Exchange: Crack the Code: Visual Literacy Practice Images

Part of: Writing + Art Enrichment Activities (17 resources )

Writing + Art Enrichment Activities

Teachers and docents find that writing with art is an exciting, productive activity. Writing Tours are offered to school groups and can be adapted to fit any grade level. The Write for Understanding Tour Overview includes potential stops, background information, and images. The featured writing activities could be performed in the gallery or in the classroom and include printable handouts that can be springboards to writing for many purposes.

Copyright

Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Created by

Margaret Grace VanderVliet

Last Updated

January 5, 2023 10:50 p.m.

17 Items in this Learning Collection

Writing With Art: A List of Possibilities

Resource with 5 media

Write for Understanding Tour Overview

Landscape painting featuring a row of trees in the middle distance, separating a glowing sky above and a meadow in the foreground. The painting is signed and dated (l.r.) "D W Tryon 1905"

Resource with 11 media

Writing Activity: Descriptive Language

Landscape of flat terrain; water, perhaps a small stream, in the foreground; four leafless trees (two large, two small) right of center, and two leafless trees left of center, below a cloud-filled sky.

Resource with 5 media

Writing Activity: Compare and Contrast

One of a pair of windows with a highly regular, rectilinear, although asymetric, design in both clear and colored glass. The window has an oak frame. Its design consists of vertical and horizontal bands of green and amber colorerd glass at the top and bottom of window; along one side are colored squares of glass, and along the other is a chevron-shaped column of glass. The overall effect is of colored pieces of glass suspended within a clear window, subdivided by abstract bands and patterns of lead caming.

Resource with 4 media

Writing Activity: Figurative Language

Square, rectangular, and circular pieces of wood and formica are assembled in rectilinear, cabinet-like compartments. The entire object is painted black.

Resource with 4 media

Writing Activity: Visual Analysis

<p>Interior composition with male and female dancers positioned at center with seated female at lower left, standing male on crutches at right and a group of birds in the leftmost background.</p>

Resource with 2 media

Writing Activity: Research, Summary, Paraphrase

This abstract painting is primarily white with a large squarish area of dark green in the top left quadrant. Loose brushwork varies from wide, full strokes to the short, rapid strokes at the compositions center. Pigment application ranges from a very thin wash to heavy impasto.

Resource with 4 media

Writing Activity: Portraiture and Point of View

A full-length portrait of a standing male in a lanscape setting. To the left of the composition stands a pair of birches near the figure; to the right, the landscape opens up to a distant expanse of trees and hills. The man stands facing to the right but looking out of the canvas to the left. He holds a bow and quiver of arrows; a black hat with a feather is on the ground at his feet. He is dressed in tan pants and waistcoat with a green frock coat and black boots.

Resource with 4 media

Writing Activity: Zoom In to Capture Descriptive Details

This remarkable still life depicts a table crowded with, among other things, a gilded covered goblet, a wide saucer-shaped silver tazza, a celestial globe painted with images of the constellations, a skull wearing a laurel wreath, and an extinguished candle, all rendered in exquisite detail with careful attention paid to the effects of light and texture. While the arrangement of objects may appear casual, the composition is artfully balanced along two diagonal axes centered on the two cups that lie crossed on the table. The repetition of ovoid shapes throughout the painting and the monochrome tonality with its restricted range of hues and values, a hallmark of Heda's style, assures the seamless integration of the sundry objects into a unified whole.<br />

Resource with 1 media

Writing Activity: Great Leads and Narrative Sequence

Panel painting depicting a young woman of high society in an interior setting filled with Asian accessories. She stands behind a door, which she holds partly open revealing a small white dog sitting in front of an armchair.<br />

Resource with 3 media

Writing Activity: Haiku

Resource with 4 media

Writing Activity: Six Room Image Poem

Landscape painting with green marshy field in foreground, a grouping of trees in the middle ground on right side of canvas, and blue sky with patches of soft clouds above.

Resource with 3 media

Writing Activity: Exploring Emotions through Portraits

A photograph of a woman wearing a large fur hat, jewelry, and a long draped body garment. She holds a strand of beads in her hands, looking down toward the right.

Resource with 3 media

Grammar and Ekphrasis Writing Portfolio

This intricate stele has a large Varaha in the center. He is in the archer’s stance, with his right leg extended and his left leg bent resting on a lotus held up by a male and female snake figures. They have human bodies from the waist up and knotted snake bodies below. Varaha has a human body with the head of a boar, his head thrown back supporting the figure of the earth goddess who holds on to his snout. A lotus leaf acts as an umbrella over his head. Three of his four arms are intact with his right one at his hip holding a broken lotus, only the stem survives, and the two left hands holding a conch at his chest and a discus at his knee. The broken arm held the club and the top of it is still visible next to the pavilion on the left over his shoulder. Besides the two snake figures, three figures stand on the base to either side, the other one female, while the others are male. The inner two hold the conch and discus and can be considered shankhapurausha and cakrapurusha, the personifications of the

Resource with 16 media

Sensory Word Bank Chart

W1siziisijiwmtgvmdcvmjuvmxjxbgzizdkyov9nyxrox0nhbxbfv29yzf9cyw5rlnbkzijdlfsiccisinrodw1iiiwimjqwediwmciseyjmb3jtyxqioijwbmcilcjmcmftzsi6mh1dlfsiccisimnvbnzlcnqilcitymfja2dyb3vuzcb3agl0zsatywxwagegcmvtb3zlil1d?sha=6f7086826a954feb

Download

Resource with 1 media

Portraits for 826 Michigan Conversation Writing Prompt

Resource with 51 media

Crack the Code: Visual Literacy Practice Images

Two orange buildings on snow-covered ground on either side of an unplowed road.

