Strategies
Moline lists strategies for working with each type of visual. For the purposes of this project, we have selected a few visuals and created an additional strategy for each one. If we did not cover your favorite visual, find out more in I See What You Mean!
Simple Diagrams
Picture Glossary that shows structure: this allows students to show the relationship among parts of an object. Ex. Cells
As part of a larger unit on cells, the SLMS can work with students on a hands-on activity that will help them grasp how cells are arranged. The students will have learned about each part of a cell, the functions of the parts, and how they interact, so this activity will give them a visual to which they can apply their knowledge.
Materials: paper, colored pencils, large diagram of a cell; optional: show boxes and colored construction paper
Maps
Maps are easily incorporated into the library: they can be placed or painted onto the walls. A map of the county or the state can have all of the landmarks that make it unique. Or include other icons, like depicting a pine tree if the state’s biggest export is pine lumber. During units about other places in the world, maps can always go up. Maps created by students can also make for eye-catching displays.
If the SLMS is helping teach students about maps in general, here is a possible activity:
It is best to have students compare maps to drive home the point that all maps have a purpose, and different maps have different purposes.
Materials: paper, Google Maps; optional: document camera
Icons
Visual texts in the media center can take the form of a set of icons. These icons could be on the shelves, at the computers, could stand as library guidelines, etc. For example, an elementary school library can include a second set of shelf labels that depict animals. The first shelf goes from Aa to Br, so have a picture of an aardvark and an arrow to a brown bear. In the non-fiction section, for instance, the 100s could have a brain with a question mark superimposed on it. Pictorial instructions have a place in the library too: maybe for logging onto the computers, or even for circulation. A graphic could instruct students to scan their books (it would be helpful to show detail in this part—where is the barcode located?), wait for the sound the system makes upon a successful scan, and then place the books in the book return. If the students have library cards, a similar graphic could remind them to have their cards ready. There are so many possibilities!
Analytic Diagrams
The SMLS should make books featuring Cross-sections and Exploded Diagrams available for browsing and checkout. These books should be displayed face out in the library to make it easier for readers to find them. When making purchasing decisions, the SMLS should acquire well-reviewed materials which will stimulate visual learners. DK’s Eyewitness series and Stephen Biesty’s Incredible Cross-Sections or Incredible Explosions are great examples.
Creating Exploded Diagrams is a good excuse for students to be allowed to take apart and reassemble objects they might not be allowed to touch normally. The SLMS could do a tech demonstration with an old retired PC, where students are allowed to open it and take out the parts from the motherboard. The students would be introduced to the basics of computing: memory, RAM, video cards, network cards, processor. Then they could draw and exploded diagram of the PC, labelling the parts within.
Flowcharts
Flowcharts are helpful in showing a process. A helpful activity for a class of students would be to create a flowchart describing the path a book takes from creation, to the library, and eventually to the reader’s hands. The SLMS could start by having the students brainstorm ideas about how books are made. The SLMS would then get the students to organize the process into a sequence of stages. Depending on the age of the students, after they have figured out the publishing process, the librarian could go into the materials selection procedures for a library and the basics of the interview process. All of the separate steps would then be written onto index cards. The students would arrange the index cards into the proper order on a sheet of posterboard. Finally, they would add arrows to show the sequence of the steps.
Venn Diagrams
Venn Diagrams allow for students to organize information for comparative essays and projects. After gathering information, students can use the two overlapping circles to indicate what is unique to each thing and what is similar. Moline uses the example of a diagram about whales and sharks, in which the “same” item in the middle is that both creatures eat fish, and the differences are that sharks are like fish and whales are mammals (as well as other facts). This is great way for the SLMS to help students organize the information they’ve been researching, check their facts, and make true statements based on the information in their diagrams. It could also be useful for the SLMS to create Venn Diagrams about different resources, for example, online databases and books in the library. In order to help students learn how to evaluate what type of resource they need, students and the librarian together could use a Venn Diagram to explore what options each type of resource has, including similarities, so students can see if they’d be best served by book, databases, or both. The SLMS could then display this graphic in the library for easy reference for students while they work.
Graphs
One of the challenges that Moline points out for students is that they may not know which type of graph to use for the information that they have. One way to help students learn the appropriateness of different graphs is to review different collections of information with them (for example, temperatures over several days, rainfall on each day for several days, total number of types of vehicles in a parking lot, etc) and try to use all of the graph types to visually represent the information. As they do this with the SLMS, they can learn that things with fixed amounts (like rainfall) work well in bar/column graphs, line graphs work best for variable data (like temperature), and pie charts are helpful for determining the parts of a total amount. Having this guided instruction allows for students to begin the process of analyzing their information and determining the best way to communicate that data to others visually.
Simple Diagrams
Picture Glossary that shows structure: this allows students to show the relationship among parts of an object. Ex. Cells
As part of a larger unit on cells, the SLMS can work with students on a hands-on activity that will help them grasp how cells are arranged. The students will have learned about each part of a cell, the functions of the parts, and how they interact, so this activity will give them a visual to which they can apply their knowledge.
Materials: paper, colored pencils, large diagram of a cell; optional: show boxes and colored construction paper
- Show students an enlarged diagram of a cell (plant or animal, depending on your unit)
- Have the students draw their own cells (Ask them to look carefully at the relative positions and sizes of parts of cells)
- Then, have them label the cell by color-coding it
Maps
Maps are easily incorporated into the library: they can be placed or painted onto the walls. A map of the county or the state can have all of the landmarks that make it unique. Or include other icons, like depicting a pine tree if the state’s biggest export is pine lumber. During units about other places in the world, maps can always go up. Maps created by students can also make for eye-catching displays.
