of visual texts. They cannot effectively comprehend or decode a film or television show from an informed perspective.

Identifying and Understanding Visual Literacy Clues?

“Visual Literacy is the ability to construct meaning from images. It’s not a skill. It uses skills as a toolbox. It’s a form of critical thinking that enhances your intellectual capacity.”

Brian Kennedy

Director, Toledo Museum of Art

Suppose visual literacy is about decoding meaning from images of various kinds. In that case, we must teach our students how to set about this intimidating task – just as we do when we teach them how to approach a written text. Regardless of the nature of the image, this process follows three general steps:

1. What Can You See?

Students must become familiar with Visual Literacy Clues (VLCs) to answer this. When students are familiar with these clues, they will have a method of approaching any image to decode its meaning. The VLCs are subject matter, colors, angles, symbols, vectors, lighting, gaze, gestures, and shapes. These categories provide an approach to examining the details of the various aspects of the image they are reading.

2. How Does It Make You Feel?

After the students have had time to note what they can see in the image through examination of the VLCs, it is now time for them to consider their emotional response to what they have viewed.

With close reference to the VLCs they have previously identified, students express how the image makes them feel and how it has influenced them to feel this way. They may feel anger, anguish, excitement, happiness, etc. There is no limit to the emotions they may refer to, provided they can point to evidence from the image. Here are some suggested questions to help the students explore their responses:

Subject Matter: What is the topic of the movie? Who and what are in the image? What is the image about?

Color: How is color used in the image? What effect do the colors choose have on the viewer?

Angles: Are we looking from above or below? What is the camera angle? How does this affect what we see and how we feel about it?

Symbols: What symbols are used in this image? What do you think they represent? Are the colors that were chosen symbolic?

Vectors: Can you see the major lines in the image? Are they broken or unbroken? How do the lines create reading paths for our eyes?

Lighting: Can you describe the lighting used in the movie? How does it affect the ‘mood’ of the movie?

Gaze: What type of look is the character giving? Where is their gaze directed? What does this say?

Gesture: What type of gestures is the character giving? What is communicated by these gestures?

Shapes: What geometric shapes can you recognize in the image? Do they repeat? Is there a pattern? Is order or chaos conveyed?

3. What Is The Image Trying To Tell Us?

This third aspect peels back another level of meaning to get to the image’s overall message. This question asks the students to delve into the intentions of the image-maker themselves. The genre of the image will be of significance here, too, as the student considers the nature of the image as art, entertainment, advertisement or a fusion of the various genres.

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Activities for the Teaching of Visual Literacy in the Classroom

1. caption a photograph.

Photographs are one of our students’ most familiar forms of visual media. Often, they see photographs accompanied by captions.

In this exercise, give copies of a single photograph to the class without captions. Their task is to closely examine the photograph individually or in small groups before writing a caption to accompany it. When students have completed their captions, they can compare them with each other before you reveal the true nature of the photograph.

Before writing their caption, you may wish to provide some supporting questions or background information. You may, however, wish them to go in blind to any background other than what they can deduce from the photograph itself.

This activity aims to reveal to the students how open a single visual image can be to interpretation. The students will gain awareness of the power of a caption to frame an image’s meaning, even if the caption is inaccurate.

Some suggested questions for students to consider:

• What people, objects, or activities can you see in the picture?
• Are there any clues as to when it was taken? What was happening at this time in history?
• Are there any clues as to where it was taken? Are there any clues to why it was taken or who took it?
• Is it a posed photograph? A natural scene? A documentary photograph? A selfie?

Extension: You may wish to use this activity as a lead-in to a more prominent topic. It can be a great introduction to draw out the students’ background knowledge and lead to a more extensive discussion or research project. This activity can also be easily adapted for various types of images, such as advertisements.

2. Engage with a Video Game

There is no doubt of two things when it comes to video games:

1. They get a bad rap

2. They are extremely popular among younger people

And while there is no doubt that there are some games on the market of dubious worth, as with any art form, there is much of merit and potential in this relatively new medium.

While there are obvious links to storytelling activities that can be made by examining the narrative of many video games, it may be much more interesting and useful to look more closely at how video games ‘work’ in terms of the overall experience.

Video games are immersive, multi-sensory experiences for players. This is a large part of their appeal. While written texts can appeal largely to our imaginative faculties, video games can also appeal to our senses of sight and hearing – and now, even touch can be incorporated. To have students focus on visual aspects of their gaming experience, give them a worksheet to make notes on that experience using the VLC categories listed above. This can create a great group discussion activity as the movie or game plays with the sound off.

3. Multi-Modal Comparisons

We are familiar with the concept of movie tie-ins. In days gone by, the response to the question “Have you read x?” was often a “No, but I saw the movie.” Nowadays the reply is just as likely to be “No, but I have the video game.” The triumvirate of the book—movie—game tie-in is fertile ground for some interesting text comparison work in the classroom.

Popular tie-in triplets include Harry Potter and the seminal Lord of the Rings. Use your students’ powers of visual perception to create this multimedia experience by selecting scenes from the original book and comparing how the scene is handled in the movie or video game.

Keep the focus on the visual elements in the latter two media. Encourage students to discuss, write, or prepare a presentation on how the movie or video game translates non-visual aspects from the text version into visual elements. Again, as discussed above, reference to the VLCs will be an important element in this activity. 

4. The Timeline

While the activities examined so far have focused on honing the students’ comprehension skills in relation to visual texts, this activity allows students to apply that knowledge to the creation of visual texts themselves.

Encourage the students to plot significant milestones in their lives on a visual timeline. They may use a combination of images and text if this aligns with your learning objectives and students’ abilities. However, do ensure you remind students how they can incorporate the VLCs into conveying meaning in their images.

This can also be a valuable activity in which to incorporate various aspects of IT skills. Students can perform advanced Google image searches to locate copyright-free images or use websites like The Noun Project to locate Creative Commons icons to help them make a slideshow version of their timeline on PowerPoint. A wealth of software applications can assist, many of which are freely available online.

Integrating Technology Into Visual Literacy Education

In today’s digitally driven world, technology offers a plethora of opportunities for both teachers and students to enhance visual literacy skills. By leveraging digital tools and resources, educators can engage students in dynamic learning experiences that foster critical thinking, creativity, and communication. Here are some ways teachers and students can use technology to enhance visual literacy:

• Interactive Multimedia Presentations : Teachers can use software like Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides to create visually engaging multimedia presentations. Incorporating images, videos, and interactive elements captures students’ attention and helps them understand complex concepts through visual representation. Additionally, students can learn to create their own multimedia presentations, enhancing their skills in visual storytelling and design.
• Digital Storytelling : Digital storytelling platforms such as Adobe Spark and Storybird enable students to combine text, images, and multimedia elements to create compelling narratives. By planning, creating, and sharing digital stories, students develop their visual literacy skills by making deliberate choices about visual elements to enhance the storytelling experience.
• Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) : VR and AR technologies provide immersive experiences that transport students to different locations, time periods, or scenarios. Teachers can use VR headsets or AR apps to explore historical sites, simulate scientific experiments, or visualize abstract concepts. By interacting with virtual environments, students develop a deeper understanding of spatial relationships and visual perspectives.
• Digital Art and Design Tools : Software programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Canva empower students to express their creativity through digital art and design. From editing photos to creating graphic illustrations, students learn to manipulate visual elements to convey meaning and evoke emotions. These tools also encourage experimentation and collaboration, allowing students to explore different artistic techniques and styles.
• Online Image Analysis and Annotation Tools : Websites and apps such as Padlet, ThingLink, and Skitch enable students to annotate, analyze, and interact with images collaboratively. Teachers can use these tools to facilitate discussions around visual texts, encouraging students to ask questions, make observations, and draw connections between images and other forms of media.

By integrating technology into visual literacy instruction, teachers can create dynamic learning environments that empower students to become critical consumers and creators of visual media. Through hands-on exploration and experimentation with digital tools, students develop the skills and con

Draw a Line Under It

In this article, we have touched the tip of that proverbial iceberg. The scope for using visual texts in the classroom is potentially limited only by our own imagination. While we have looked at several concrete examples of visual literacy-based activities in the examples above, the opportunity for building lessons around the myriad forms of visual texts is endless.

Whether utilising advertisements, internet memes, or classic works of art as the focus, start with the three broad questions outlined previously: What can you see? How does it make you feel? What is the image trying to tell us? These questions provide the basis for developing your learning objectives, and your activities can quickly be built around them.

The Visual Literacy Clues provide strategies for reading any visual text, whether moving or still images. The more practice students get using these strategies, the more fluent their reading will become. While for some students, these skills may take time to develop, remind them too that just as we can refer to images as visual texts, we can equally refer to written text as images themselves, as the letters on the page are themselves symbolic in nature.

If they can learn to read the complexities of the written language, they can be confident they can learn to read the visual world too.

Other great articles related to visual literacy

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Visual Language: Communicating Ideas Through Artistic Expression

Enter the bright world of the arts, where pictures and colors speak more than words ever could. This article examines the value of visual language and how artists convey concepts, feelings, and stories via it. Discover the common language that cuts across cultural barriers and speaks to the human soul as we go through the many artistic expressions .

The Essence of Visual Language

Learn the fundamentals of visual language and how it may communicate in ways that spoken or written language cannot. Investigate the ways in which artists use line, form, color, texture, and composition to communicate message and arouse feelings. Discover how visual clues like contrast, symbolism, and light and shadow add to the complexity and depth of creative expression.

Cultural Context and Symbolism

Examine the symbolism and cultural background that are included into the works of art. Consider how other cultures convey their distinct viewpoints and beliefs through symbols, themes, and visual metaphors . Learn how artists make works that resonate with certain audiences by drawing on cultural allusions, historical occurrences, and personal experiences, bridging the gap between individual expression and group comprehension.

Abstract and Non-Representational Art

Investigate the world of abstract and non-representational art, where the use of visual language becomes more individualized and flexible. Explore the universe of abstract motions, forms, and textures to encourage viewers to interact viscerally with the works of art and give them their own unique interpretations. Viewers are encouraged to explore their own visual and emotional responses as abstract art disrupts conventional conceptions of representation.

Narrative and Storytelling

Narrative creation and storytelling are frequently carried out through artistic expression. Learn how visual clues, composition, and sequential imagery are used by artists to tell engaging stories in their works. Witness the power of visual storytelling in captivating the imagination and delivering complex storylines, from prehistoric cave paintings and illuminated manuscripts to modern graphic novels and conceptual art.

Social Commentary and Political Expression

Politics and social commentary have long been expressed via art. Learn how artists have questioned authority, challenged established standards, and brought attention to current concerns throughout history. Investigate the visual language used in protest art, political cartoons, and socially involved works that reflects the artist’s function as a change-agent and a voice for the oppressed.

Embracing the Multilingual Nature of Art

Celebrate the multilingual nature of art, which combines a variety of artistic styles and materials to provide a complex tapestry of expression. Watch how artists experiment with new forms of communication and combine painting, sculpture, photography, digital art, performance, and installation. Accept the multiplicity and interdependence of creative languages, realizing that each one broadens the dialogue and our comprehension of the human experience.

Visual language transcends words, engaging our imagination and speaking directly to the human soul. We learn a global language that transcends cultural boundaries as we get immersed in the realm of artistic expression, engaging spectators in a discourse that goes beyond spoken language. Through their artistic expressions, artists remind us of the limitless possibilities of human imagination and the transformative potential of art. Let us embrace the power of visual language and appreciate the myriad ways in which artists communicate ideas, evoke emotions, and shape our understanding of the world.

Photo Attribution:

1 st and featured image by https://unsplash.com/photos/EP6_VZhzXM8

2 nd image by https://unsplash.com/photos/JaNvmkxVY74

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Visual Representation

What is visual representation.

Visual Representation refers to the principles by which markings on a surface are made and interpreted. Designers use representations like typography and illustrations to communicate information, emotions and concepts. Color, imagery, typography and layout are crucial in this communication.

Alan Blackwell, cognition scientist and professor, gives a brief introduction to visual representation:

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We can see visual representation throughout human history, from cave drawings to data visualization :

Art uses visual representation to express emotions and abstract ideas.

Financial forecasting graphs condense data and research into a more straightforward format.

Icons on user interfaces (UI) represent different actions users can take.

The color of a notification indicates its nature and meaning.

Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" uses visuals to evoke deep emotions, representing an abstract, dreamy night sky. It exemplifies how art can communicate complex feelings and ideas.

© Public domain

Importance of Visual Representation in Design

Designers use visual representation for internal and external use throughout the design process . For example:

Storyboards are illustrations that outline users’ actions and where they perform them.

Sitemaps are diagrams that show the hierarchy and navigation structure of a website.

Wireframes are sketches that bring together elements of a user interface's structure.

Usability reports use graphs and charts to communicate data gathered from usability testing.

User interfaces visually represent information contained in applications and computerized devices.

This usability report is straightforward to understand. Yet, the data behind the visualizations could come from thousands of answered surveys.

© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0

Visual representation simplifies complex ideas and data and makes them easy to understand. Without these visual aids, designers would struggle to communicate their ideas, findings and products . For example, it would be easier to create a mockup of an e-commerce website interface than to describe it with words.

Visual representation simplifies the communication of designs. Without mockups, it would be difficult for developers to reproduce designs using words alone.

Types of Visual Representation

Below are some of the most common forms of visual representation designers use.

Text and Typography

Text represents language and ideas through written characters and symbols. Readers visually perceive and interpret these characters. Typography turns text into a visual form, influencing its perception and interpretation.

We have developed the conventions of typography over centuries , for example, in documents, newspapers and magazines. These conventions include:

Text arranged on a grid brings clarity and structure. Gridded text makes complex information easier to navigate and understand. Tables, columns and other formats help organize content logically and enhance readability.

Contrasting text sizes create a visual hierarchy and draw attention to critical areas. For example, headings use larger text while body copy uses smaller text. This contrast helps readers distinguish between primary and secondary information.

Adequate spacing and paragraphing improve the readability and appearance of the text. These conventions prevent the content from appearing cluttered. Spacing and paragraphing make it easier for the eye to follow and for the brain to process the information.

Balanced image-to-text ratios create engaging layouts. Images break the monotony of text, provide visual relief and illustrate or emphasize points made in the text. A well-planned ratio ensures neither text nor images overwhelm each other. Effective ratios make designs more effective and appealing.

Designers use these conventions because people are familiar with them and better understand text presented in this manner.

This table of funerals from the plague in London in 1665 uses typographic conventions still used today. For example, the author arranged the information in a table and used contrasting text styling to highlight information in the header.

Illustrations and Drawings

Designers use illustrations and drawings independently or alongside text. An example of illustration used to communicate information is the assembly instructions created by furniture retailer IKEA. If IKEA used text instead of illustrations in their instructions, people would find it harder to assemble the furniture.

IKEA assembly instructions use illustrations to inform customers how to build their furniture. The only text used is numeric to denote step and part numbers. IKEA communicates this information visually to: 1. Enable simple communication, 2. Ensure their instructions are easy to follow, regardless of the customer’s language.

© IKEA, Fair use

Illustrations and drawings can often convey the core message of a visual representation more effectively than a photograph. They focus on the core message , while a photograph might distract a viewer with additional details (such as who this person is, where they are from, etc.)

For example, in IKEA’s case, photographing a person building a piece of furniture might be complicated. Further, photographs may not be easy to understand in a black-and-white print, leading to higher printing costs. To be useful, the pictures would also need to be larger and would occupy more space on a printed manual, further adding to the costs.

But imagine a girl winking—this is something we can easily photograph. 

Ivan Sutherland, creator of the first graphical user interface, used his computer program Sketchpad to draw a winking girl. While not realistic, Sutherland's representation effectively portrays a winking girl. The drawing's abstract, generic elements contrast with the distinct winking eye. The graphical conventions of lines and shapes represent the eyes and mouth. The simplicity of the drawing does not draw attention away from the winking.

A photo might distract from the focused message compared to Sutherland's representation. In the photo, the other aspects of the image (i.e., the particular person) distract the viewer from this message.

© Ivan Sutherland, CC BY-SA 3.0 and Amina Filkins, Pexels License

Information and Data Visualization

Designers and other stakeholders use data and information visualization across many industries.

Data visualization uses charts and graphs to show raw data in a graphic form. Information visualization goes further, including more context and complex data sets. Information visualization often uses interactive elements to share a deeper understanding.

For example, most computerized devices have a battery level indicator. This is a type of data visualization. IV takes this further by allowing you to click on the battery indicator for further insights. These insights may include the apps that use the most battery and the last time you charged your device.

macOS displays a battery icon in the menu bar that visualizes your device’s battery level. This is an example of data visualization. Meanwhile, macOS’s settings tell you battery level over time, screen-on-usage and when you last charged your device. These insights are actionable; users may notice their battery drains at a specific time. This is an example of information visualization.

© Low Battery by Jemis Mali, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, and Apple, Fair use

Information visualization is not exclusive to numeric data. It encompasses representations like diagrams and maps. For example, Google Maps collates various types of data and information into one interface:

Data Representation: Google Maps transforms complex geographical data into an easily understandable and navigable visual map.

Interactivity: Users can interactively customize views that show traffic, satellite imagery and more in real-time.

Layered Information: Google Maps layers multiple data types (e.g., traffic, weather) over geographical maps for comprehensive visualization.

User-Centered Design : The interface is intuitive and user-friendly, with symbols and colors for straightforward data interpretation.

The volume of data contained in one screenshot of Google Maps is massive. However, this information is presented clearly to the user. Google Maps highlights different terrains with colors and local places and businesses with icons and colors. The panel on the left lists the selected location’s profile, which includes an image, rating and contact information.

© Google, Fair use

Symbolic Correspondence

Symbolic correspondence uses universally recognized symbols and signs to convey specific meanings . This method employs widely recognized visual cues for immediate understanding. Symbolic correspondence removes the need for textual explanation.

For instance, a magnifying glass icon in UI design signifies the search function. Similarly, in environmental design, symbols for restrooms, parking and amenities guide visitors effectively.

The Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) website uses the universal magnifying glass symbol to signify the search function. Similarly, the play icon draws attention to a link to watch a video.

How Designers Create Visual Representations

Visual language.

Designers use elements like color , shape and texture to create a communicative visual experience. Designers use these 8 principles:

Size – Larger elements tend to capture users' attention readily.

Color – Users are typically drawn to bright colors over muted shades.

Contrast – Colors with stark contrasts catch the eye more effectively.

Alignment – Unaligned elements are more noticeable than those aligned ones.

Repetition – Similar styles repeated imply a relationship in content.

Proximity – Elements placed near each other appear to be connected.

Whitespace – Elements surrounded by ample space attract the eye.

Texture and Style – Users often notice richer textures before flat designs.

The 8 visual design principles.

In web design , visual hierarchy uses color and repetition to direct the user's attention. Color choice is crucial as it creates contrast between different elements. Repetition helps to organize the design—it uses recurring elements to establish consistency and familiarity.

In this video, Alan Dix, Professor and Expert in Human-Computer Interaction, explains how visual alignment affects how we read and absorb information:

Correspondence Techniques

Designers use correspondence techniques to align visual elements with their conceptual meanings. These techniques include color coding, spatial arrangement and specific imagery. In information visualization, different colors can represent various data sets. This correspondence aids users in quickly identifying trends and relationships .