Resource with 8 media

Crack the Code: Visual Literacy Practice Images

View Object Record

Round beaded crown with six radiating bands—predominantly green with white, metallic and blue accents—that stem from the central axis upon which a large blue-headed bird sits. Eight smaller birds perch at the base of the bands. The bottom rim is predominantly red with white, metallic, and blue accents. The spaces in between the vertical bands are filled with yellow feathers.

View Object Record

This colorful print is broken up in to four panels, which are divided by a black border with white dashes and then surrounded by a red border, which includes designs in white. In the upper left panel is the image of a blue and yellow house. The upper right shows a television set sitting on a table alongside a glass of milk, a key ring, notepad, plate, and cell phone. In the lower left panel, the bust of a girl with blonde hair in pig-tail braids is standing in front of two houses, one traditional and one modern. The lower right panel depicts an orange, yellow, and red store labeled "Shop and Buy" with a parking lot out front. The artist's initals are included in the print (l.r.) in white on red "RG".

View Object Record

A black and white photograph of four people lying on the ground. One person's face is covered by an American flag, while the man behind her has his face covered by a hat. The group appears to be asleep. The feet and shoes of other people standing around the group of four is visible in the background. The print is signed (l.r.) "Edward Roberson" in pen.

View Object Record

This mixed media collage consists of a long skein of yarn of varying colors attached at point A at the top of the print, creating a jumbled mass of yarn below and exiting at point C, also at the top of the canvas.

View Object Record

Photo of a woman in a floor-length and brightly striped formal gown standing in a multi-level staircase. The photo is taken from above and captures the woman, her companion, and the ornate handrail and stair runner.

View Object Record

This is an image of a school building and school yard from a birds-eye perspective. The school building is in the center of the image, and is gray with a blue roof and yellow in the windows and doorway. The building is surrounded by two red swing sets, a basketball hoop, a blue slide, and a tree. Children are scattered throughout the scene on the play equipment, and are also visible through the windows of the school.

View Object Record

Practice noticing facial expression, focal point, gesture, clothing, setting, objects, quantity, size and color. What might the artist's choices communicate about their (un)intended message? What clues does your personal experience reveal?

0 Comments

0 Tags & 0 Keywords

Part of 1 Learning Collection

Writing + Art Enrichment Activities
See 17 Included Resources

Writing With Art: A List of Possibilities
A List of Activities: Writing with Portraits, La...

Write for Understanding Tour Overview
A List of Potential Stops

Writing Activity: Descriptive Language
Using landscapes to develop real or imagined experi...

Writing Activity: Compare and Contrast
Using similar content to compare and contrast in th...

Writing Activity: Figurative Language
Using art to create metaphors and similes <...

Writing Activity: Visual Analysis
Analyze how visual elements contribute to meanin...

Writing Activity: Research, Summary, Paraphrase
Using art to gather information, summarize, para...

Writing Activity: Portraiture and Point of View
Using portraits to describe a narrator's point o...

Writing Activity: Zoom In to Capture Descriptive Details
Using a still life or landscape to write descrip...

Writing Activity: Great Leads and Narrative Sequence
Writing a gripping lead and subsequent narrative...

Writing Activity: Haiku
Using images of nature to create a haiku

Writing Activity: Six Room Image Poem
Using landscape to create a sensory poem

Writing Activity: Exploring Emotions through Portraits
Using portraits and free writing to unlock emoti...

Grammar and Ekphrasis Writing Portfolio

Sensory Word Bank Chart

Portraits for 826 Michigan Conversation Writing Prompt

Crack the Code: Visual Literacy Practice Images

8 Collection Object Sources

Auburndale Site, Highland Park, MI, #3 (2007/2.2)

Beaded Coronet (1997/1.345)

Christina's World (2004/2.42)

Tired Marchers Sleep on the Streets—"We were tired, we were tired.", Selma, Alabama (2003/2.69.28)

Liberty Renewed (2004/2.43)

Line A-C (2012/1.220)

Paris #206 (2014/2.245)

School (2002/1.198)

Created For

K-12 Educator
K-12 Student
Museum Visitor
UMMA Docent
UMMA Staff
University Faculty
University Student

Advanced Search

UMMA Object Specific Fields

Query builder

How to Use the Query Builder

Part of: Writing + Art Enrichment Activities (17 resources )

Writing + Art Enrichment Activities

Copyright

Created by

Last Updated

17 Items in this Learning Collection

Crack the Code: Visual Literacy Practice Images

0 Comments

0 Tags & 0 Keywords

Tags

Part of 1 Learning Collection

8 Collection Object Sources

Created For

Rate this Resource

AVG: 0 | Ratings: 0

Created by

& Author Notes

Last Updated

Report