Visual Literacy: Learning to See

Messages are everywhere we look. We are pummeled with a nonstop graphic stream of information: branding, cereal boxes, video games, YouTube, bus tails, magazines, outdoor boards, texting, advertising, photographs, films, TV, direct mail, Facebook, streets wallpapered with posters. Visual communication has its own vocabulary, grammar, history, composition, formats, literature, heritage and a vast store of graphic strategies. We need that understanding to become visually literate. It is critical that students become familiar with the rudiments of visual communication. They need to understand how we see and make sense of the visual flow and flux around them, and to learn the intricacies of visual language. Students need to be able to think visually. With VISUAL LITERACY: LEARNING TO SEE, they will see the world with new eyes.