Visual Learning Skills
Posted by PLB Blogger · 2 Comments
As I have been working on the finishing touches for the new bulletin board course, a thought crossed my mind… Do bulletin boards have a place in the “tech smart” classroom?
As I thought about this further, I realized that bulletin boards might not only be relevant but could also play an important role in the development of visual learning skills. In today’s classrooms, is learning to present content visually as essential as reading and writing? PowerPoint presentations, web pages and digital textbooks all require us to present and interact with content through pictures, videos and other images. Creative and engaging bulletin boards provide ideas and inspiration that help develop visual delineating and presentation skills. Being involved in the process of creating bulletin boards is a great way for students to experiment with layouts and presentation styles. And for us teachers, learning to create engaging and attractive bulletin boards can help us better prepare our students to become successful visual presenters.
What steps have you taken to improve visual teaching or learning skills?
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During a “Digestive System” science unit, I used the giant bulletin board to place a concept map in the middle to keep track of our learning, day by day. We “saw” how one part of digestion connects to another, yet we could see the isolated parts and the jobs they do. This visual served to scaffold information students may have forgotten, and allowed students to see the “titles” of the parts, and then the offshoots of each part. A concept map is a giant organizer. At any time, a child could go and check information as he/she was synthesizing ideas.
At the top of the bulletin board, the “essential questions” were listed. Around the concept map, there were printed “excepts” of their Science Notebooks and pictures of students participating in digestion experiments.
Bulletin boards present to students, parents, staff and administration what children are learning. Very often, I use the bulletin board as a visual aid to show information to parents during parent-teacher conferences
Sorry, make that http://www.VisualTeaching.ning.com is a great site for VL resources!