Learning Visually: Resources for Secondary Coaches

Carrie Sand contributed this post. Click here for more of Carrie's thinking and writing.

As a typical literacy coach, I tend to know and follow the “rockstars” of our discipline. Regularly dropping first names of these reading celebrities into conversations, one would think that I’ve been friends with these people for years. So imagine my discomfort when my library media specialist asked me to attend the annual WEMTA (Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association) conference, and I opened my conference program to discover I didn’t recognize a single presenter’s name! In fact, other than the brief descriptions, I found myself relying on the oohs and ahhs of my library media specialist to direct me to the best sessions. Luckily, she know the rockstars of her discipline, too, because I was fortunate to attend a session led by Diana Laufenberg.

Laufenberg’s session focused on the power of learning visually. Scouring digital resources, she curates infographics that are mindblowing! As she was sharing her resources, I immediately began thinking about the complex reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills associated with implementing any of the resources she was sharing. I was also thinking about how visual texts can be an entry point to extremely complex thinking for all students. Finally, I imagined how these technology resources could be really motivating and engaging for both teachers and students, especially at the secondary level. Each resource made me more and more excited to get back to my district and talk about these ideas with teachers. I am still excited to think about how a coaching cycle could be built around just one of these infographics!

Check out all of  Diana Laufenberg’s resources on Learning Visually here: https://laufenberg.wordpress.com/keynotespresentations/learning-visually/

In my opinion, the “The History of the Two Party Vote” and “The Gettysburg Address” are not to be missed, but the resources on the website are almost endless. My only word of warning is be prepared to lose some time in link after link!