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Saturday, April 16, 2011

Teaching Visual Literacy

Books and other forms of printed texts no longer serve as primary sources of information, not since e-books/ journals/dictionaries/articles became the convenient and cheaper substitute. As such, youngsters have only a small inclination towards those bound stacks of pages we call books. They feel threatened by its concrete nature - its seemingly hard and unchanging face in a fast-changing world. Devoid of visual animation and colour, English reading material is considered to be an introduction to the Land of Nod. 
And so, knowing that hedonism charcterises the lifestyle of the postmodern nation, i appealed to my students' desires and surprised them with a presentation on visual literacy, with concepts and images that were new and relevant to them. 
It was a great success (although my laptop crashed, which i think was worth it anyway - ah, to see the light of interest in their eyes!)

Teaching, like everything else in the world, should evolve. According to Prabhu, there are no wrong teaching methods. They are all successful and context-dependent. For now, i have one amazing lesson stuffed happily into my pocket of teaching memories. Here's to hoping that i may accumulate and learn from more, with time.

راوية







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