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

https://www.philipyenawine.com/

Growing Capability Together

Are you ready to get some traction with your professional learning?

We hear your stories on the ground when we are working with schools across Aotearoa. We hear you when you speak about the loss of learning time, the need to re-engage with whānau and how the ‘urgent’ has been taking over what is important. We can see the ripple effect of how this is affecting learners and we are here to help you to be re-grounded into your ‘why’.

Check out this video that explains the importance of standing strong together - no matter what the disruption. 

We know that areas of growth in a school need to be woven together like the roots of trees. Priorities can be interconnected and there is strength in combining ‘root systems’ in order to stand strong.  We partner with you to identify and prioritise the ‘seeds’ for your areas of growth. We then work together to create and nurture your thriving ecosystem.

Regionally Allocated PLD Applications (RAPLD) are due on Friday the 12th of August and Friday the 4th of November. Now is the time to make a difference. Let’s refocus on learning and professional growth. Email us so that we can take the pain out of the paperwork, support you to draft an application and help you to get what you need to realise your vision.  

Nurturing a New Normal with Digital Fluency

Poipoia te kākano kia puāwai

Nurture the seed and it will grow

The context

Recently we celebrated a mid-way point with Frankton School to assess where we are, where we have come from and to offer an opportunity to shift the markers for where we need to go from here. It was a reflective meeting supported with data, teacher observations, senior leadership observations and wonderings and our own documentation and future recommendations. (Check out our process here). 

What Glynis Knox (the Assistant Principal) said in the meeting really resonated with us: “You know the change is here when it becomes the new normal.” 

She was referring to the fact that Year 3 students were making digital posters on Canva as if it ‘was no special thing’ and showcasing their work without it being difficult, hard or new. The digital fluency that was their annual target was becoming normalised, integrated, embraced and owned by the tamariki. It was a really special comment because it indicated that the changes were becoming embedded into the school’s identity, ‘this is the new way we do things’ and ‘this is us’. 

Meanwhile, in a Year 6 classroom, Connor Chesham’s students are exploring Anchor as a podcasting tool. His students are writing scripts, collaborating on the editing process, refining their scripts based on specific learning outcomes and even recording podcasts about wanting all teachers to be podcasting! The audio is so professional sounding and you can really hear the students’ confidence and pride in their mahi.

“We can really see the potential to be real-life journalists” says Connor. “The engagement has been massive.” And from the students, “It is so good to be able to hand in work outside of a book.”

In Whaea Jo’s class, the Year 4’s are starting their journey by creating brochures about Pirongia on Canva. In Miss Mooney’s class students are about to start an inference focus using hyper-journals. “The students have come a really long way and they realise that you can do amazing things even with relatively simple technology like Google Docs for example. They are accessing their learning easily and assuming navigator/driver models to help each other really naturally.” The peer support is echoed in other classes where the students are helping each other as ‘drivers and navigators’ and digital technology is not ‘scary or hard’. The range of tools used by classes is also growing to include iPad apps like MyStory and Puppetpals, interactive hyper-journals and interactive slides. Tayla Hobden’s Year 4’s are engaging with Google Slides using scavenger hunts to upskill with digital processes for reading groups. Megan Whitburn (Year 2 teacher) even has her students self-checking their learning on iPads with a personalised deck of Boom Cards and the Year 5’s in Holly Mason’s class are also investigating ‘best sentence’ models using magnetic poetry. Vickie Sue and Jess Weston are also exploring vocal recording for embedding writing and encouraging student reflections on learning. The learning is exciting and the energy is contagious.

The importance of the vision

This school had a thematic approach for the year. They chose a vision to work towards - ‘Digital Fluency’. The vision for change is anchored to a theme to make it easier to hold on to and to enable classroom teachers to use digital tools as a natural part of all learning programmes. 

Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist and author of “The Willpower Instinct,” also endorses picking a “theme” for the year. That way, even if a particular habit doesn’t stick, the overarching intention will. This school chose ‘Digital Fluency’ and the team at Momentum Learning unpacked it into separate categories of leadership (leading with experimentation and collaboration), confidence (offering opportunities to grow together) and new digital tools (offering opportunities for staff to ‘play’ together to experience how students might explore new tools together with guidance). 

Doing something deliberate towards a goal or vision every day also resonates with James Clear’s Atomic Habits. He says, ‘Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.’ He, too, points out that nurturing a seed daily can grow the vision you want to blossom like the whakatauki that was chosen for this blog post.

Every day, do something that will nurture the seed.

With collaboration, clear intentions and the right kind of support, the seed will suddenly bloom and can become ‘the new normal’. 

Momentum Learning Pānui July 2022

Where did the last term go? It seems to have taken the sun and left us with the grey days that signal winter has us in its grips. Spring can't be too far off though, given the sunshine-yellow daffodils popping up around the country!

It’s been a busy time for the Momentum team, read more about what we’ve been up to in this month’s pānui.

Celebrations that shape culture

In his book Professional Learning Communities at Work, Rick DuFour shares, “One of the most important and effective strategies for shaping the culture of any organization is celebration.”

How and what do you celebrate in your school?

Celebrating Students

Most of us will be able to name a variety of ways we celebrate our students - we reward effort, progress, achievement, in some cases attendance.  We celebrate academic progress, academic achievement, values, and competencies, and these celebrations take many forms.  In schools today we see celebration through rewards - certificates, trophies, shields.  Assemblies and prize-givings were missed during the pandemic, and have been welcomed back now too.  A personal favourite of mine has been the introduction of celebrations or exhibitions of learning.  It makes my heart sing to see students be so excited to share their learning with an authentic (often adoring) audience, and also the insights and partnerships that can be developed with whānau and friends too.   

Of course, there will be debate and challenges to these processes e.g. during lockdowns we had to rethink how we celebrated our students.   Another common debate is the intrinsic vs extrinsic rewards discussion.  When we step back though - who doesn’t love a good celebration - even our shyest of learners can benefit when it is done through a thoughtful process! 

Celebrating our Staff and Community
School leaders also know that to shape culture within a school we celebrate not only our students but our staff and members of our community also.  Maybe we need to crowdsource our ideas, and collectively strengthen our ketes - with the goal of creating awesome Professional Learning Communities… imagine a smorgasbord of ideas that have been tried and worked in a variety of contexts.  Wouldn’t that help to keep our school leaders supported with ideas for how we celebrate staff and whānau?  This could also be shared with staff, as we ensure that while we have the overall responsibility, the culture within a school is a collective responsibility.  

It is important to celebrate a journey within a school.  A wise person once told me that “a school is like a book - and as school leaders, we are all but a chapter… and the school will go on once we are gone”.  I think that analogy is helpful to remember, however, most leaders I know are intrinsically motivated (consciously or not) by ensuring their added value - their legacy.  The All Blacks refer to it as ‘leaving the jersey in a better place’.  Whatever the context or motivation, celebrating a school or kura’s journey acknowledges, and honours the mahi that has built the legacy of the school, the one you inherit.  The work that you do in your ‘chapter’, and sets the path for the future.  

What are our ‘best practices’ for: 

• Celebrating Staff

• Celebrating Whānau

• Celebrating Our School’s Journey?

Example of an - 'Exhibition of Learning'

Rochelle Inwood
Professional Learning Facilitator
Momentum Learning Ltd