New Visual Literacy Handout

I and my students may live in Iowa, but we are connected to the world!  This is why I feel so strongly that Visual Literacy is one of the most important things that we, as Art teachers, can teach.

As I’ve talked about before, my school has done Smart Goals for a long time and recently I’ve been focusing on Visual Literacy with my high school students.  I reworked my Visual Literacy critique this year to make it look “friendlier” and less "worksheety" (if that makes any sense!) 

This year, I also introduced the idea of Visual Literacy with this excellent video from the Toledo Museum of Art 

We are starting our visual literacy study by critiquing this poster from the Ringling College of Art and Design.  Don’t you love this one?  

The thing that concerns me as we start this process is how often students do not realize that they are being marketed to (for example - in this poster!)  We spend some time talking about how important it is to know when someone is trying to sell you something. 
                                               Visual Literacy to the rescue!

We will also be critiquing fine art, student art, videos, commercials, print ads and infographics. 

I am so impressed with the kids when they show me how much they are really looking, listening and learning. 
Happy Critiquing!