Visual Thinking - 10 ways
Visual Thinking - 10 ways
A picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say. So how might you ‘save one thousand words’ by using visuals (images and video) in your classroom? This is a strategy that supports literacy, numeracy, critical thinking and a culture of collaboration in the classroom.
Visual Thinking Prompts
In a nutshell, Visual Thinking is providing an image or video as an ‘I wonder’ prompt for students. It allows them to connect to prior learning, ask questions and think on their own about a topic before the teacher begins more traditional instruction. They can be used like conversation cards to spark discussion or as curated question prompts to introduce a new topic or idea.
How might you use visual prompts in the classroom? Here are ten easy ways to get started:
1 To prompt observation
‘What can you see in this picture?’ Ask students to make a list of all of the things that they notice. To extend them you could add a second question, ‘Why do you think it is there?’ and see how much they can pull out about the image’s purpose and author.
2 To connect to prior knowledge
‘What do you know about this picture?’ Ask students to bring their prior knowledge ‘to the table’. You might have a budding expert who has a lot of prior knowledge already and this is a simple way to begin differentiating the next activities based on what students already know. It also gives students a chance to share their knowledge with their peers so that they can have more agency and ownership of their learning.
3 To teach inference
Inference can be a tricky literacy skill to teach with text - but you can model it first by using pictures. Pair some ‘between the lines’ statements to go with a picture. Read them out loud (or provide them to students to unpack in written form, and ask ‘can you prove it?’. An example of this might be ‘the girl is frustrated’ and the inference or clue might be crossed arms and looking down. The ‘not quite right there’ clues in pictures and the thinking, scanning and searching for evidence is a great detective skill that students can then transfer or apply to reading and writing.
4 To use reasoning
As an extension to inference above - students can observe and reason using a picture as a prompt. ‘I think this because…’ This helps them to practice persuasive/argument writing skills as well as to practice reasoning to build on their detective skills.
5 To inspire writing
A picture prompt can be a great way to explore perspective - from the viewpoint of a character or person in history. It can be used to recreate a factual account or it can be used to inspire creative writing. You could also use video to add sound layers to the image for more sensory writing and use the visual prompt as a way to inspire more sensory description into writing.
6 To give permission to wonder
The new Aotearoa New Zealand Histories curriculum is a great way to start with picture prompting and visual thinking skills. We can use pictures to unpack perspectives, make sense of events in timelines and promote connections between the past, the present and beyond.
“Instead of listening to lecturers share their knowledge, VTS asks people to talk about what they see and guides their looking with a pattern of three basic questions and a method of facilitation that involves listening, paraphrasing comments, linking related ideas, and framing the kinds of thinking shared.”
Philip Yenawine - Permission to Wonder
7 To actively estimate
Check out esti mysteries for encouraging clue finding, productive disposition and reasoning with estimation in maths.
Esti Mystery example - visual thinking prompt for active estimation.
8 To work on language in reverse
With new open source artificial intelligence technology becoming more accessible you can enter descriptions into artificial intelligence image making software. Then you can troubleshoot how the description might need to be edited and refined to produce the right kind of image.
Believe it or not this digital painting was created by artificial intelligence (Dall.e) using a description of a classroom using a visual prompt that students are pointing at. It potentially needs more guidance on rendering human faces. What else would you change? How ‘accurate’ can we be with words?
9 To encourage curiosity
Have you got Maths Eyes is a great resource to encourage curiosity and ‘seeing maths everywhere’. Their curiosity packs are downloadable as posters for the classroom too!
10 To cement critical consciousness
Adding some critical questioning to any image or photograph can increase students’ ability to think critically. It can help them to identify fake news and deep fakes on the internet too. Has the image been digitally manipulated? How do we know a photograph is ‘true’? How can we identify fact from fiction? Who took the photo? When did they take it? Why did they take it? (The same applies to paintings or drawings). Understanding context clues and being brave with asking questions and thinking critically is a valuable 21st Century skill that can be nurtured by using visual thinking prompts.
Although originating in a museum context, using Visual Thinking Strategies is a universal way to promote engagement, inspire wonder, foster connection and increase collaboration.
Just think of the ‘not yet thought of 1000’ words, thoughts and connections that might be born into the world as a result. How will you use visual thinking strategies in your classroom?
References:
https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-visual-thinking-strategies-classroom