Reading the Visual is an essential introduction that focuses on what teachers should know about multimodal literacy and how to teach it. This engaging book provides theoretical, curricular, and pedagogical frameworks for teaching a wide-range of visual and multimodal texts, including historical fiction, picture books, advertisements, websites, comics, graphic novels, news reports, and film. Each unit of study presented contains suggestions for selecting cornerstone texts and visual images and launching the unit, as well as lesson plans, text sets, and analysis guides. These units are designed to be readily adapted to fit the needs of a variety of settings and grade levels.

From the body to the ever-present lens, the world is increasingly preoccupied with the visual. What exactly is the visual' and how can we interpret the multitude of images that bombard us every day? Reading the Visual takes as its starting point a tacit familiarity with the visual, and shows how we see even ordinary objects through the frameworks and filters of culture and personal experience. It explains how to analyse the mechanisms, conventions, contexts and uses of the visual in western cultures to make sense of visual objects of all kinds. Drawing on a range of theorists including John Berger, Foucault, Bourdieu and Crary, the authors outline our relationship to the visual, tracing changes to literacies, genres and pleasures affecting ways of seeing from the Enlightenment to the advent of virtual technology. Reading the Visual is an invaluable introduction to visual culture for readers across the humanities and social sciences. Eloquently written, admirably clear, passionately argued, Schirato and Webb have given us one of the best textbooks on the emergent field of visual culture. Smart, clear and relevant examples challenge readers to question their visual environments and become critics and creators themselves.' Professor Sean Cubitt, University of Waikato This is a splendid book. It is both intellectually sophisticated and written in an extremely accessible manner.' Professor Jim McGuigan, Loughborough University This book treats the interpretation and value of visual artefacts with depth, while remaining highly accessible. It is very readable: written in a lively and engaging style with examples that are refreshing and up-to-date.' Professor Guy Julier, Leeds Metropolitan University

This book offers new descriptions of the visual strand of meaning in picture book narratives as a way of furthering the project of 'multimodal' discourse analysis and of explaining the literacy demands and apprenticing techniques of children's earliest literature.

Visual Literacy examines how teachers can use visuals to improve learning for all students. It provides teachers with a foundation in visual literacy, defined as the ability to read, think, and communicate with visually presented information. Results of studies of students’ using visual information indicate that most students are clearly lacking in the tools needed to use visuals effectively. The book orients teachers to visual literacy and the world of visuals. It discusses various classroom tested strategies and activities for all students, including second language learners, and students with special needs. Stressing visual literacy skills helps students understand a visual more deeply so they can master the content they are learning. Teachers will learn to employ a literacy triad of reading, thinking, and communicating to aid students in their study of visuals. First, they inquire into the visual, reading it for content and context, including assessing the authenticity of the document. Second, they think about the document by analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating it to come up with answers to their inquiry. Graphic organizers help students decipher the content and understand the meaning of the visual document, connecting it to prior and future instruction. Third, they communicate their findings using visuals.

Reading Connections: Strategies for Teaching Students with Visual Impairments offers an in-depth and user-friendly guide for understanding reading instruction for teachers and professionals seeking to improve the reading skills of their students who are visually impaired. The book addresses in detail the essential components of reading--phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension--as well as other key reading components and subskills. While this book addresses the needs of students who read print, braille, or both, much of the book is also consistent with strategies for teaching reading to students who have, or are at risk for, developing reading disabilities. Teachers of students with visual impairments, as well as family members and other professionals who work with children who are blind or visually impaired, will find within this book a repertoire of strategies and activities for creating a balanced, comprehensive plan of reading instruction for each student and for teaching the essential reading skills necessary for students' success.

Reading is at the interface between the vision and spoken language domains. An emergent bulk of research indicates that learning to read strongly impacts on non-linguistic visual object processing, both at the behavioral level (e.g., on mirror image processing – enantiomorphy) and at the brain level (e.g., inducing top-down effects as well as neural competition effects). Yet, many questions regarding the exact nature, locus, and consequences of these effects remain hitherto unanswered. The current Special Topic aims at contributing to the understanding of how such a cultural activity as reading might modulate visual processing by providing a landmark forum in which researchers define the state of the art and future directions on this issue. We thus welcome reviews of current work, original research, and opinion articles that focus on the impact of literacy on the cognitive and/or brain visual processes. In addition to studies directly focusing on this topic, we will consider as highly relevant evidence on reading and visual processes in typical and atypical development, including in adult people differing in schooling and literacy, as well as in neuropsychological cases (e.g., developmental dyslexia). We also encourage researchers on nonhuman primate visual processing to consider the potential contribution of their studies to this Special Topic.

The Visual Brain and Peripheral Reading and Writing Disorders: A Guide to Visual System Dysfunction for Speech-Language Pathologists familiarizes the reader with the complex workings of the human visual system, the motor and sensory components of normal vision as they relate to the recognition of letters and words, and to the acquisition and rehabilitation of reading and writing. This text brings together findings from the neuropsychological, neurooptometric, neurolinguistic, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology literature on acquired visual system impairment from the past 20+ years, and the ways visual system dysfunction impacts reading, writing, and cognition. Chapters Include: Review of structural elements of the eye, the cortical and subcortical structures of the visual brain, and the motor and sensory components of normal vision The distinct functions of the three primary visual pathways (central, peripheral and retinotectal) and how they relate to reading and writing Review of five formal tests of reading and writing that are designed or may be adapted to assess peripheral reading and writing disorders And much more! A few of the features inside: Figures illustrating the various components of the visual brain that are engaged when we read and write Information on visual system deficits in left hemisphere lesions with and without aphasia Detailed descriptions of peripheral reading disorders and associated error patterns Diagnostic criteria for three different types of neglect (viewer-centered, stimulus-centered, object-centered) Description of treatment materials and methods suited to clients with acquired dyslexia due to visual system dysfunction The Visual Brain and Peripheral Reading and Writing Disorders explains the heterogenous nature of peripheral reading and writing disorders, describes the association between visual motor and sensory dysfunction and the acquired dyslexias, and provides the speech-language pathologist with specific guidelines regarding the assessment and treatment of reading and writing disorders associated with visual system dysfunction.