Color coding enables the stakeholder to see the relationship and trend between the two pie charts easily.

In user interface design, correspondence techniques link elements with meaning. An example is color-coding notifications to state their nature. For instance, red for warnings and green for confirmation. These techniques are informative and intuitive and enhance the user experience.

The IxDF website uses blue for call-to-actions (CTAs) and red for warnings. These colors inform the user of the nature of the action of buttons and other interactive elements.

Perception and Interpretation

If visual language is how designers create representations, then visual perception and interpretation are how users receive those representations. Consider a painting—the viewer’s eyes take in colors, shapes and lines, and the brain perceives these visual elements as a painting.

In this video, Alan Dix explains how the interplay of sensation, perception and culture is crucial to understanding visual experiences in design:

Copyright holder: Michael Murphy _ Appearance time: 07:19 - 07:37 _ Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C67JuZnBBDc

Visual perception principles are essential for creating compelling, engaging visual representations. For example, Gestalt principles explain how we perceive visual information. These rules describe how we group similar items, spot patterns and simplify complex images. Designers apply Gestalt principles to arrange content on websites and other interfaces. This application creates visually appealing and easily understood designs.

In this video, design expert and teacher Mia Cinelli discusses the significance of Gestalt principles in visual design . She introduces fundamental principles, like figure/ground relationships, similarity and proximity.

Interpretation

Everyone's experiences, culture and physical abilities dictate how they interpret visual representations. For this reason, designers carefully consider how users interpret their visual representations. They employ user research and testing to ensure their designs are attractive and functional.

Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", is one of the most famous paintings in the world. The piece is renowned for its subject's enigmatic expression. Some interpret her smile as content and serene, while others see it as sad or mischievous. Not everyone interprets this visual representation in the same way.

Color is an excellent example of how one person, compared to another, may interpret a visual element. Take the color red:

In Chinese culture, red symbolizes luck, while in some parts of Africa, it can mean death or illness.

A personal experience may mean a user has a negative or positive connotation with red.

People with protanopia and deuteranopia color blindness cannot distinguish between red and green.

In this video, Joann and Arielle Eckstut, leading color consultants and authors, explain how many factors influence how we perceive and interpret color:

Learn More about Visual Representation

Read Alan Blackwell’s chapter on visual representation from The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction.

Learn about the F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content from Jakob Nielsen.

Read Smashing Magazine’s article, Visual Design Language: The Building Blocks Of Design .

Take the IxDF’s course, Perception and Memory in HCI and UX .

Questions related to Visual Representation

Some highly cited research on visual representation and related topics includes:

Roland, P. E., & Gulyás, B. (1994). Visual imagery and visual representation. Trends in Neurosciences, 17(7), 281-287. Roland and Gulyás' study explores how the brain creates visual imagination. They look at whether imagining things like objects and scenes uses the same parts of the brain as seeing them does. Their research shows the brain uses certain areas specifically for imagination. These areas are different from the areas used for seeing. This research is essential for understanding how our brain works with vision.

Lurie, N. H., & Mason, C. H. (2007). Visual Representation: Implications for Decision Making. Journal of Marketing, 71(1), 160-177.

This article looks at how visualization tools help in understanding complicated marketing data. It discusses how these tools affect decision-making in marketing. The article gives a detailed method to assess the impact of visuals on the study and combination of vast quantities of marketing data. It explores the benefits and possible biases visuals can bring to marketing choices. These factors make the article an essential resource for researchers and marketing experts. The article suggests using visual tools and detailed analysis together for the best results.

Lohse, G. L., Biolsi, K., Walker, N., & Rueter, H. H. (1994, December). A classification of visual representations. Communications of the ACM, 37(12), 36+.

This publication looks at how visuals help communicate and make information easier to understand. It divides these visuals into six types: graphs, tables, maps, diagrams, networks and icons. The article also looks at different ways these visuals share information effectively.

​​If you’d like to cite content from the IxDF website , click the ‘cite this article’ button near the top of your screen.

Some recommended books on visual representation and related topics include:

Chaplin, E. (1994). Sociology and Visual Representation (1st ed.) . Routledge.

Chaplin's book describes how visual art analysis has changed from ancient times to today. It shows how photography, post-modernism and feminism have changed how we see art. The book combines words and images in its analysis and looks into real-life social sciences studies.

Mitchell, W. J. T. (1994). Picture Theory. The University of Chicago Press.

Mitchell's book explores the important role and meaning of pictures in the late twentieth century. It discusses the change from focusing on language to focusing on images in cultural studies. The book deeply examines the interaction between images and text in different cultural forms like literature, art and media. This detailed study of how we see and read visual representations has become an essential reference for scholars and professionals.

Koffka, K. (1935). Principles of Gestalt Psychology. Harcourt, Brace & World.

"Principles of Gestalt Psychology" by Koffka, released in 1935, is a critical book in its field. It's known as a foundational work in Gestalt psychology, laying out the basic ideas of the theory and how they apply to how we see and think. Koffka's thorough study of Gestalt psychology's principles has profoundly influenced how we understand human perception. This book has been a significant reference in later research and writings.

A visual representation, like an infographic or chart, uses visual elements to show information or data. These types of visuals make complicated information easier to understand and more user-friendly.

Designers harness visual representations in design and communication. Infographics and charts, for instance, distill data for easier audience comprehension and retention.

For an introduction to designing basic information visualizations, take our course, Information Visualization .

Text is a crucial design and communication element, transforming language visually. Designers use font style, size, color and layout to convey emotions and messages effectively.

Designers utilize text for both literal communication and aesthetic enhancement. Their typography choices significantly impact design aesthetics, user experience and readability.

Designers should always consider text's visual impact in their designs. This consideration includes font choice, placement, color and interaction with other design elements.

In this video, design expert and teacher Mia Cinelli teaches how Gestalt principles apply to typography:

Designers use visual elements in projects to convey information, ideas, and messages. Designers use images, colors, shapes and typography for impactful designs.

In UI/UX design, visual representation is vital. Icons, buttons and colors provide contrast for intuitive, user-friendly website and app interfaces.

Graphic design leverages visual representation to create attention-grabbing marketing materials. Careful color, imagery and layout choices create an emotional connection.

Product design relies on visual representation for prototyping and idea presentation. Designers and stakeholders use visual representations to envision functional, aesthetically pleasing products.

Our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. This fact highlights the crucial role of visual representation in design.

Our course, Visual Design: The Ultimate Guide , teaches you how to use visual design elements and principles in your work effectively.

Visual representation, crucial in UX, facilitates interaction, comprehension and emotion. It combines elements like images and typography for better interfaces.

Effective visuals guide users, highlight features and improve navigation. Icons and color schemes communicate functions and set interaction tones.

UX design research shows visual elements significantly impact emotions. 90% of brain-transmitted information is visual.

To create functional, accessible visuals, designers use color contrast and consistent iconography. These elements improve readability and inclusivity.

An excellent example of visual representation in UX is Apple's iOS interface. iOS combines a clean, minimalist design with intuitive navigation. As a result, the operating system is both visually appealing and user-friendly.

Michal Malewicz, Creative Director and CEO at Hype4, explains why visual skills are important in design:

Learn more about UI design from Michal in our Master Class, Beyond Interfaces: The UI Design Skills You Need to Know .

The fundamental principles of effective visual representation are:

Clarity : Designers convey messages clearly, avoiding clutter.

Simplicity : Embrace simple designs for ease and recall.

Emphasis : Designers highlight key elements distinctively.

Balance : Balance ensures design stability and structure.

Alignment : Designers enhance coherence through alignment.

Contrast : Use contrast for dynamic, distinct designs.

Repetition : Repeating elements unify and guide designs.

Designers practice these principles in their projects. They also analyze successful designs and seek feedback to improve their skills.

Read our topic description of Gestalt principles to learn more about creating effective visual designs. The Gestalt principles explain how humans group elements, recognize patterns and simplify object perception.

Color theory is vital in design, helping designers craft visually appealing and compelling works. Designers understand color interactions, psychological impacts and symbolism. These elements help designers enhance communication and guide attention.

Designers use complementary , analogous and triadic colors for contrast, harmony and balance. Understanding color temperature also plays a crucial role in design perception.

Color symbolism is crucial, as different colors can represent specific emotions and messages. For instance, blue can symbolize trust and calmness, while red can indicate energy and urgency.

Cultural variations significantly influence color perception and symbolism. Designers consider these differences to ensure their designs resonate with diverse audiences.

For actionable insights, designers should:

Experiment with color schemes for effective messaging. 

Assess colors' psychological impact on the audience. 

Use color contrast to highlight critical elements. 

Ensure color choices are accessible to all.

In this video, Joann and Arielle Eckstut, leading color consultants and authors, give their six tips for choosing color:

Learn more about color from Joann and Arielle in our Master Class, How To Use Color Theory To Enhance Your Designs .

Typography and font choice are crucial in design, impacting readability and mood. Designers utilize them for effective communication and expression.

Designers' perception of information varies with font type. Serif fonts can imply formality, while sans-serifs can give a more modern look.

Typography choices by designers influence readability and user experience. Well-spaced, distinct fonts enhance readability, whereas decorative fonts may hinder it.

Designers use typography to evoke emotions and set a design's tone. Choices in font size, style and color affect the emotional impact and message clarity.

Designers use typography to direct attention, create hierarchy and establish rhythm. These benefits help with brand recognition and consistency across mediums.

Read our article to learn how web fonts are critical to the online user experience .

Designers create a balance between simplicity and complexity in their work. They focus on the main messages and highlight important parts. Designers use the principles of visual hierarchy, like size, color and spacing. They also use empty space to make their designs clear and understandable.

