Visual Literacy

In our class, we have been learning about the main components of English language arts. They include speaking and listening, writing and grammar, literature, and visual literacy, but unlike the other categories, visual literacy does not have a section of its own under the Common Core State Standards. That is not to say that visual literacy does not appear at all in the CCSS, but it is not as strongly emphasized as the other categories. Visual literacy first appears under the anchor standards for college and career readiness for reading. It is categorized under the integration of knowledge and ideas section stating that students should be able to "integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words." While this is not directly related to graphic novels, it is relevant to visual literacy because it includes diverse media and visual representation. Similarly, other hints of visual literacy can be found in the reading literature portion of the standards, but not explicitly. 

 I thought it was interesting that the book contained a section about how students should understand how visual images can be used in persuasive ways in the media. In today's age, we are no stranger to the fact that companies use different appeals in their commercials to try and get customers to buy their products. Usually we would see this type of lesson in a marketing or business class rather than a literature class so I found it interesting that it technically falls under visual literacy. The visual appeals for the purpose of persuasion can be used in almost any setting from a commercial, to a poster, and even a children's storybook. I always thought it was important to teach students about visual literacy that came in the form of political comics. Those images contained a lot of information that could be easily overlooked if the student did not know how to properly approach the material. I also like the idea of focusing different lessons on the meaning of symbols in today's world and in history because those symbols are a piece of visual literacy. They convey a message and are determined by a specific time, place, culture, and group of people. 

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