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Classroom Strategies: VISUALS

The relevancy and effectiveness of visuals

  • They can “communicate the message or make the point more powerfully” than words can (Allen, 2008, as referenced in Tate, 2012, p. 116).

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  • Visual sources provide 90% of the brain’s sensory input (Jenson, 2007, as referenced in Tate, 2012, p. 116).

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  • They help organize your class, as well as increase the retention of information and learning (BCIT Learning and Teaching Center, 2003).

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  • They can help clarify points that may seem complicated or are stressful for the class. For example, condensing an entire class period into an outline can make something huge feel more accessible (BCIT Learning and Teaching Center, 2003).

Visual aids can enhance the meaning of any class facilitation. They communicate an “instructional message with an image” (BCIT Learning and Teaching Center, 2003). Visuals are especially effective because:

How to effectively use visuals in class:

1) Decide the learning outcome.


2) Decide what visual medium would be effective.


3) Decide how you will organize learning around the visuals



4) Evaluate

Ways to incorporate visuals into the classroom

Developing visual aids is not hard; however, you will want to follow a few steps before utilizing visuals in the classroom. Read on to learn what those steps are, followed by an example of how to use these steps to incorporate pictures into an English Language Learning lesson.

  • Before incorporating visuals, you will need to decide what learning outcome you want your student to achieve through the visual, and how you can make the visual relevant to this learning outcome (Little, 2015). Then, you can decide what medium you would like to use to present the visual (magazine cut outs? Printed images? handouts? The whiteboard? videos? Graphic organizers? Pictures from home? Just to name a few). Consider how you will present the visuals to the class, and how you will organize the learning activities around the visuals. Finally, decide how you will evaluate what the learners will learn from using the visuals in class.

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  • EXAMPLE: For an ESL class, use pictures - stock images, cartoons, images you find online,- to develop English Language Learners’ capacity to build sentences.

    • Start by deciding what target sentence structure (identify the learning outcome) you would like for your learners to practice. Then, find pictures from the internet that will allow students to build sentences using the targeted structure (select medium). When you present the pictures to class, first let your students take turns asking about different items in the picture they may not have the vocabulary for. Then, demonstrate how to form the sentence and perhaps provide some additional scaffolding by putting possible sentences up on the whiteboard. Break students into pairs, and let them create their own sentences using various pictures (organize the learning around the visual). Finally, let the pairs share their sentences with the rest of the class (evaluate).

Additional resources

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  • Sources:

    • ​Little, D. (2015). Teaching visual literacy across the curriculum: Suggestions and strategies.  New Directions for Teaching & Learning. 2015(141),       87-90. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.20125​

      • Access this resource with your library card using Academic Search Premier, locate here.​
    • BCIT Learning and Teaching Center. (2003). Designing and using visuals in the classroom.                 https://www.lanecc.edu/sites/default/files/fpd/htvisuals.pdf
    • Tate, M.L. (2012). Sit and get won't grow dendrites. Corwin.
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