The Gestalt law of Prägnanz suggests people naturally simplify complex images. This principle aids in making even intricate information accessible and engaging.

Through iteration and feedback, designers refine visuals. They remove extraneous elements and highlight vital information. Testing with the target audience ensures the design resonates and is comprehensible.

Michal Malewicz explains how to master hierarchy in UI design using the Gestalt rule of proximity:

Answer a Short Quiz to Earn a Gift

Why do designers use visual representation?

• To guarantee only a specific audience can understand the information
• To replace the need for any form of written communication
• To simplify complex information and make it understandable

Which type of visual representation helps to compare data?

• Article images
• Line charts
• Text paragraphs

What is the main purpose of visual hierarchy in design?

• To decorate the design with more colors
• To guide the viewer’s attention to the most important elements first
• To provide complex text for high-level readers

How does color impact visual representation?

• It has no impact on the design at all.
• It helps to distinguish different elements and set the mood.
• It makes the design less engaging for a serious mood.

Why is consistency important in visual representation?

• It limits creativity, but allows variation in design.
• It makes sure the visual elements are cohesive and easy to understand.
• It makes the design unpredictable yet interesting.

Better luck next time!

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Literature on Visual Representation

Here’s the entire UX literature on Visual Representation by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:

Learn more about Visual Representation

Take a deep dive into Visual Representation with our course Perception and Memory in HCI and UX .

How does all of this fit with interaction design and user experience? The simple answer is that most of our understanding of human experience comes from our own experiences and just being ourselves. That might extend to people like us, but it gives us no real grasp of the whole range of human experience and abilities. By considering more closely how humans perceive and interact with our world, we can gain real insights into what designs will work for a broader audience: those younger or older than us, more or less capable, more or less skilled and so on.

“You can design for all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot design for all the people all the time.“ – William Hudson (with apologies to Abraham Lincoln)

While “design for all of the people all of the time” is an impossible goal, understanding how the human machine operates is essential to getting ever closer. And of course, building solutions for people with a wide range of abilities, including those with accessibility issues, involves knowing how and why some human faculties fail. As our course tutor, Professor Alan Dix, points out, this is not only a moral duty but, in most countries, also a legal obligation.

Portfolio Project

In the “ Build Your Portfolio: Perception and Memory Project ”, you’ll find a series of practical exercises that will give you first-hand experience in applying what we’ll cover. If you want to complete these optional exercises, you’ll create a series of case studies for your portfolio which you can show your future employer or freelance customers.

This in-depth, video-based course is created with the amazing Alan Dix , the co-author of the internationally best-selling textbook  Human-Computer Interaction and a superstar in the field of Human-Computer Interaction . Alan is currently a professor and Director of the Computational Foundry at Swansea University.

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All open-source articles on Visual Representation

Data visualization for human perception.

The Key Elements & Principles of Visual Design

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Guidelines for Good Visual Information Representations

• 4 years ago

Philosophy of Interaction

Information visualization – an introduction to multivariate analysis.

• 8 years ago

Aesthetic Computing

How to represent linear data visually for information visualization.

• 5 years ago

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• What is Gendered Innovations ?

Sex & Gender Analysis

• Research Priorities
• Rethinking Concepts
• Research Questions
• Analyzing Sex
• Analyzing Gender
• Sex and Gender Interact
• Intersectional Approaches
• Engineering Innovation
• Participatory Research
• Reference Models
• Language & Visualizations
• Tissues & Cells
• Lab Animal Research
• Sex in Biomedicine
• Gender in Health & Biomedicine
• Evolutionary Biology
• Machine Learning
• Social Robotics
• Hermaphroditic Species
• Impact Assessment
• Norm-Critical Innovation
• Intersectionality
• Race and Ethnicity
• Age and Sex in Drug Development
• Engineering
• Health & Medicine
• SABV in Biomedicine
• Tissues & Cells
• Urban Planning & Design

Case Studies

• Animal Research
• Animal Research 2
• Computer Science Curriculum
• Genetics of Sex Determination
• Chronic Pain
• Colorectal Cancer
• De-Gendering the Knee
• Dietary Assessment Method
• Heart Disease in Diverse Populations
• Medical Technology
• Nanomedicine
• Nanotechnology-Based Screening for HPV
• Nutrigenomics
• Osteoporosis Research in Men
• Prescription Drugs
• Systems Biology
• Assistive Technologies for the Elderly
• Domestic Robots
• Extended Virtual Reality
• Facial Recognition
• Gendering Social Robots
• Haptic Technology
• HIV Microbicides
• Inclusive Crash Test Dummies
• Human Thorax Model
• Machine Translation
• Making Machines Talk
• Video Games
• Virtual Assistants and Chatbots
• Agriculture
• Climate Change
• Environmental Chemicals
• Housing and Neighborhood Design
• Marine Science
• Menstrual Cups
• Population and Climate Change
• Quality Urban Spaces
• Smart Energy Solutions
• Smart Mobility
• Sustainable Fashion
• Waste Management
• Water Infrastructure
• Intersectional Design
• Major Granting Agencies
• Peer-Reviewed Journals
• Universities

Rethinking Language and Visual Representations

Language and visual representations are central to all knowledge-based activities, including those in science, health & medicine, and engineering. Word choice, charts, graphs, images, and icons have the power to shape scientific practice, questions asked, results obtained, and interpretations made. “Sharing a language means sharing a conceptual universe” within which assumptions, judgments, and interpretations of data can be said to “make sense” (Keller, 1992). Rethinking language also involves Rethinking Concepts and Theories.

Rethinking language and visual representations can:

• 1. Remove assumptions that may limit or restrict innovation and knowledge in unconscious ways.
• 2. Remove assumptions that unconsciously reinforce gender inequalities.

Consider the following examples:

• ● Unintended hypothesis-creating metaphors. Analogies and metaphors function to construct as well as describe. They have both a hypothesis-creating and proof-making function. By analyzing language—by “waking up” metaphors—we can critically judge how the imagery may be lending structure to our research (Martin, 1992; Martin, 1991). For example, zoologists often refer to herds of animals (horses, antelope, elephant seals, etc.) as “harems.” The word “harem” embeds assumptions about social organization, in this case polygyny. In this example, researchers failed to “see” what lies outside the logic of the metaphor. Recent DNA studies of mustangs show, however, that a given stallion typically sires less than a third of the foals in a band. Researchers who questioned the notion of a “harem” found that female mustangs range from band to band, often mating with a stallion of their choice (Brown, 1995). Other scholars have shown how the metaphor of the “cell as a factory” works to naturalize patriarchal norms in which the male “head” (coded as the nucleus) controls the domestic labor of women (Navare, 2023).
• ♦ In English, new words have been devised and usage altered to be more inclusive. For example, “fireman” has been replaced with “fire fighter,” “infantrymen” are now “soldiers,” and “animal husbandry” can be replaced with the more neutral “animal breeding and care.” Some old terms such as “aviatrix” and “lady doctor” have completely disappeared.
• ♦ In English, “they” should be used rather than the generic “he” when referring to a researcher, subject, or student whose gender is unknown. Many dictionaries now accept “they” as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun, or the sentence can be recast in the plural to avoid specific referents.

Visual Representations

Visual representations in science, medicine and engineering may contain gender-inflected messages in 1) the content of a field or discipline, or 2) the practitioners of a field or discipline. Consider the following:

• ● Visual Display of Data
• Visual displays of data may embed gender assumptions. As discussed in the case study on Public Transportation, the charts below represent trips made in Madrid in 2014. The first chart (left below) graphs transportation data as traditionally collected and reported. It privileges paid employment by presenting it as a single, large category. Caring work (shown in red) is divided into numerous small categories and hidden under other headings, such as escorting, shopping and leisure. The second chart (right) reconceptualizes public transportation trips by collecting care trips under one category. Visualizing care trips in one dedicated category emphasizes the importance of caring work and allows transportation engineers to design systems that work well for all segments of the population, improve urban efficiency, and guard against global warming (Sánchez de Madariaga, 2013, 2019).

• ● How might metaphors be gendered and create unintended hypotheses?
• ● Do gendered metaphors reinforce stereotypes?
• ● Are word choices or naming practices gendered?
• ● Do naming practices or pronoun choices exclude gender-diverse individuals?
• ● How does nomenclature influence who becomes a scientist or engineer?
• ● Are the language and images being used gender inclusive?
• ● Are graphs, charts, or images used to visualize abstract concepts gendered in unintended ways?
• ● Does a particular field of science or engineering promote a self-image that carries messages about the “gender appropriateness” of participation by women, men, and gender-diverse people?
• ● Are problem sets or training exercises chosen to illustrate basic scientific principles gendered in unintended ways?

Related Case Studies

Works cited.

Brown, N. (1995). The Wild Mares of Assateague. Research at Pennsylvania State University, 16, 15-19.

Christidou, V., & Kouvatas, A. (2011). Visual Self-Images of Scientists and Science in Greece. Public Understanding of Science, (Online in Advance of Print).

Keller, E. (1992). Secrets of Life, Secrets of Death: Essays on Language, Gender and Science . New York: Routledge. The European Journal of Women's Studies, 2 (3) , 379-394.

Lie, M. (1998). Computer Dialogues: Technology, Gender, and Change . Trondheim: Senter for kvinneforskning, Norges Teknisk-naturvitenskapelige Universitet.

Martin, E. (1992). The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction . Boston: Beacon.

Martin, E. (1991). The egg and the sperm: How science has constructed a romance based on stereotypical male-female roles. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 16 (3), 485-501.

Ministerio de Fomento. (2007). Encuesta de Movilidad de las Personas Residentes en España (Movilia 2006/2007) . Madrid: Ministerio de Fomento.

Navare, C. (2023). Instructions, commands, and coercive control: A critical discourse analysis of the textbook representation of the living cell. Cultural Studies of Science Education.

Sánchez de Madariaga, I. (2013). The Mobility of Care: A New Concept in Urban Transportation. In Sánchez de Madariaga, I., & Roberts, M. (Eds.) Fair Share Cities. The Impact of Gender Planning in Europe. London: Ashgate.

Sánchez de Madariaga, I. (2009). Vivienda, Movilidad, y Urbanismo para la Igualdad en la Diversidad: Ciudades, Género, y Dependencia. Ciudad y Territorio Estudios Territoriales, XLI (161-162), 581-598.

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Four ways to use visuals when teaching english language learners.

If you were to walk into my high school Language Arts classroom mid-unit you might see students working in cooperative groups using good old-fashioned butcher block paper and markers. You might also see them using their iPads and design apps to “draw” their thinking about a text we’re reading or a topic we’re studying.  Some of the crafty activities we’re doing might seem designated for elementary grades, but visuals in the classroom benefit students of all ages, and the use of visual tools for constructing knowledge is particularly fitting for today’s smartphone generation of learners who are virtually always engaged.  Learners are looking for visual stimulation, and when they are provided opportunities to transform their ideas into images, they can make stronger connections and achieve deeper levels of understanding with the material and their classmates in a format that is engaging.

After learners have had the opportunity to construct their thinking visually, they have a greater understanding of what they want to say about the subject or text, which then leads to improved reading, writing, discussions, test performance, etc.  In this blog, I will focus on how visuals benefit English Language Learners in the classroom, but these tools and activities would also support students with RtI plans, or any students who have been identified to have a preference for visual learning.

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are by no means a novel idea in the field of education. However, these ‘oldie but goodies’ are powerful tools to improve literacy.  English Language Learners can be overwhelmed by the complex process of language development, and they benefit from the multisensory approach of graphic organizers: seeing information on the graphic, hearing it from the teacher, and writing it on the organizer.  In order to promote interactive learning with these tools, I first model for students how to use them—this step is critical for success.  When used properly, these organizers are not simply fill-in-the-blank worksheets, but rather scaffolding tools with clear objectives to help students break down a task into manageable steps.

I have used many of the most common graphic organizers--Venn diagrams, concept maps, KWL charts, character diagrams, anchor charts—to target the specific reading skills we’re practicing.  Reading comprehension visuals help students read more closely and summarize what they have read because they encourage students to pause and think about important information in the text, and they help students organize their thoughts.  These formative assessments help me to diagnose learner strengths and weaknesses with reading skills—sequencing, decoding, comprehension, vocabulary, inferencing—and they are helpful tools to gauge students’ progression over time.  Sometimes I will measure a reading skill in both the ELL’s primary language and secondary language to see if there are differences between the two, and to identify and remedy gaps in understanding.

Graphic organizers are helpful with progress monitoring, providing a better understanding of student comprehension of concepts. These visual tools allow teachers to get into our students’ minds as they are constructing what they are learning; we can see what and how students are thinking before they have to perform on a summative assessment like an essay or test.  With access to a visual representation of the student’s thinking, I can remediate misunderstandings or misconceptions before the student is evaluated.  Continuous assessment--through direct observation, checklists, anecdotal notes-- allows me to monitor how students are understanding and applying what they’ve learned, and this feedback informs the direction of my whole-class and individual instruction.  Once students use these tools to organize and analyze their thinking about the material, they ultimately synthesize information they have learned more effectively than if they did not have a visual tool.  When I compare progress of my ELLs with and without the use of visual tools, undeniably, the data reveals my students reach greater levels of achievement when they have had opportunities to construct their knowledge visually.  Also, teachers could have students compile their work in a portfolio so that they can see their improvements, and they can monitor their own learning through self-rating scales and checklists, all of which motivate the learner. 

Of course, graphic organizers can be used to help students on individual and group levels in the classroom, but when districts implement the use of graphic organizers across disciplines and grade levels, they are likely to experience more success because students become familiar with the format.  Providing teachers opportunities to collaborate and make decisions about which graphic organizers are most valuable for their students across grade levels and content areas will result in more consistent practice and less confusion for the students. If multiple teachers are using a variety of organizers, learners—particularly those with special needs or language barriers—could be overwhelmed, but a handful of agreed upon tools that can be tailored to individual needs and ability levels (while also being strongly tied to the curriculum) will allow students to become proficient with these formats.  These visual tools also support reading and writing across the curriculum programs in school districts.

Graphic Novels

At first glance, graphic novels might be disregarded as silly, comic book reading. However, any serious reader knows the value of these books, and their potential to reach a wide range of students. When I was a student teacher, I taught my first graphic novel, Maus by Art Spiegelman, a story about his father’s experiences in the Nazi concentration camps. This teaching experience opened my eyes to the value of these books.  This genre of writing engages students intellectually and emotionally, and the visual format provides helpful clues for readers.  The language load is lightened for ELLs, the colorful images engage the readers, and the different font styles put emphasis on context clues that help ELLs draw inferences.  These books reduce the heavy language load of traditional novels, but also provide students the opportunity to practice the same reading skills that are required to read a novel.  

Along the same vein of graphic novels, storyboards are an engaging assignment for students to visually demonstrate their understanding of a text.  Storyboards challenge students to summarize what they have read as well as identify key information about plot sequence, characters, setting, and themes.  I like to do storyboards in cooperative groups because this format allows me to gauge learner understanding through classroom observation.  Again, students use a scoring rubric or checklist that details the goals of the assignment, and I walk around the classroom providing helpful feedback to groups, while also informally collecting data on individual students.  In observation of cooperative learning groups, I can measure what ELLs can do independently or with the assistance of their peers.  I always write this anecdotal information down (so I don’t forget) and I keep that data handy to tailor individual instruction.  I also use this information to form reading groups based on reader strengths and weaknesses.  Also, if you’re in a 1:1 technology district, there are educational websites wherein students can create these storyboards digitally.  Students really produce some engaging graphics that are enjoyable to read.

Drawing to Understand

Drawings are another way to help students break down challenging texts.  Edgar Allan Poe’s writing is tough for many high school students, but his academic language can be particularly difficult for English Language Learners.  Visual activities provide ELL students more support for comprehending a classical writer such as Poe.  When students “draw” select vocabulary or even a few descriptive paragraphs from one of Poe’s short stories, the images help the students think about the language in an accessible format, and they ultimately help students bridge the gap to higher-order thinking about themes, inferences, patterns, and concepts.  ELLs need opportunities like this to practice language skills, and I have found that this activity decreases learner anxiety and increases confidence and reading comprehension skills.  Once students see how text can transform to images, they become aware of the relationship between text, images, and thinking, and they are better prepared to use those visuals to perform more complex tasks.  Again, I always accompany an assignment like this with a scoring rubric or checklist that details expectations for the student. 

A fringe benefit, visual assignments such as these allow students with artistic skills to shine.  Of course, these students might be recognized in an art class—if they are enrolled in one—but I have found that these activities are beautiful opportunities for students to recognize and appreciate the gifts and talents of their peers. That student who might not be the most assertive in class discussions has a chance to show his or her talents and feel recognized and successful.  And there are so many technology apps and software programs available to digitally design these drawings.

Performance-Based Assessments

Each year, my Language Arts students study literary symbolism, and a performance-based assessment of that unit is a creative project wherein students design a mask that symbolically represents them.  Students choose colors, images, and designs that reflect their interests, personalities, bad habits, cultures, aspirations, talents, life experiences—the possibilities are endless. After students design their masks, they write about their symbolic choices and finally, share their masks with their peers in a speech.  I also use a scoring rubric for this project so students clearly understand the learning objectives.  This is not just a simple arts-and-crafts project, but an opportunity for assessment of learner understanding of the concept of symbolism, and an opportunity for students to really get to know one another better in a format that is visually engaging.  Students learn about the goals of their peers. They learn about losses their peers have suffered. They learn what matters most to their peers.  They learn about different cultures.  And what an opportunity for ELLs to share their culture with their peers, another important support for those students.  Once again, this activity reduces the heavy language load of traditional writing assessments for ELLs, and provides me valuable information to get to know my students as individual learners.  The creative masks are displayed in my classroom for the remainder of the year. An added bonus, this activity gets kids thinking about “who am I?”, a question that quite honestly, never gets old.

These are just a few visual tools and creative activities I have found particularly helpful in supporting English Language Learners in the classroom.  What strategies have you used to engage these learners?

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• Resource Library
• Grade 11 ELA

The Gift of the Magi

The proven power of giving, not getting, visual representation.

In this lesson, students will consider the difference between a theme and a main idea and create a visual representation comparing your two texts. Finally, they'll talk about why and how you can cite evidence from texts.

In this lesson, students will consider the difference between a theme and a main idea and create a visual representation comparing their two texts. Finally, they’ll talk about why and how they can cite evidence from texts.

Preparation

• Read the lesson and student content.
• Anticipate student difficulties and identify the differentiation options you will choose for working with your students.

Theme Versus Main Idea

• Circulate and provide guidance as students discuss their homework responses in pairs.
• Conduct a Whole Group Share. Encourage students to talk about the functional differences between narrative and informational pieces, but also to notice the similarities in messages.
• ELL: If you have ELL students who struggled with the difference between theme and main idea, this is a good opportunity to meet with them and check their understanding.

With a partner, discuss the ideas you wrote about for homework.

• What similarities did you see between these two pieces?
• What differences did you see?
• Did you think that one was more effective in conveying its message than the other? Why or why not?

Share your thoughts with the class.

