Visual texts are an important part of literacy education, and many teachers use them alongside traditional long and short form texts such as narratives, workplace documents, poetry, prose and informative texts. But can they be used to teach literacy skills to teens and young adults effectively?
Teaching what teens see
Visual texts are great to use with teens and young adults in VCE VM and Pathways Literacy.
Why?
Because they are a text type that is just about everywhere! Young people spend their lives surrounded by visual texts during their activities at school or TAFE, in the community or when they are online.
Visual texts are on phone screens, in shopping centres and markets. They can be print or digital, still, moving or animated. Visual texts have become so much a part of everyday life they tend to fade into the background a little, becoming a bit like the white noise of the visual world – something to tune into when it is really captivating, but able to be ignored and scanned past if it’s not.
Teens are surrounded by visual texts
Finding the meaning
It’s important for readers to find the meaning of a visual text. This can be trickier than a traditional print text, as the context clues can be a little harder to find and there can be a lot of visual distraction to lead the reader in the wrong direction. Teach students to look for the intended meaning behind the text. They can ask questions about the author’s intent, and consider whether there might be more than one reason the text has been created. Questions like ‘Why has this visual text been created?’ can be extended by adding ‘Why has this visual text been created in the way that it has?’
Critical observation skills
Visual texts have several different elements to them, so readers need to use their critical observation skills to notice how each element has been used to add meaning to the text. Visual texts work differently for the reader compared with a traditional long form text such as a narrative, which uses a top - down approach with an introduction, body and conclusion.
Narratives use a top-down approach with an introduction, body text and conclusion. 'Street Art Tour' from the Literacy for Personal Use - VCE VM and Pathways Tools resource is an easy reading option for teens to help them build reading comprehension skills and gain confidence with a simple narrative text with some embedded visual elements.
In a visual text, headings, colours, images and movement all work to capture and direct the reader’s attention. Some elements attract attention in the same way that a hook works in a narrative; they catch the focus of a reader’s gaze and make them look further at the text. Other elements direct the reader’s attention in a particular direction, so they continue to read or analyse the text. Pictures and captions are a great example of this, as the reader’s attention is drawn towards the picture and then to the caption below it. We can teach students that creators of visual texts understand how readers tend to engage with the visual elements, and how this influences the placement and design of the text.
Call to action
Many visual texts ask the reader to respond in some way. This is known as a call to action, and it is really common in advertising and informative visual texts. Marketers use a call to action because they know it is an effective way of getting a person to buy something. They are more likely to buy an item if there is an immediate prompt for them to take action rather than continue reading the text. Marketers know that buyers won’t come back later, whereas they will respond well to a ‘buy it now’ prompt. Teach students to notice the call to action part of a visual text, so they can discover what the author is encouraging them to do.
Linking text elements and purpose
The elements of a visual text are not placed there purely by accident. They have a clear purpose - to make sure the reader focuses on each aspect of the text in the order the creator wants them to. When students ask themselves ‘Why has this visual text been created?’ they are really exploring the concept of purpose. They can begin to understand the role visual texts play in many aspects of daily life, from advertising and marketing pieces with a clear call to action, through to infographics and newsletters filled with relatable images and news items.
Understanding the audience
Students can look for clues about the audience for a visual text by researching the images, language, style and layout. They can learn how different approaches are more effective with one audience group than another. Work with lots of different visual texts so students can build skills at quickly identifying the target audience for the text, based on colour, headings, images and text based information.
Identify the audience using a range of visual texts.
Bringing it all together
Visual texts are a complete package. They combine a clear author message or intent with visual and text elements that convey the message to a specific audience. In doing so, they achieve their purpose, encouraging the reader to do something or respond to the message in some way. Visual texts are not created by accident, but by a careful process of planning and designing the right elements put together to reach a pre-determined audience. Helping students understand and recognise how the elements of a visual text achieve the purpose of the author is a vital reading skill for young people.
Find resources
Find more teaching resources for working with visual texts for teens using the new release Literacy for Personal Use VCE VM and Pathways Tools Resource to support Unit 1 in Literacy.
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