Lesson 13 Teaching with Visual Symbols

                     Visual symbols are representations of direct reality, which comes in the form of signs and symbols. The following is a detailed discussion on the different kinds of visual symbols, which are drawings, sketches, cartoons, comics or strip drawing, diagrams, charts and graphs, maps, and posters.

Kinds of Visual Symbols

1. Cartoons

Cartoons tell stories metaphorically through pictures, which need no captions. Symbolism conveys messages, less words more symbolism the better. The cartoon presents a certain issue or concern which could be either for or against it.

2. Posters

A poster is combination of bold designs and color primarily intended to catch attention on a significant fact, idea or message. Simply stated, a poster is a picture with appropriate caption.

3. Drawings and Sketches

These are crude and simple lines, which are effective in showing what needs to be shown with sufficient clarity, to make the meaning vivid to learners or students.

4.Diagrams

Diagrams are simplified drawings designed to show interrelationship primarily by means of lines and symbols. They are used to explain rather than to represent. It is a drawing that shows arrangement and relationship, as parts to a whole, relative values, origins and developments, chronological flow, fluctuations and distributions.

5. Charts

Charts are graphic or pictorial representations of a large mass of information or show progression thru time and space of people or events, ideas and objects.

6. Graphs

Graphs present quantitative data for easier analysis and interpretation. It shows comparative relationship of data involved in size, trends and growth. Graphs are best used in developing and in summarizing a unit.

7. Strip Drawing or Comic Strip

Strip drawings are recommended for their story value in adaptation of the classics. They are affective in instruction not only because they are simple, clear and easy to read but because they deal with materials that has been made personal.

8. Maps

Maps are usually shown on flat surface and are used to represent the surface of the earth or some parts of it, showing the relative size and position according to scale or projection and position represented.