In our multimodal world visuals and moving images have become an increasingly popular means of communication to express ideas and convey emotions. It is our task as teachers to support our students in building a sound visual literacy that enables them to evaluate images and make meaning of them.
Images are a wonderful tool to inspire students to write not only because they activate prior knowledge but nurture students’ imagination to create their own stories. We will be looking at paintings, photos, films, and wordless books and find out how decoding and analysing their visuals work best. The three following questions will steer our workshop: How am I going to embed visuals meaningfully in my classroom? How can my students be supported in making meaning of images by not only asking them to describe what they see? And how can I sparkle their imagination in order to support them grow as independent writers by producing narratives, biographies, as well as non-fiction texts? “Stepping into the picture and going on an inquisitive journey” as well as “leading a dialogue with the characters depicted in the visuals” are only but a few strategies to mention that support students in analysing pictures.
