A Colourful Tale

Once upon a time (in the 1980s), there was a teenage girl who attended a small high school in regional Australia. At that high school, the girl was able to study art and graphics. In these art and graphics classes the girl was introduced to the world of colour theory and design. It was enlightening and powerful learning for the girl. It was learning that the girl has found she is able to apply in a myriad of real-life situations to this day.

However, there were many students at that very same high school who elected to instead pursue other exciting avenues of learning such as history, economics, accounting, health and physical education, manual arts, home economics and geography. Sadly, these subjects, whilst engaging and thoroughly educational, did not expose these students to the world of colour and design.

“Why, then,” the girl has since asked, “do we not teach all children about colour and design principles, in order that we can all gain a deeper level of critical literacy when encountering visual texts?”

The answer to the girl’s question is...we now do.

Evidence of this can be found in the English A Curriculum of Qatar Academy Doha Primary School, as shown below. (Note - This stuff isn’t from the Art Curriculum. That’s a whole other ballgame. This is just what’s in the English Curriculum.)

Reading - Grade 4

Inferential Comprehension: Uses reading strategies to retrieve and comment on ideas and information in a variety of texts including visual media.

• Identifies reasons why a text may be interpreted differently by different readers.

• Reads and analyses the purpose of image placement, image size; font colour, size and script choice.

Viewing and Presenting - Grade 4 & 5

Visual Language: Interprets, uses and constructs visuals and multimedia in a variety of situations.

Awareness of visual media:

• Knows that individuals interpret visual information according to personal experiences and different perspectives.

• Identifies factors that influence personal reactions to visual texts.

• Using and constructing visual media in a variety of situations.

• Designs visual texts with the intention of influencing the way people think and feel .

• Applies basic knowledge of presentation techniques.

• Applies knowledge of presentation techniques in original and innovative ways.

• Analyses the selection and composition of visual presentations to explain uses of dominant images, colours, textures and symbolism.

Interesting. This leads me to make a link with last week’s responses to the “computers don’t improve results” article from the BBC. We know that in order to employ technology effectively, good teachers need to know how to use the technology well themselves, and we cry out for training and development opportunities. What about visual literacy? As you can see above, it’s in the curriculum now, but when are teachers taught things like colour theory and design in order to help them be expert at teaching students to become critically literate of what they view? Well, as a group of five Grade 4 teachers last year, with varying levels of expertise in the area, we taught each other, and then we attempted to teach the kids. I guess that’s better than nothing.

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