Interestingly as I am preparing for some upcoming workshops, I have noticed the attention being paid to visual communication. This may be due to our continued exposure to technology, which relies heavily on pictures.
Listening recently to NPR while driving, I head about a visual correspondent/visual reporter. It makes sense that this would be a growing occupation. Students are attracted to graphic novels (and adults are too!) Teachers have noticed, as young as 3rd grade, how students' writing is lacking description, as they are already used to the pictures supplying that aspect of stories.
The past few days on Twitter, I have noticed the use of sketch noting during teacher orientations. They are being used for emotional expressions to the new school year. Many are group interpretations to core curriculum requirements. Expressing ideas visually with both pictures and words helps the brain retain information.
Years ago I had students make mind maps to organize concepts and details in science. It was so successful that I expanded it to reading plots and pre-writing ideas. My son wrote all his notes in college using mainly sketches (hence why he runs the Central Park Sketch Meetup no doubt!) with labels. He can open to any page now, 20 years later and recall in detail, the topic of the lecture.
We need our students to be able to write efficiently and comfortably, but balancing those skills with visual expressions may help keep them current and using different aspects of their intelligences. We have heard for years that 'A picture is worth a thousand words!'
