Creating Visuals
Overview
Students activate more cognitive processes by exploring and representing their understandings in visual form. Artistic expression allows learners to exhibit what they know and can do in alternative ways that lead to greater Motivation and retention of information.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Starting at 1:22, watch how elementary students use art to further understand and apply the concepts they are learning in physics. By analyzing and describing art in a group setting, learners practice their Verbal Reasoning and Vocabulary.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Watch how Chromville marries coloring and augmented reality to provide a creative learning experience for a variety of learners. Enhancing the coloring pages via AR promotes creative storytelling and facilitates the development of learners' Genre Conventions. Layering another possibility on top of a learner's drawing can encourage greater Attention and Motivation for the learning process.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Active Learning Strategies
Physically acting out a text enhances reading comprehension.
Expressing ideas through visuals and audio, and understanding others' ideas in these forms, is as critical in today's world as traditional reading and writing.
When students explain their thinking process aloud, they recognize the strategies they use and solidify their understanding.
Visiting places connected to classroom learning provides opportunities to deepen understanding through firsthand experiences.
Games help students visualize how to connect one fact to another.
Playful activities can support the development of learners' Metacognition and also inspire their narratives and writing.
Project-based learning (PBL) actively engages learners in authentic tasks designed to create products that answer a given question or solve a problem.
Response devices boost engagement by encouraging all students to answer every question.