If the SLMS is helping teach students about maps in general, here is a possible activity:
It is best to have students compare maps to drive home the point that all maps have a purpose, and different maps have different purposes.
Materials: paper, Google Maps; optional: document camera
- Have students create maps of the classroom (or the library)
- If possible, show the volunteers’ maps to the class with a document camera
- Ask the class what they notice about the maps; what did the different students include?
- Use this discussion to teach them that maps include relevant details, and that relevant details change with the purpose of the map
- Next, bring up Google Maps and turn off “Labels” so that street names are not shown
- Pick a location (your school or a local landmark would be a good starting place)
- The location will show up in Satellite view; ask students questions about the location
- If it is the school, have them identify locations within the school from this overhead view
- Switch to Map view, and then to street view, asking the students what changes each time
- What is left out in Map view? How does the perspective change in street view? What are the relevant details in each view?
- Then have students create their own maps of the location, based on what they remember and what they feel is the most relevant
- Share again!
Icons
Visual texts in the media center can take the form of a set of icons. These icons could be on the shelves, at the computers, could stand as library guidelines, etc. For example, an elementary school library can include a second set of shelf labels that depict animals. The first shelf goes from Aa to Br, so have a picture of an aardvark and an arrow to a brown bear. In the non-fiction section, for instance, the 100s could have a brain with a question mark superimposed on it. Pictorial instructions have a place in the library too: maybe for logging onto the computers, or even for circulation. A graphic could instruct students to scan their books (it would be helpful to show detail in this part—where is the barcode located?), wait for the sound the system makes upon a successful scan, and then place the books in the book return. If the students have library cards, a similar graphic could remind them to have their cards ready. There are so many possibilities!
Analytic Diagrams
The SMLS should make books featuring Cross-sections and Exploded Diagrams available for browsing and checkout. These books should be displayed face out in the library to make it easier for readers to find them. When making purchasing decisions, the SMLS should acquire well-reviewed materials which will stimulate visual learners. DK’s Eyewitness series and Stephen Biesty’s Incredible Cross-Sections or Incredible Explosions are great examples.
Creating Exploded Diagrams is a good excuse for students to be allowed to take apart and reassemble objects they might not be allowed to touch normally. The SLMS could do a tech demonstration with an old retired PC, where students are allowed to open it and take out the parts from the motherboard. The students would be introduced to the basics of computing: memory, RAM, video cards, network cards, processor. Then they could draw and exploded diagram of the PC, labelling the parts within.
Flowcharts
Flowcharts are helpful in showing a process. A helpful activity for a class of students would be to create a flowchart describing the path a book takes from creation, to the library, and eventually to the reader’s hands. The SLMS could start by having the students brainstorm ideas about how books are made. The SLMS would then get the students to organize the process into a sequence of stages. Depending on the age of the students, after they have figured out the publishing process, the librarian could go into the materials selection procedures for a library and the basics of the interview process. All of the separate steps would then be written onto index cards. The students would arrange the index cards into the proper order on a sheet of posterboard. Finally, they would add arrows to show the sequence of the steps.
Venn Diagrams
Venn Diagrams allow for students to organize information for comparative essays and projects. After gathering information, students can use the two overlapping circles to indicate what is unique to each thing and what is similar. Moline uses the example of a diagram about whales and sharks, in which the “same” item in the middle is that both creatures eat fish, and the differences are that sharks are like fish and whales are mammals (as well as other facts). This is great way for the SLMS to help students organize the information they’ve been researching, check their facts, and make true statements based on the information in their diagrams. It could also be useful for the SLMS to create Venn Diagrams about different resources, for example, online databases and books in the library. In order to help students learn how to evaluate what type of resource they need, students and the librarian together could use a Venn Diagram to explore what options each type of resource has, including similarities, so students can see if they’d be best served by book, databases, or both. The SLMS could then display this graphic in the library for easy reference for students while they work.
Graphs
One of the challenges that Moline points out for students is that they may not know which type of graph to use for the information that they have. One way to help students learn the appropriateness of different graphs is to review different collections of information with them (for example, temperatures over several days, rainfall on each day for several days, total number of types of vehicles in a parking lot, etc) and try to use all of the graph types to visually represent the information. As they do this with the SLMS, they can learn that things with fixed amounts (like rainfall) work well in bar/column graphs, line graphs work best for variable data (like temperature), and pie charts are helpful for determining the parts of a total amount. Having this guided instruction allows for students to begin the process of analyzing their information and determining the best way to communicate that data to others visually.
Questions
- How can you incorporate visual texts into the library physically?
- How do visual texts fit into AASL’s Standards for the 21st-Century Learner?
- In what ways can you argue the case for visual texts with teachers who may view them as “just drawing”?
- How do you convince teacher that visual texts that focus highly on the visual aspects (like scale diagrams) are as valuable as visual texts that are heavier on text (like tables and webs)?
- How does visual literacy affect library signage? How does a SLMS provide adequate visuals within the library space without creating a sense of clutter?
- How can the SLMS incorporate visual texts with their monthly reports and stats?
- What software is best for creating visual texts for those who are artistically challenged?