Show Me: Principles for Assessing Students' Visual Literacy

Abstract

This article examines assessment of students' visual literacy. In the context of current theory of multimodal texts, the author presents key features for visual literacy assessment and how this assessment might be undertaken. The article then proposes a set of principles and a framework for developing assessment tasks in authentic classroom settings.

Multimodal Interpretations of Novels

“…We coded each response by how the text and visual connected. Then we moved to interpreting how students created their responses by using the categories suggested by Callow (2008). We went through each response and applied a second level of categorization based on Callow's three levels of interpretation.…”

“…Other students used the visual aspect to share issues of power or emotion, similar to the findings of Nikolajeva (2013) and the categories of Callow (2005Callow ( , 2008. Images of segregation, the Black Panthers, and Maniac and Mars Bar represented these emotional, power-laden images.…”

“…For instance when reading a written text, the interpretation occurs from reading words, sentences, paragraphs, and pages; in other words, meaning develops sequentially (Callow, 2008;Kress, 1997). Unlike text interpretations, visual interpretation happens immediately upon viewing a design and spatial elements (Callow, 2008).…”

Visual Literacy From the Perspective of the VTS Method

“…This material focuses on overall assessment of vocabulary, overall assessment of linguistic competence, overall assessment of clarity and VTS-related thinking behaviors. According to Callow (2005;2008), assessing visual literacy includes evaluating texts and discussion where the focus is on personal experience and aesthetic interpretation, use of meta-language and socio-critical understanding. Tillman (2012), again, makes use of Bloom's taxonomies in assessing visual literacy (cf.…”

<b>Por que leem os jovens literatura de autoajuda? Reflexões sobre O céu existe mesmo, de T. Burpo e L. Vincent

“…Efetivada como seleção voluntária de leitura, em momentos de lazer, a obra não se revela uma literatura que exija esforço de interpretação e que contribua diretamente para a formação de um leitor competente. Porém, tendo em linha de conta outras perspectivas, como enfatizam Boyd, Causey, and Galda (2015) no seguimento de outros estudos (McGinnis, 2007;Callow, 2008;Hassett & Curwood, 2009;Pantaleo, 2010;Wu & Coady, 2010), que sublinham a importância da literatura que faculte uma abrangência cultural, na qual estejam refletidos diversos gêneros, então, potencia-se o ato de leitura voluntário, de fruição, interagindo o leitor com outras formas de ser e de estar na vida. Além do mais, se a estrutura das obras sobre autoajuda divulgar princípios íntegros com algum rigor científico, pode, então, contribuir para melhorar e/ou transformar as vidas dos seus leitores e preenchê-las de um significado maior, potenciando a renovação ontológica de valores humanistas.…”