VTS assignment #4

In response to Yenawine's article, Thoughts on Visual Literacy:

      It is interesting to think about the fact that people need to develop their ability to look at images and be able to digest the information that they are presented with in a way in which they can relay a response. We are bombarded with images constantly and our brains tell us immediately if we are drawn to a certain image or not, but most of the time we don't know why. Reading a book is not able to happen unless you learn a set of symbols. My young niece can not read, however she can describe a picture with ease. However, the meaning within the image is not something that she can relay. She knows what is in the photo, but she dose not know what the objects represent collectively.      

"Reading levels are understood as gradual and slowly evolving, allowing for large and small developmental changes in skills, understanding, and involvement. Visual literacy should be seen as a similarly slow-developing set of skills and understandings that progress unevenly, each step building on earlier ones, each dependent on certain kinds of exposure and instruction." (Yenawine, Thoughts on Visual Literacy)

      I think that most of the students that make up the BWC group that I facilitate are in Stage I pre-literate stage. The boys tend to relate everything they see to something they have experienced instead of connecting it to aesthetic associations. I think this is why it is important to give the boys in my group an image to feast on that is rich in narrative. The images that are more abstract or lack juicy details seem to head no where. The boys love to describe what they think is going to happen within the story of the artwork, but have little to associate it with other than video games. They are certainly growing however. The comments that they give now compared to last year when I began the program with them are astounding. I will always remember the museum visit we made with them at the end of last year in which all of their hands were in the air when the docent asked questions. They had a lot to share based on their personal experiences and the beauty of being part of this program, they know have personal experiences to relate their findings to from other artwork they have viewed in BWC! They are growing a base of information. 

"At the earliest stage, viewers' strength can be characterized as storytelling--that is, relating what they see to what they knows by strings of personal anecdotal responses. They see things through their own life experiences--and not through a framework of aesthetic associations as experts do. Teaching effectively to this stage involves presenting the viewer with works that encourage a narrative reading, and relate to familiar contexts and activities. Ask them to look and think about what they see, then to look again, and to share and compare their perceptions and responses with others. This viewer can quickly learn to observe more and ground their stories in evidence within the picture rather than simply in their memories or imaginations. This capacity itself represents growth, essential for moving to later stages." (Yenawine, Thoughts on Visual Literacy)

 Sequencing of VTS images

     Walker states that "If knowledge is not meaningfully connected, it has little value. The implications of this for instructional planning are that the sequence in which knowledge is presented to students must be meaningful. Knowledge must be thought of in terms of building blocks scaffolding, and connections. As teachers, we must ask ourselves "What do students need to know first so they can understand what follows?" (Walker, Teaching Meaning in Artmaking) This is an area that I need to work on a great deal as I put together a unit involving VTS exercises. This semester, my image progression has not been constructed well although I have had a few thoughts that have influenced my progression that seem to fall in line with Walker's thinking. 

     I started off the semester looking at images that placed the viewer in confrontation with a beast by showing a gladiator fighting a lion. My hope was to get the boys used to the idea of placing themselves inside the painting and thinking of the things that they would encounter while facing a lion. THe image suggests these types of questions in its subject matter and composition. I wanted them to use descriptive words as to what they would be experiencing. After this image we moved into more imaginative beasts with different hybrid features. This was to get the boys to become more creative in the beasts that they were creating. Finally I moved into a set of images that depicted more imaginative encounters with beasts in terms of environment and beastly make-up. The projects that we created around these images had a great deal of writing involved so the more interesting the setting and beastly detail, the more interesting their writing became.