How to Explain Visual Thinking Strategies to Families in Your Newsletter

Visual Thinking Strategies is one of those classroom practices that families have often never heard of but understand immediately once it is described. The method is simple: students look closely at an image, make observations, build claims, and support those claims with specific visual evidence. The skills it develops are core academic skills in a format that is accessible to students who struggle with text-based work and engaging for students who do not. A newsletter that explains VTS and gives families a way to practice it at home extends the method beyond the classroom.

Describe the three VTS questions clearly

"Visual Thinking Strategies uses three questions consistently. The first: What is going on in this picture? This question invites observation and interpretation without immediately anchoring students to a single answer. The second: What do you see that makes you say that? This question requires students to connect every claim to specific visual evidence. The third: What more can we find? This question keeps the discussion open and teaches students that meaning continues to unfold with continued attention."

Connect VTS to academic skills families recognize

Families who see VTS as reading comprehension in a visual format understand its value. "The skill we practice in VTS is the same skill we practice in reading: making a claim about meaning and supporting it with specific evidence. A student who learns to say 'I think the figure is afraid because their arms are raised and they are turned away from the center of the image' is practicing the exact reasoning structure we use when analyzing a text. The visual makes the evidence visible in a way that text does not."

Give families the three questions to try at home

"You can practice VTS at home with any image. A family photo, a magazine cover, a book illustration, or a painting at a museum. Ask your student the three questions in sequence. You do not need to correct them or add your own interpretation. Simply listen, then ask: 'What do you see that makes you say that?' until the evidence is exhausted. Then try the third: 'What more can we find?'" A family that practices VTS with a magazine photograph at breakfast is reinforcing evidence-based reasoning in five minutes.

Share what images you have been using in class

Families who know which images students have been analyzing can reference them at home. "This week we have been working with Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother photograph from the Great Depression. If you want to see what students have been discussing, a search for 'Dorothea Lange Migrant Mother' will bring it up. Ask your student what they noticed in the image that others in the class did not."

Describe what you observe in student discussions

Sharing an observation from a VTS discussion brings the method to life. "In our most recent discussion, one student pointed out that two figures in the painting are looking at each other from opposite sides and that no one in the middle appears to notice. That observation opened a ten-minute conversation about the social dynamics in the image that no one had initially considered. That is what careful looking produces."

Note the transfer to other content areas

Tell families how VTS shows up in other subjects. "The observation and evidence skills from VTS transfer directly to science observations, historical analysis, and literary discussion. Students who practice VTS regularly tend to give more specific answers across all subjects because they have practiced the habit of looking before claiming."

Daystage newsletters that include the three VTS questions and a suggested image give families a complete, actionable home extension of the classroom practice.