Try this! Visual Summaries (Visual literacy)

Try this idea in your classroom

Visual summaries

Here is an effective tool for improving research skills and comprehension. The students read some information in the form of sentences, but summarize the information as a diagram or other visual text. This prevents copying the source. It also requires the student to think about the information in order to summarize it.

Background

We all know how easy it is for students to copy an information source when asked to write a report or explanation. By giving them information in one form (sentences) but asking them to summarize this information as a diagram or flow chart, we avoid this problem. More importantly, the students need to do some genuine thinking in order to "recompose" the information as a visual text.

Grade level

The strategy works for any grade level 2-8.

The strategy

As an example, suppose you have started teaching the topic of volcanoes. You have already shown the students diagrams of volcanoes such as this:

1 New lava flow (molten rock) 2 ash cloud 3 burning cinders 4 old lava flows (solid rock) 5 magma (molten rock) 6 non-volcanic rocks

You have also provided your students with examples of flow charts, such as this:

Flow chart

More on flow charts can be found here.

Hand out a sheet with some paragraphs on a new aspect of volcanoes, in words only. Here's an example:

Volcanoes can cause wildfires

Volcanoes are mountains formed from molten lava. The lava flows out of the ground and forms layers of solid rock.

If you could look inside a volcano you would see layers of rock that have been formed by flows of lava. The lava comes from deep inside the Earth.

As well as lava, some volcanoes produce ash clouds and burning cinders. The cinders can cause wildfires.

Lava flows are hot enough to set fire to trees and houses. Strong winds sometimes fan the flames, causing wildfires.

When fires are started by volcanoes, the best way to extinguish the flames is water bombing from helicopters.

Ask the students to summarize the information as a flow chart. Two examples are shown here (scroll right).

If your class has not used a flow chart before, show some examples first, but make sure they are on a different topic from volcanoes. [Why?]

Assessment

Questions to ask when assessing a visual summary include:

Is the summary clear, economical, and simple?

Are any important steps left out?

Are steps arranged in the same order as the original?

Does the summary reveal a pattern that connects the details?

Does the summary locate and highlight the most important information?

Assessment sheets for flowcharts can be photocopied from The information Toolkit, page 29.

Other kinds of visual summaries

Flow charts are only one kind of visual summary, best suited to explanations, as in this volcano example.

Here are some others to try:

A storyboard to summarize a procedure (such as how to make or cook something)

A timeline to summarize a recount (such as a news item or a short biography)

A table to summarize a description (such as a comparison of two or more animals or planets)

A tree diagram to summarize an information report (such as an essay on "Mammals" or "Transportation vehicles").

Why are we doing this?

Visualizing is a form of thinking. By visualizing the key elements of a text, and finding a pattern connecting the details, students are more likely to understand the text than if their summary is just a page of isolated "notes."

Recomposing a sentence-text as a visual text avoids copying, and requires us to ask "What are the key elements in this text? How are they connected?"

A visual summary can be easier to remember than the same information written out as "notes." The shape of a visual summary often helps us to remember its guiding concept.

Resources

Tidal Pool: this introduction to animals of the sea shore provides several flow charts, which can serve as examples:

More about the book Tidal Pool can be found here.

Other examples of flow charts can be found in:

The Information Toolkit page 28

Show Me! page 28

I See What You Mean, pages 49–59.

An explanation of volcano formation, arranged as a storyboard, can be found here.

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Copyright © Black Cockatoo Publishing PL 2006

Now try these ...

Here are some other classroom ideas you might like to try:

Consequences

This is a "What if?" activity. Many skills are involved: brainstorming ideas, problem solving, visualizing how all parts of the problem fit together, and planning a discussion or an explanation.

A Consequence chart provides a framework that helps many of those struggling writers who ask, "What should I write about?" and "Where do I start?"

Mystery webs

Mystery webs are web diagrams that help with comprehension and learning. They are suitable for:

> creating curiosity about a new topic before you begin it, and

> revising a topic that has recently been completed.

Decision makers

Making their own decisions builds confidence in learning, gives students a stake in their learning, and develops initiative and responsibility.

By organizing the choices in the form of a table (or chart), students are able to compare alternatives easily and to make a logical decision.

Visual summaries

First example

In this flow chart the sequence starts at molten lava and ends at people rescued. This is a forked sequence: the triple fork occurs at the volcano, showing its three products (smoke, new lava, and sparks). The volcano is also shown in cross section, summarizing the text's opening paragraphs. Details not in the original include the helicopter rescue, while the role played by strong winds in the original is overlooked.

Second example

This example is less pictorial and more abstract. There is the same fork at the volcano and a second fork (or bracket) linking "water bombing" to both the house fires and the burning trees. Color has been used to highlight four key agents: volcano (purple), fires (yellow), water bombing (blue) and "fires extinguished" (gray). However, this summary overlooks the first two paragraphs.