Why it’s Important
Visual literacy is important in multiple ways:
- Teaching visual literacy helps students to better interpret art and visual media that they come in contact with in their everyday lives.
- Visual literacy allows students to have a deeper interaction with texts of all kinds and sets up the process of critical thinking about representations and meaning.
- Understanding and noticing how art and text interact and relate can give readers the opportunity to "visualize" while they read.
- Teaches children to become informed viewers, and to be more skeptical when it comes to visual media, such as advertisements.
The main reason visual literacy is important is because it gives students a deeper understanding of concepts. Studies have shown that people remember information better when it is shown to them in multiple different ways. Our brains have the ability to remember what something looks like, and so if a person can see an image they are far more likely to remember that, than if they were to read it. When students can listen verbally while looking at visual photos or following along with the words during a reading the students will not only remember the text better, and have a better comprehension of what is being read. Students can also use pictures to figure out words they may not recognize, or use them to learn new words that they have never saw before. This is especially important for struggling students or for students who are learning English as their second language so that they can get the verbal and visual exposure to words to help them reinforce their literacy skills and their decoding of words.
"Images alone are particularly effective as a universal means of communication, often crossing barriers that the spoken and written word cannot. Graphic design can transmit complex messages simply using signs and symbols, which have been learned, that are quickly understood or are instantly recognizable"
http://ccb.lis.illinois.edu/Projects/youth/literacies/visual2.html
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