Visual Images in English Class

I was recently introduced to the idea of using visual images as sources of content analysis and explicative writing in English class.  Commenting on the book titled Reading Images, the New Learning website writes,

Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen argue for the centrality of visual images in the grammar of communication, which in many social contexts tends to favor ‘verbal’ expression....To sum up: the opposition to the emergence of a new visual literacy is not based on an opposition to the visual media as such, but on an opposition to the visual media in situations where they form an alternative to writing and can therefore be seen as a potential threat to the present dominance of verbal literacy among elite groups.

To combat this "dominance of verbal literacy among elite groups", why not combine both visual and verbal literacy in our English writing class.  I had never before thought of visual images as 'content' to be examined, deconstructed, explicated, and general sources of discussion points.  The J. Paul Getty Museum lists description, reflection, and formal analysis as steps to understanding photography.  Surely, these are the same skills we use to understand written content.  It also changes things up a bit when we use the same thinking faculties but apply them to different medium. 

Image Detective is a nice interactive website to help students start asking questions related to the images they see.  J. Paul Getty Museum Lesson Plans are a good starting point and are linked directly to state and national curriculum standards. Using Photos With English-Language Learners has lots of ideas on how to incorporate photos into lesson plans.  For older students, Duke University has published Visual Rhetoric/Visual Literacy:  Writing About Photography. 

And finally, An Introduction to the Grammar of Visual Design is a well written teacher resource on the importance of teaching visual literacy.