Title: Using Images to Keep Your Class Focused: According to Our Expert, Smart Deployment of Pictures and Videos in Class Engages Students by Tapping into the Brain's "Delight in Making Connections."
Abstract: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LYNELL BURMARK is the author of They Snooze, You Lose: The Educator's Guide to Successful Presentations. Her teaching experience spans kindergarten to graduate school, and she is a highly applauded presenter. Her earlier book Visual Literacy: Learn to See, See to Learn won the book of the year award for publisher ASCD. Here, she offers tips to help teachers keep students focused during class time THE Journal: What's the most common thing that classroom teachers do that's likely to lose them the attention of their students? Lynell Burmark: Probably failing to change it up. No one can sit-and-get for more than 10 minutes without at least 2 minutes of doing something else. No matter how fascinating the talking head, the clock is ticking.... Of course, the challenge is exacerbated by the increasing percentage of students with ADD or what my colleague Rushton Hurley calls ADOSS (Attention Deficit--Oh, Something Shiny!). THE Journal: What are some techniques you recommend to help classroom teachers achieve the sort of 10 and 2 pacing you mentioned? Burmark: Well, I don't exactly set an alarm at the 10-minute mark, although I may try that in my next presentation, just to make the point. But I do go through my draft presentation to make sure that video clips, activities and other forms of audience participation are well distributed throughout the presentation. THE Journal: Do you find video more engaging than still images? Burmark: If you are talking about viewing video and images, they both have their place. Video has the advantage that music, dialog and engaging story lines are often already part of the clip. Videos can also be great for step-by-step instructions. I've noticed my 11-year-old niece Taylor no longer asks adults how to do things. She goes straight to YouTube. But images offer more options for creative interpretation. I like to say that video gives you answers, whereas images ask you questions. THE Journal: Can you give our readers a couple of practical, replicable ideas for engaging students in class using still images? Burmark: You are welcome to help yourself to hundreds of ideas in the articles on my website educatebetter.org. For now, let me just share an audience favorite from the presentation I put together for the March 2015 National Art Education Association conference in New Orleans. I have been inspired for decades by Bob Marzano's research on the power of identifying similarities and differences. In my teaching, I've always found pairing and comparing items to be like a two-for-one sale: Students not only learn both items faster, they remember them both longer! So I came up with the idea of making a of images where you continue to add an image to compare to the last one before it. For the art educators, my PowerPoint slideshow started with Degas' Dancers Wearing Pink and Green, then added Manet's Roses in a Glass Vase. The audience divided into groups of three and discussed the similarities between these first two paintings. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With a slideshow, this becomes sort of a ping-pong activity. (In fact, I had initially called it Ping-Pong Pictures.) If, instead, you were to print the images out, they could become the visual BrainTrain of connections, working their way like a never-ending train around the classroom, until the wall space was covered or it was time to move on to another topic--whichever came first. You can create a BrainTrain slideshow on the iPad or iPhone by using a free app called Frametastic that lets you size images behind frames. Participants in the lecture I mentioned above noticed things like same color palette, same artist or same subject matter. …
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot