PLANNING PROJECT ORIENTED IN VISUAL LITERACY

PLANNING PROJECT ORIENTED IN VISUAL LITERACY

for primary school learners

TUTOR: Jorgelina Carlassare

STUDENT:

-2013-

PLANNING PROJECT ORIENTED IN VISUAL LITERACY

for primary school learners

The present teaching unit is planned for fourth graders in Argentina attending a private or a public school with two periods per week

To design this project, we have based on the concept of visual literacy proposed by Tim Stafford in his book called Teaching Visual Literacy in the Primary Classroom. The author defines visual literacy as ‘the active process of reading, interpreting, and understanding images and visual media.’ More specifically, he states that visual literacy refers to ‘the ability to construct meaning from visual images’. Within this line of thought, visual narrative makes reference to the texts and activities that explore the ways in which images function as sophisticated storytelling methods. As an example, picture books can be considered useful tools for the development of visual narrative in the English classroom. In general terms, picture books are a complex fusion of art and literature both educationally valuable and aesthetically appreciated and enjoyed. Stafford also suggests that the pictures presented in these types of books are of central importance to the narrative; that is, they go beyond or deviate from the words, breaking free from the constraints of the written text. For instance, the pictures can provide the reader with an insight into the central character’s mind.

Basing ourselves on these statements, we have chosen a picture book called ‘Who’s Coming for Tea?’ by Viv Lambert and Mo Choy for planning the following teaching unit. We believe this story is suitable in the sense that it works on two levels simultaneously; that is, it can be enjoyed for its exciting and stimulating mix of words and pictures, and at the same time for its emotionally satisfying reading experience. In relation to this, the story creates different levels of meaning opened to different interpretations. This interesting aspect provides students with an opportunity for open-minded thought and creativity which is essential in the learning experience.

To conclude, by means of this picture book, we aim at developing students’ inference skills so that they learn how to ‘read’ and explore some of the ways in which meaning and tone can be interpreted and re-created through an image.

Topic: ANIMALS

Practice:

• Identify details, feelings and emotions

• Listen to a story

• Express personal opinions

• Classify animals

Tasks:

• Reading: who’s coming for tea?

• differentiate between speaking and thinking bubbles

• Describing animals

• describing people

• drawing a series of pictures

• matching descriptions with pictures

• labeling pictures Specific language

• The monster’s got four legs.

• She is my mother.

• It is a zebra

• It isn’t a dog

• She likes cookies for tea

• I like cake for tea

TEACHING AIMS:

 Expose students to authentic material

 Make students develop critical thinking

 Make students develop viewing skills

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will be able to:

 Understand and enjoy listening to a story

 Apply in another context vocabulary they already know

 Interpret information of the story by means of images

 Analyze the setting of the story

NUMBER OF CLASSES:

3 lessons of 50 minutes

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