Pictures and Visuals
Overview
Using visual aids, such as pictures, diagrams, and charts, allows for additional processing time and supports learners by breaking down a skill into more manageable parts.
Example: Use This Strategy In in the Classroom
Design It into Your Product
Use It in the Classroom
Hear how this teacher uses picture clues to teach reading. By using picture books with strong illustrations, she supports Vocabulary development, leading to student thinking, deeper comprehension, and retrieval of concepts from Short-term Memory.
Design It into Your Product
Watch how developers of InferCabulary created an app that uses visuals to teach Vocabulary. By presenting five related images, learners practice inferring the meaning of unfamiliar Vocabulary words. Seeing images in addition to text and audio captions further reinforces the definitions of the words, leading to greater retention in Long-term Memory.
Learn More
- Explore the Multimedia Learning subtopic on Digital Promise's Research Map.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Visual Learnings Tools Strategies
Advance graphic organizers link prior knowledge to upcoming learning to help students anticipate and understand the structure of new information.
Visualizing how ideas fit together helps students construct meaning and strengthen recall.
Providing visuals to introduce, support, or review instruction activates more cognitive processes to support learning.
Videos developed with discussion guides can teach students about SEL skills.
Puzzles and games help students visualize how to connect one fact to another.
