Workshop: “The power of image
nation: teaching visual literacy in the EFL classroom Time”: 50 mins
“Visual literacy is defined as the ability to understand, interpret
and evaluate visual messages”
ABSTRACT
This workshop is entirely
devoted to the new generation of students that we teach nowadays, who seem to
be totally different from the ones that we used to teach in the past, the
“image nation”. Nowadays, images dominate the world of information. In order to
teach them successfully we have to equip ourselves with proper tools and use
our imagination (image + nation=
imagination) (Wasilewska, 2017).
The development of
technology, mobile phones in particular, has made students perceive reality in
an absolutely different way. In addition, there are applications that our
students use on a daily basis, Pinterest and Instagram, to name but two, that
do prove that this new generation of students thinks in pictures and
communicates through pictures.
Activities that promote
visual literacy can be incorporated naturally into existing curriculum of all
subjects including the EFL classroom. Addressing visual literacy skills can
easily be integrated in instruction and assessment or can often even be part of
content learning in our English language classroom.
At the beginning of the
workshop, there will be a brief introduction on visual literacy, “the ability
to read images in a meaningful way and interpret, create and select images to
convey a range of different meanings”, (Bamford, 2003). Next, the workshop participants will be involved in four hands-on
activities which aim to provide them with some tools to develop and implement
visual literacy instruction in their EFL classroom.
Activity 1: “Reading
the image” basics
Activity 2: “Five
Card Flickr” stories
Activity 3: Using
“memes” in your classroom
Activity 4:
Pinterest boards to enhance personalised learning
BIO
• Theodora
Blakou
is an
English Teacher, MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and has been
working in primary schools for more than 25 years. She has participated in
various European projects (Comenius, Lingua, eTwinning and Erasmus+) since
1997. She is the coordinator of Environmental Education and Culture projects in
her school since 1995. She has participated in research programs organized and
funded by the University of Thessaly and has won several national and
international competitions with her classes.
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