Visual Literacy Tools
Simple Diagrams:(click for examples)
Simple diagrams are visual texts in which:
-The illustration and the words work together to make the meaning
-The illustration simplifies, generalizes, or symbolizes the subject, rather than shows us its “true” color or texture
(pg. 49)
Maps: (click for examples)
A map is a label diagram that looks down from above. It enables us to:
-Show spatial connections
-Locate a subject and sometimes put it into the same context as the reader
-Define territories
-Summarize a process
-Show changes over time
-Record the movement, travel, or spread of people, inventions, products, or ideas
-Instruct
Maps can be of anything; remember not to think of them as merely as a way to depict the geography of a place. Moline uses the word “plan” as a synonym to keep educators’ minds open. A map can be of anything that has dimensions and can be labeled (whether those dimensions are physical or imaginary). There are four kinds of maps: bird’s eye views, personal maps, maps of the unknown, and time maps.
Analytic Diagrams: (click for examples)
Analytic diagrams are used to show the inside of a subject or a close-up of it. Often they are used to show how an something functions by magnifying it, separating out its parts, taking away one of its outside layers, taking a slice out of it or by cutting out a block or segment.
Process Diagrams: (click for examples)
Process diagrams help the viewer understand ideas rather than just physical objects and places. They can help with explanation, instruction, arguments and instructions.
Structure Diagrams: (click for examples)
Structure diagrams help us to see patterns that connect ideas. They also allow us to compare and categorize information.
Types: web diagrams, tree diagrams, tables, Venn diagrams
Graphs: (click for examples)
Graphs are useful for comparing, ranking, and measuring information. While typically covered in the realm of mathematics, graphs are useful for are subject areas, and graph literacy assists in tasks like reading the newspaper and decoding Wikipedia articles.
Simple diagrams are visual texts in which:
-The illustration and the words work together to make the meaning
-The illustration simplifies, generalizes, or symbolizes the subject, rather than shows us its “true” color or texture
(pg. 49)
Maps: (click for examples)
A map is a label diagram that looks down from above. It enables us to:
-Show spatial connections
-Locate a subject and sometimes put it into the same context as the reader
-Define territories
-Summarize a process
-Show changes over time
-Record the movement, travel, or spread of people, inventions, products, or ideas
-Instruct
Maps can be of anything; remember not to think of them as merely as a way to depict the geography of a place. Moline uses the word “plan” as a synonym to keep educators’ minds open. A map can be of anything that has dimensions and can be labeled (whether those dimensions are physical or imaginary). There are four kinds of maps: bird’s eye views, personal maps, maps of the unknown, and time maps.
Analytic Diagrams: (click for examples)
Analytic diagrams are used to show the inside of a subject or a close-up of it. Often they are used to show how an something functions by magnifying it, separating out its parts, taking away one of its outside layers, taking a slice out of it or by cutting out a block or segment.
Process Diagrams: (click for examples)
Process diagrams help the viewer understand ideas rather than just physical objects and places. They can help with explanation, instruction, arguments and instructions.
Structure Diagrams: (click for examples)
Structure diagrams help us to see patterns that connect ideas. They also allow us to compare and categorize information.
Types: web diagrams, tree diagrams, tables, Venn diagrams
Graphs: (click for examples)
Graphs are useful for comparing, ranking, and measuring information. While typically covered in the realm of mathematics, graphs are useful for are subject areas, and graph literacy assists in tasks like reading the newspaper and decoding Wikipedia articles.