A Visual Comparison

• Students may need a review of the terms genre, irony , and point of view .
• The visual portion of this activity is purposely non-prescriptive so that the students have to figure out how best to compare the texts and what kind of organizer to use. Form a group of the students who will need more support with this activity and work with them as a member of their group.
• If your students need more structure, assign specific tasks to group members; one or two students can approach each bullet of the student directions.
• For groups that can handle more intensive analysis, ask them whether they think the narrators in these texts are neutral bystanders or whether they ever interject an opinion. Have students go into the texts to identify specific evidence for their point of view.
• If you have preferences about how students can present their projects and/or time requirements, let them know now.
• SWD: For some students, creating a visual representation will be an easy task; for others, it may be more challenging. Work with those students to assess whether this task is at an appropriate level of difficulty and be prepared to offer alternative methods of demonstrating understanding, whether written, spoken, or using a pre-provided graphic organizer for structure.

Your teacher will put you into a small group. With your group, work together to compare and contrast the two texts, “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Proven Power of Giving, Not Getting,” using a visual representation.

• How does the genre influence them?
• Where do you see irony in the short story? Identify specific lines. How does that irony support the theme?
• What do you notice about the point of view of the story versus the article?
• Then, decide what kind of visual display you want to use and get started!
• You’ll be presenting your visual representation at the end of the lesson, so make sure to stay on task.

Visual Comparison Presentations

• Review the schedule of presentations that was developed at the close of the previous lesson.
• Have each group present and explain its organizer. Pose some questions such as the following. How did you pick a graphic for your comparison? What does this part mean? Encourage students to ask questions.
• There will be several correct and interesting ways to compare the articles. Work on having students practice the language of making comparisons. ELL: To better support these students as they develop their academic vocabulary, capture words and phrases that can be used for other assignments that involve comparison.

Share your group’s visual comparison of “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Proven Power of Giving, Not Getting.” Pay close attention to your classmates’ presentations.

Then, participate in a Whole Group Discussion and consider these questions.

• How does your group’s organizer compare to the other groups’? Are there any differences that surprise you or are hard for you to understand?
• What did other groups do well that your own group didn’t think about? Did another group notice an important detail? Did another group use a good visual technique?
• Do you have any questions for the other groups about their presentation?

Citing Evidence

• Students will need to have the vocabulary for citing the text. This exercise is intended to scaffold their writing short responses, constructed responses, and essays.
• ✓ Quote from the text.
• ✓ Summarize a part of the text.
• ✓ Point to a specific part of the text.
• ✓ Give a specific paragraph or line in a poem.
• ✓ Add any other useful techniques that come up during discussion.
• ✓ In the second (stanza/paragraph/chapter) the poet/writer/reporter indicates that .
• ✓ The lines in the poem that make me think are .
• ✓ Three words/actions/details that give clues to the theme/main idea are , , and _ .
• Ask students to take notes.

Look back at your paragraph about the theme of “The Gift of the Magi” that you wrote in Lesson 1.

• How did you refer to the story to support your claim about giving and receiving?
• What strategies did you use to reference the text?

Open Notebook

Participate in a Whole Group Share about your citation techniques and pay attention to the strategies that your classmates and teacher share.

Citation Reflection

• After students write, ask for volunteers to respond to the prompt orally.
• Be sure to elicit that we cite evidence to convince other readers and to demonstrate that we are basing our ideas on what the text actually says.

Complete a Quick Write.

• How does citing textual evidence when you write about the theme or main idea strengthen your position?

Language Arts

Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

The language arts are subjects taught in elementary and secondary schools that aim at developing students' communication skills.

As defined by the International Reading Association (IRS) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), these subjects include reading , writing , listening , speaking , viewing, and "visually representing."

Observations

James R. Squire: [In the 1950s in the U.S.] the term ' language arts ' rose to professional popularity among elementary school teachers... since it suggested the integration of skills and experiences; English, the term still used in the high school, suggested subject matter, and often, subject matter taught in isolation. Today's concern with 'whole language' and integration of reading and writing dates back to such curriculum efforts... [T]he conflict between whole language advocates who stress construction of meaning and skill-oriented specialists who stress decoding continues. Almost certainly the current movement will result in more balanced stress on literature, writing, and oral language, and less emphasis on separate instruction in language skills, spelling, or grammar (Snow, 1997).

Standards for the English Language Arts : One familiar way to link the language arts . . . is to pair them by medium: reading and writing involve written language, listening and speaking involve spoken communication, and viewing and visually representing involve visual language. "There are many other important interconnections among the English language arts, as well. Learners’ repertoires of words, images, and concepts grow as they read, listen, and view; new words, images, and concepts then become part of their written, spoken, and visual language systems.

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Composition in Red Yellow Blue and Black by Piet Mondriaan

• Visual Arts

Formal Visual Analysis: The Elements & Principles of Composition Help students build techniques to interpret what they see into written words using art.

Lesson content.

Formal analysis is an important technique for organizing visual information. In other words, it is a strategy used to translate what you see into written words. This strategy can be applied to any work of art, from any period in history, whether a photograph, sculpture, painting or cultural artifact.

The Elements

The elements of formal analysis are building blocks that can be combined to create a larger structure.

Line  is the most basic building block of formal analysis. Line can be used to create more complex shapes or to lead your eye from one area in the composition to another.

Value  is the degree of light and dark in a design. It is the contrast between black and white and all the tones in between. Value can be used with color as well as black and white. Contrast is the extreme changes between values.

Shapes  are created when lines are combined to form a square, triangle, or circle. Shapes can be organic (irregular shapes found in nature) or geometric (shapes with strong lines and angles such as circles, triangles, and squares).

Forms  are three-dimensional shapes with length, width, and depth. Balls, cylinders, boxes and pyramids are forms.

Space  is the area between and around objects. Increasing or decreasing the amount of space around an object affects the way we view that object.

Color  differentiates and defines lines, shapes, forms, and space. Even black and white images have a huge number of different shades of gray.

Texture  is the surface quality that can be seen and felt. Textures can be rough or smooth, soft or hard. Textures are often implied. For instance, a drawing of a rock might appear to have a rough and hard surface, but in reality is as smooth as the paper on which it is drawn.

The Principles

Notice how the following principles integrate the elements of formal analysis and build on one another.  Note: Each principle below refers to the photograph of paddlers below to illustrate key concepts. Right-click and select "Open Image in New Tab" to view a larger version of the photo. 

Balance  is created in a work of art when textures, colors, forms, or shapes are combined harmoniously. In this image, notice how the photographer achieves a sense of balance by dividing the image into two sections: one half occupied by trees, and the other half by the water.

Contrast  is the use of several elements of design to hold the viewer's attention and to guide the viewer's eye through the artwork. In this image, the texture of the trees contrasts with the texture of the water.

Movement  is the way a viewer's eye is directed to move through a composition, often to areas of emphasis. Movement can be directed by lines, contrasting shapes, or colors within the artwork. In this work of art, our eye moves up through the pattern in the rippling surface of the water to the two paddlers. From there, our eye moves to the contrasting textures and colors of the foliage in the top half of the image.

Emphasis  is created in a work of art when the artist contrasts colors, textures, or shapes to direct your viewing towards a particular part of the image. In this image, the colors of the paddlers' kayaks contrasts with the muted tones of the background. Our attention is immediately drawn to the paddlers, even though they are relatively small in scale.

Pattern  is the repetition of a shape, form, or texture across a work of art. The light reflecting off of the waves in the water creates a pattern in the bottom half of the image.

Proportion  is created when the sizes of elements in a work of art are combined harmoniously. In this image, all of the proportions appear exactly as one would expect; the human figures are much smaller in scale than the natural world that surrounds them.

Unity  is created when the principles of analysis are present in a composition and in harmony. Some images have a complete sense of unity, while some artists deliberately avoid formal unity to create feelings of tension and anxiety. In this image, the large areas of contrasting textures, patterns and colors create a sense of balance and unity within the composition.

Once students have an understanding of formal analysis, they will be well prepared to put this theory into practice by making their own images based on the elements and principles of design. Whether in photography, sculpture, or painting, the theory of formal analysis will help students to compose their works of art as professional artists would.

Print Vocabulary

Jeremy Glatstein

Joanna McKee

December 9, 2019 

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• Young Artists

Lesson Media Awareness I: The Basics of Advertising

In this 6-8 lesson, students will examine the influence of advertising from past and present-day products. Students apply design principles to illustrate a product with background and foreground. This is the first lesson designed to accompany the media awareness unit.

• English & Literature

Lesson Exploring Weather

In this 3-5 lesson, students will analyze paintings depicting different types of weather to create an original landscape painting of a weather condition. They will analyze how weather influences culture, daily life, and mood. Students will use the elements of art criteria to discuss and critique paintings.

• Drawing & Painting

Lesson Painting: The Art of Self Expression

In this K-2 lesson, students will explore elements of art and different artists' techniques to create various styles of paintings. Students will interpret art and describe styles by using key vocabulary terms when discussing paintings.

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In this 6-8 lesson, students will examine works of art and learn tools to analyze and discuss photography. Students will apply what they have learned by using cameras to document daily life in their community. They will prepare artist statements and present their work.

• Photography

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Visual Arts Activities in the English Language Classroom

Many teachers are daunted by the idea of dealing with the visual arts in the classroom, let alone an English language classroom. They often don’t consider themselves as “arty”. Looking at images created by artists can be confounding. In this article, I’ll offer ideas and activities that can be used when working with the visual arts that empower teacher and learner alike.

Sketching means to draw quickly. When we aren’t accustomed to drawing, we immediately get a bit tense about what the image is going to look like. You’ll often hear that old comment “I can’t draw” at this point.

With all the technology today, drawing isn’t always so necessary. If Leonardo da Vinci had Photoshop or the Adobe suite on his computer, or a video camera and a mobile phone, he wouldn’t have been drawing so much either. Renaissance painters actually did make use of technology whenever they could. They used shadows, and the camera oscura to cast images on a canvas to aid “seeing” perspective. So given this, why is drawing still important?

