Visual Thinking

Instructional Method: Visual Thinking Strategies [Visual Thinking Strategies.pdf]

At the start of the lesson the students have presented a picture and are asked three visual thinking strategy questions. The questions are designed to create conversation and allow students to verbalize their thoughts without too much interruption or outside influence.

The strengths of this instruction are the cross-curriculum challenge (Art/English/Social studies) and the open-ended questions. This method allows the students to concern themselves with critical thought versus provide a right or wrong answer to the question. The fact that there are so few questions cause this strategy to become an ideal lesson for a class not limited in scope or time.

The limitation is the first response seems to debilitates any new ideas brought up, and students begin to parrot one another versus contribute a new idea/opinion to the conversation. They compare themselves amongst themselves and become fearful of being criticized. Alternatively, the students stop wanting to contribute to the discussion and the lesson lasts a total of five minutes.