Visualising Ideas

Why “Visualising Ideas”?

As a teacher of deaf and hard of hearing students I’m constantly “visualising ideas”. By “visualising” I mean a multitude of things.

For starters, there’s Sign Language, an absolutely visual mode. When something is large, when you sign you show just how big it is. And its not just your hands involved, its your facial expressions too.

But that’s just one aspect of it. About half my students don’t use sign language (many have cochlear implants). Yet just talking about something (whether using speech, sign language or both) is not enough for these pupils to really and truly understand ideas and concepts I’m trying to teach. Everything is always supported by the written word. In addition I use pictures, graphs or just plain line drawings. And to make those truly “visual” in the students’ minds I need a lot of examples (as closely related to the pupils’ lives as I can). In fact, I even have reading comprehension exercises based on pictures (more about that in another post)!

This need to visualize everything has become such a part of me (I’ve been teaching for more than 25 years!) that even when lecturing to hearing people I use pictures. I must admit the feedback has been very positive! As you see, I’ve even added a picture here!

8 responses so far

8 Responses to “Why “Visualising Ideas”?”

Annaon 15 Feb 2011 at 12:55 am 1

Your job sounds so fascinating… I can’t begin to imagine teaching like this but I can see how it would bring such an amazing dimension to your whole life once you truly began to visualise everything. Really beautiful.
Naomi Epsteinon 15 Feb 2011 at 4:26 pm 2

Thanks so much for stopping by! So glad to be in touch!
David Warron 18 Feb 2011 at 12:12 pm 3

Hi Naomi, I found your blog from your comments on Anna’s. I was struck by your emphasis on visualising, perhaps because your learners are more reliant on other senses. I encourage learners to act out words. If it’s the word “stone”, I ask them to pick one up and give it to their partner for them to describe. I try to integrate the visual, kinaethetic and auditory. I’d like to introduce you to my work, since it is particularly visual, and your learners may find it useful. http://www.languagegarden.org
David
Naomi Epsteinon 18 Feb 2011 at 2:30 pm 4

Thanks so much for stopping by! I’ll check out your site first chance I get!
kieran donaghyon 26 Mar 2011 at 3:31 pm 5

Hi Naomi,
Just to say that I really like your blog and the concept of visualising ideas which I think is a 21st century literacy. I have on blog on using film in the classroom which may be of interest to you and your students as many of the activites rely on developing visual literacy or cineliteracy. Here’s the addres, I hope you find it useful:

http://www.film-english.com

Best wishes,

Kieran
Naomi Epsteinon 26 Mar 2011 at 3:36 pm 6

Thanks for your suppportive comments! I have experimented with having the students answer “reading comprehension” questions about scenes from a film instead of a text and the students enjoyed it. I will certainly check you your blog!
Sharon Hartleon 31 May 2011 at 12:36 am 7

Hi Naomi,
I just stopped by, intrigued by the your visualising, and I have to say that your blog is simply beautiful. I’ll definitely be coming back again.
Naomi Epsteinon 31 May 2011 at 6:50 am 8

Thank you SO much – means a lot to me!
I feel the same about YOUR blog – fascinating!