The Purpose of Drawing

The process of drawing aids the artist to really see something . It doesn’t matter how “accurate” the drawing is visually if the process of really noticing and paying attention to the subject is the objective. There are many things to notice when you draw and as we know, developing noticing skills is key for language learners.

Drawing is About Noticing, Which all Language Learners Need to be Good at

Alternatively, you could simply be paying attention to how it feels to make a mark . Abstraction to some extent. I often start drawing from the world around me, but the image soon takes on a life of its own. I notice whether I hold my pencil one way or another, whether it’s a hard or soft line, thin or thick, quivering, fragile, angry, sad, fast, fevered, slow and languid, playful or pragmatic. Now that’s a lot of descriptive language right there, and we’re only dealing with a line.

About Drawing Tools

Tools could be sticks dipped in ink, feathers, pencils, leaves, pens, markers, charcoal…the key is to be playful and try different things out to see what effects you can make.

Play is essential for creativity. The important thing about it is simply to wonder. There is no must, there is no right answer. There is no pressure to come up with a polished product.

The key wondering statement starts like this: “I wonder what will happen if …”

Now try some of these:

• Keep their pencil on the paper without taking it off
• Use their wrong hand
• Draw only the empty spaces they see
• Use only lines and shapes
• Draw and then pass their drawing to the next person to continue every 20 seconds
• Repeat three times, each with a reduced amount of time
• Draw without looking at the paper, only at the objects. Their eyes following the shapes very carefully and their hand follows their eyes

Visual Arts in the English Language Classroom through Speaking or Writing

Responding is about making connections.  It is our natural inclination as humans to make connections between things. We link objects or gestures with meanings almost instantaneously, all the time.

Imagine this: I put an image of a sad person in rags in front of you. You make instant assumptions and connections using your knowledge of the world. Then I put an image of an empty food bowl next to that image. You instantly make a connection and a narrative grows. This person is poor and hungry. Perhaps there is a famine. Perhaps there’s been a war.

Therefore, in a classroom, there will be connections that the group shares, while other connections will be personal and relate to personal experience, culture and memory. It’s a great way to explore our assumptions and prejudices too. We can also observe and talk about many things that help us get into the mind of the artist and think from that position: What is depicted? How has the artist used formal elements like composition, colour and tone to achieve this? More on this later.

The Role of the Teacher When Looking at the Visual Arts in a Language Classroom

Again, wondering is the key. Visual art is a text that doesn’t have fixed answers and each person brings a new interpretation or reading. An artists may have had an intention, but that it theirs. Each new viewer brings their interpretation and artists are ok with that.  As a teacher, you aren’t meant to have the answers. You can join your class on an equal footing and wonder along with them (you’re all learners! How learner centred is that?!).

Very importantly, as always, your job is to deal with the language that emerges and pre-teach language you know they’ll need. Moreover, you need to judge when to drop in information elegantly so that it enables everyone to make further connections.

1. Let your eyes take a walk around the picture.

This can be done as a guided activity. Students listen and do. Then describe to their partner.

Look at the:

• Foreground/closest thing to them
• Background/what is far away
• The people/objects

2. Describe and Imagine

SS-SS. Ask A to close their eyes or have their back to the painting while B has their eyes open, facing the painting. B describes the painting for A to imagine.

A great painting for this is Guernica by Picasso – Without telling the learners what the image is, describe parts of it and get them to draw it – or do it in partners. Try this with other iconic images. It really helps to get everyone seeing a well known image as if for the first time.

3. The Slow Reveal

The slow reveal approach can highlight the assumptions we make when we don’t know all the information.  For example, you can look at an image free of context. Then see how your assumptions and connections form or change as you find out who made the piece, where they are from, when they made it, as was happening around them at the time, where it was made and how. This can be teacher-led, or you can have key pieces of information that you feed into the discussion via other means, such as dictation, breaking a code, turning over a card etc.

4. Inviting Discussion: Key open questions that invite wondering

• 'Tell me about…'
• 'What might…?'
• 'What if…?'
• 'What do you think are…?'

L.O.T.s to H.O.T.S

You can move on to higher-order thinking skills such as synthesis and evaluation. Move forward together to think both critically through processing and interpreting information creatively through considering new possibilities.

5. Imaginative Reading

• Which person or people do you think are the most important?
• Where do you think the artist wants us to look?
• What are the relationship(s) between the people in the painting?
• What is similar or different about certain people?
• What might each character in the painting be saying/thinking?
• What words could we use to describe the mood/atmosphere?
• What do you think might be the message or theme?
• What do you think is the artist’s belief or point of view?
• If I tell you…(the slow reveal) what further connections can you make/how does it change your thinking? How does it challenge you assumptions or prejudices?
• What title would you give the painting?
• How do you know?
• Where is the evidence?
• How has the artist created this effect?
• Who disagrees? What might someone say who disagrees?

6. Speaking Activities for Story Telling

Once a narrative has been teased out of an image, practice the story. Here are just a few ideas for synthesis, i.e. telling and retelling, to build fluency.

• Work on each section at a time, gradually building the tale up over time
• Work in pairs, sitting facing each other and retell like a mirror
• Focus on key language and chunks
• Tell the story up and down a line or round a circle
• Work in pairs on a retelling while walking, taking a step for each new scene
• Use a long story map on the wall or images on cards in front of the learners so they can ‘step out’ or point out the story as they retell.
• Create a large 'floor map', stepping to each “story stone” as you tell the story
• Change the viewpoint – retell from a different character’s viewpoint

7. Activity Based Learning Ideas for Adults and Young Learners Alike!

• Perform parts of the image narrative
• Draw a cartoon version or story map. Consider how the artist (if they are historical) would communicate his or her idea today. Would they use shapchat? If so , how? Or would they be a film director?
• Make models, paint and draw scenes – again this goes back to the practice of drawing and really “seeing” the image
• Make masks for characters, use props and costumes created with simple materials
• Create story boxes with made or found artefacts from the tale
• Use shoe boxes to build mini dioramas
• Enact the story with puppets made from recycled objects, sticks, papier mache
• Hot-seat characters – this is where a character from the image is questioned by the group about his or her background, behaviour and motivation ( https://dramaresource.com/hot-seating/ )
• Work in role as journalists, vloggers or TV interviewers
• Send characters with problems to the psychologist
• Use speech bubbles to show what characters think at different points in the story (there are apps for this)
• Stop motion
• In role, write text conversations for whatsapp or wechat
• Develop a sound recording that responds to the image using multi-channel software
• Design a YouTube promo
• Adapted from https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/learning/teachers-and-schools
• Also check out todayinart: Drawing Exercises
• And mostcraft: Drawing Exercises

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Resolution on Viewing and Visually Representing as Forms of Literacy

1996 NCTE Annual Business Meeting in Chicago, Illinois

To participate in a global society, we continue to extend our ways of communicating. Viewing and visually representing (defined in the NCTE/IRA Standards for the English Language Arts ) are a part of our growing consciousness of how people gather and share information. Teachers and students need to expand their appreciation of the power of print and nonprint texts. Teachers should guide students in constructing meaning through creating and viewing nonprint texts. Be it therefore

Resolved, that the National Council of Teachers of English through its publications, conferences, and affiliates support professional development and promote public awareness of the role that viewing and visually representing our world have as forms of literacy.

This position statement may be printed, copied, and disseminated without permission from NCTE.

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1 What is Visual Culture?

J. Keri Cronin and Hannah Dobbie

Introduction

It is no exaggeration to say that we are surrounded by images. Take a look around you now. How many different kinds of images do you see at this moment? Think back on all of the images you encountered so far today. Can you bring them to mind? Is it possible you didn’t even notice some?

From the moment we wake up in the morning we are inundated with images. Perhaps you scrolled through social media as you ate your breakfast. Were there colourful images on the box of cereal in front of you? Do you have posters or framed family photographs in your living space? On your way to work or school you likely passed advertisements, billboards, and window displays in your local shops. Does your bus pass or parking pass have a logo or image on it? Did you stop to take a picture of your cat curled up in a patch of sun? Did your professors use images or graphs on the slides they showed in your classes today? Is there an image on the cover of the textbook in your backpack? A logo on your jacket?

We are surrounded by images on a daily basis– some would even say we are overloaded by images !  However, we don’t often stop to think critically about them. Learning to think about how images work and make meaning in our societies opens our eyes to many important social, cultural, ethical, economic, political, historical, and technological issues.

Images can help us make sense of the world. They can challenge ideas, but they can also reinforce dominant ideas and the status quo. And the meanings generated by images can be complex. How do we negotiate this?

When we talk about studying visual culture we simply mean that we are focusing our learning, research, and scholarly inquiries on images. Studying visual culture in an academic context involves thinking critically and seriously about pictures and about how they make meaning in our world. We live in a very visual world and yet we are rarely given the opportunity to learn about the ways that images make meaning.

When we use the term “visual culture” we are typically referring to visual representations of something. So, your adorable baby niece isn’t an example of visual culture (she is a living being!), but the photograph of her on the invitation to her 1st birthday party is an example of visual culture. Your cat isn’t an example of visual culture, but the cartoon cat on the bag of cat food he enjoys would be. A forest isn’t an example of visual culture, but a map of the hiking trails that run through it would be. In each of these cases, the living thing (baby, cat, forest) is represented in a way that conveys specific information (a happy child, a hungry cat, a way to safely navigate the forest). In each of these cases, the representation of the baby/cat/forest offers a select interpretation of that living thing (your niece isn’t always grinning is she?), and it is this process of interpreting something complex through an always incomplete process of representation that we are interested in investigating in this course. The way an image looks, the choices the artist/image-maker made, and where the image is viewed shapes how we understand it. As we will see, there are also complex political, social, and technological issues that inform what Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright have termed the “practices of looking.” [1]

Images as “Active Players”

You will note that we were very deliberate about our use of language in the previous paragraph–we wrote that “images make meaning” not that they have meaning. Our point here is that pictures don’t come preloaded with a single, fixed meaning that we have to learn to decipher and decode. Rather, as W.J.T. Mitchell writes, images are “active players in the game of establishing and changing values.” [2]

What does Mitchell mean here? Let’s dig in further. In his book What Do Pictures Want?: The Lives and Loves of Images , Mitchell argues that:

“we don’t just evaluate images; images introduce new forms of value into the world, contesting our criteria, forcing us to change our minds… Images are not just passive entities that coexist with their human hosts, any more than the microorganisms that dwell in our intestines. They change the way we think and see and dream.” [3]

To think of a picture as an “active player” might seem a bit odd at first, but Mitchell is not suggesting that an image is alive in the same way that, say, a puppy is.

Pictures don’t have sentience, they don’t have central nervous systems. But their very presence can influence, reinforce, challenge, and shift ideas. They can make us question what we think we know. They can be the cause of new understandings or ways of seeing the world. They can give us information. They might make us angry, sad, happy, or intrigued. And each person viewing that picture might have a different response. There is a beautiful complexity when we start to think about how pictures function in our world. And once we start to understand this, we can transpose this understanding to any image we encounter in our world.

You might be thinking “well, a picture doesn’t do all of that. The artist or person who made it does!” We will delve into this point in more detail a little later in this course, but for now we will just say that the meaning an artist or image maker intends a picture to have isn’t always the one that a viewer receives.

Let’s look at a quick example to help illustrate this point. The image below was taken by a photographer named Caroline Gunn and it is part of the Wellcome Collection , a museum, library, and archive based in London, England that focuses on health, science, and medicine.

The information accompanying this image on the Wellcome Collection’s website doesn’t give us much context about why Caroline Gunn took this image. We don’t have any information about who this little mouse is, but we can infer from the title (“Mouse Health Check”) that the mouse is being handled carefully and gently by the person performing the health check. Is this mouse a pet? Is the human a veterinarian? Does this animal live in a laboratory? We don’t know, but given that it is part of the Wellcome Collection we can assume that this picture has something to do with science, medicine, or health.

Even though there are gaps in the information we have about this picture, we still bring our knowledge, assumptions, perspectives, understandings, backgrounds, feelings, and emotions to these pictures. Some people might see this picture and smile because they think this mouse is really cute. Others might be afraid of mice and recoil a little when they look at it. Some might be reminded of a pet mouse they once had while others might be thinking of the time they had to rescue a mouse from the jaws of their overzealous housecat. If you are an animal rights activist this image might make you uneasy–perhaps this mouse is about to be the subject of a scientific experiment.

I’m sure we can add to this list of possible reactions to this photograph, but the point here is that even though Caroline Gunn would have had an idea about what she wanted to express through this photograph, other meanings are being generated as we look at it. The picture, in other words, is playing an active role.

Still unsure or unconvinced? We will be returning to this concept of pictures being dynamic participants in the meaning-making process throughout this course.

How is Visual Culture Different From Art History?

Visual culture is related to art history, but the field of inquiry is expanded. Art history has traditionally been concerned with things like the biographies and motivations of artists and/or the formal style of an image. Further, art history tends to be very limited in terms of the kinds of images focused on–typically painting, drawing, and sculpture considered to be “great masterpieces” and “things in art galleries.”

Visual culture, on the other hand, is concerned with a very broad scope of images and image makers. Famous paintings found in art galleries can certainly be the subject of visual culture inquiries, but so can advertisements, social media images, sports logos, cartoons, and passport photos (to name just a few examples). Visual culture scholars ask a very broad range of questions when they work with images and focus their inquiries on how images make meaning in the world.

Visual Culture and Accessibility

In recent years we have seen new initiatives in the fields of art history and visual culture in terms of attempting to be more accessible for a wider audience. Museums and art galleries are often leading the way on this front. For example, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) uses an app called BlindSquare to provide exhibition and wayfinding information for visitors who are blind or partially sighted . The Dallas Art Museum has established a program where visitors who have Color Vision Deficiency (often known as “color blindness”) can borrow a set of lenses that can help visitors to the gallery “view the world with a more enriched color field .” [4]

Another example of accessibility initiatives in the context of viewing images comes, once again, from the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO). For their summer 2023 exhibition called Cassatt-McNicoll: Impressionists Between Worlds , the AGO included an American Sign Language Video that offered supplementary information about the life and work of Helen McNicoll presented by Peter Owusu-Ansah and Rae RezWell . Owusu-Ansah and RezWell are Deaf visual artists, as was McNicoll.

Reflection Exercise

Have a listen to this episode of Art Matters which features an interview with representatives from VocalEyes , a charity in the UK that brings “art and culture to life for blind and visually impaired people at theatres, museums, galleries, heritage sites and online.”

Take 5-10 minutes to do some freewriting on this topic. What did you find the most interesting or surprising about the information presented in this podcast? Does this topic raise any questions for you? Are you interested in thinking further about the topic?

Who Should Study Visual Culture?

Visual culture is something that relates to every subject of study. Even if you are not planning to major in art or visual culture you can develop skills that can help you in your chosen field of study. Are you a history major? What can those old photographs in the archives tell you about your subject? Are you a science major? Why do scientific illustrations look the way that they do? Do you plan to be a teacher? How can images help children learn in the classroom? The list is endless! Developing skills that help us analyse images can be very useful no matter where your academic studies and career take you!

Writing Exercise

• Make a list of some of the ways that images relate to your field of study. (examples: logos, advertising, data visualisation, works of art, film adaptations of novels, medical imaging technologies, etc.)
• Pick one item from your list above. Can you think of a specific example of this type of image? What does it look like? What details stand out in your memory? Where did you see it? How does it make you feel? How does this example relate back to your larger field of study?

Spend 5-10 minutes on this exercise.

Learning to look carefully and to ask questions about what you see is a very important skill to have. For example, many medical schools are now requiring their students to take courses in art history and/or visual culture so that they become more skilled at careful looking and detailed observation . Studying visual culture can lead to career paths in the arts, media, museums, advertising, social media, etc., but more importantly this kind of learning can help you become a more astute consumer of the images that you see every single day.

Becoming a critical thinker when it comes to assessing and analysing images can help you judge whether what you read online or see on television is credible. While there is a long history of images being manipulated and edited, this has become an even more complex topic with the rise of AI tools in recent years .

Critical Thinking

You will often see the phrase “critical thinking” or “thinking critically” in these pages. What do we mean by these terms?

bell hooks describes critical thinking as “discovering the who, what, when, where, and how of things–finding the answers to those eternal questions of the inquisitive child–and then utilizing that knowledge in a manner that enables you to determine what matters most.” [5]

Critical thinking does not necessarily mean taking a negative stance or perspective. It is very possible–and quite desirable, actually–to think critically about an image or an idea you are excited about or really enjoy.

Critical thinking is an important concept in the Arts and the Humanities. When we talk about engaging in critical thinking we are simply talking about asking deep questions about whatever it is we are focusing on. We then support that process of questioning through evidence.

In our everyday language we often use the word “critical” to mean something bad or negative. For example, if we say something like “my father was critical of my outfit” we mean that our dad didn’t like what we were wearing. This has a negative connotation.

However, when we use the word “critical” in the phrase “critical thinking” we are not necessarily taking a negative point of view. All we mean when we talk about “critical thinking” is that we are interrogating our object of study–asking questions and thinking deeply about how it works to make meaning in our world. It is perfectly acceptable to engage in critical thinking about things you like–say, for instance, your favourite movie, novel, or video game.

Throughout this course we will be developing critical thinking skills to help us make sense of how images work in our world.

• Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright, Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford University Press. ↵
• W.J.T. Mitchell, What Do Pictures Want?: The Lives and Loves of Images (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), p. 105. ↵
• W.J.T. Mitchell, What Do Pictures Want?: The Lives and Loves of Images (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), p. 92 ↵
• Rhea Nayyar, "A Better Museum Experience for Color-Blind Visitors" Hyperallergic (Oct 23, 2022): https://hyperallergic.com/771685/dallas-art-museum-color-blind-visitors-enchroma/ ↵
• bell hooks, Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom (New York and London: Routledge, 2010), p.9 ↵

Look Closely: A Critical Introduction to Visual Culture Copyright © 2023 by J. Keri Cronin and Hannah Dobbie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Computer Science > Robotics

Title: robouniview: visual-language model with unified view representation for robotic manipulaiton.

Abstract: Utilizing Vision-Language Models (VLMs) for robotic manipulation represents a novel paradigm, aiming to enhance the model's ability to generalize to new objects and instructions. However, due to variations in camera specifications and mounting positions, existing methods exhibit significant performance disparities across different robotic platforms. To address this challenge, we propose RoboUniView in this paper, an innovative approach that decouples visual feature extraction from action learning. We first learn a unified view representation from multi-perspective views by pre-training on readily accessible data, and then derive actions from this unified view representation to control robotic manipulation. This unified view representation more accurately mirrors the physical world and is not constrained by the robotic platform's camera parameters. Thanks to this methodology, we achieve state-of-the-art performance on the demanding CALVIN benchmark, enhancing the success rate in the $D \to D$ setting from 88.7% to 96.2%, and in the $ABC \to D$ setting from 82.4% to 94.2%. Moreover, our model exhibits outstanding adaptability and flexibility: it maintains high performance under unseen camera parameters, can utilize multiple datasets with varying camera parameters, and is capable of joint cross-task learning across datasets. Code is provided for re-implementation. this https URL

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