What do you see? Teaching Visual Literacy Through Photography, Grades 6 – 12

This July, we are offering a four-session professional development course through ASPDP for New York City Educators. To register for this class, please visit the ASPDP website. Please note, you must register through ASPDP in order to receive P-credit for the course. Registration ends July 10.

Dates: July 11, 13, 18, and 20th
(This is one class that meets four times)

Course Description:

Aperture On Sight visual literacy trainer Alice Proujansky — a professional photographer and trained arts educator — will lead educators through adapting Aperture’s twenty-session visual literacy and photography curriculum to their students’ needs. Participants will decode and encode images, learning how to interpret photographs using flexible, engaging inquiry techniques that make material accessible to students. The curriculum has been successfully tested with a wide range of students, including English Language Learners, college-bound art students, and sixth graders with no previous experience.

Using readings from Visual Thinking Strategies, Responsive Classroom, Paulo Freire, and Paul Berger, we will understand the ways that images communicate, how students can infuse their own photographs with meaning, and ways to move beyond art history lectures toward truly thoughtful interpretative conversations that encourage students to make personal connections with visual imagery. Participants will do several of Aperture’s hands-on photography and photobook-making lessons, using cameras and visual games to understand the student experience.

Educators will practice leading image interpretation conversations with students, overcoming technical concerns, and photobook-making. The trainer will also observe and give feedback on visual literacy teaching. Topics include Collaborative Portraiture, Different Kinds of Truth, Metaphor, Context Case Study, and Mind Mapping.

Register here.