In schools around the country, students are increasingly asked to create visual representations of ideas and information. Slideshows, infographics, and websites have become nearly as common as text documents. Years are spent teaching students grammar and paragraph construction so that they can become strong written communicators, but rarely is the…

How school librarians focus on activating critical thinking through traditional literacy development can proactively set the stage for the deep thinking that occurs in all literacy development. The critical-thinking skills students build while becoming accomplished readers and writers provide the foundation for learning in a variety of…

Describes a collaborative project among three universities to design a visual interpretive analysis, where students analyze a picture book illustration and develop a Web site that explores the contextual meaning and aesthetic appreciation of the illustration. Discusses media literacy, visual literacy, critical thinking, design issues, evaluation…