Seeing Is the Start: Using Images to Engage All Learners

Activate student curiosity and writing through image-based inquiry.

COURTNEY BROWN
Senior Professional Development Advisor

​We live in a visual culture. 

Scrolling through images has become the air most of us breathe — and for many of us, it’s the first way we take in new information. Often, images hook us, prompting a pause long enough to explore further. Sometimes, they even lead us to seek additional context.

Harnessing the power of images as a teaching tool is not new. Yet revisiting this strategy can be especially helpful in our visually saturated, complex classrooms. Images offer accessible entry points for a wide range of learners, spark curiosity, and can support skill-building across disciplines.

Recently, in my coaching work at The Brooklyn School for Math and Research (BSMART) in Bushwick, Brooklyn, we designed and implemented a workshop series inspired by the New Visions High Schools District Literacy Influencer series facilitated by CPET. This district-wide series offers experiences with a variety of literacy routines that teacher-participants adjust, implement, and turnkey at their school sites. At BSMART, we saw an opportunity to leverage the structure of this series to meet the needs of our multilingual, visually rich classrooms. We chose to center our work on why and how images are powerful learning tools, because images can “speak” across languages and learning styles, offering all students accessible entry points for engagement.

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The Learning Science Behind Images

My partner in the work, Malik Bolden, a graduate of the Neuroscience Department at Teachers College, Columbia University, offered us a peek at the science of neurolearning behind images as a learning tool. 

In brief, based on the principles of neurolearning, images support learning in many ways:

1. Brain Efficiency and Processing: Research from cognitive neuroscience (e.g., by John Sweller, Richard Mayer, and Allan Paivio) indicates that the brain is inherently better at processing images than raw text because images are processed in the visual cortex, which is highly specialized for interpreting visual data. When you add visuals to a lesson, you activate areas of the brain associated with recognition, emotional response, and memory recall.
2. Memory Retention: Allan Paivio’s Dual-Coding Theory posits that the brain processes verbal and visual information through two distinct channels—one for words and one for images. When both types of information are used together, it helps create stronger, more interconnected pathways in the brain, and therefore stronger memories. Learners are able to recall and process material better when both text and images are present, rather than just one or the other.
3. Making the Abstract Concrete: Images make abstract ideas more tangible by providing concrete visual representations that are more easily understood. For example, a diagram of the water cycle or human anatomy can make it much clearer than just a paragraph of text describing it.  Infographics such as charts and diagrams simplify complex concepts by breaking them into parts. 
4. Encourage Active Learning: Looking at images can prompt students to make connections, ask questions, and engage with the content more actively. For example, a photo of a historical event might inspire students to wonder and explore the context or causes of that event.
5. Emotional Impact and Memory: John Medina, author of Brain Rules, explains that emotions play a large role in memory. Images can evoke emotional responses, making the content more memorable. For example, a powerful photo from history can trigger an emotional reaction that helps a student recall related facts and concepts later on. 

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Where Images Fit in a Lesson

Images can be used intentionally at different moments in a lesson or unit to support engagement, understanding, and reflection. Below are three high-impact points where images can deepen learning across disciplines.

Introducing a topic or lesson
​“Hooking” students with images in the beginning of a unit, topic or text is a great way to offer all students entry points into learning about new things. Asking students to respond to images before engaging with new content can help them make connections and build on previous content or learning, make predictions about new topics or content, spark curiosity, and motivate them to actively engage with the new information.

Reinforcing and building learning
Teachers often share that students struggle to remember key concepts, even after they've been taught. In a fast-paced, information-saturated world, relying on memory alone is challenging. Images can help reinforce learning by offering visual reminders of important content. Asking students to respond to a visual from earlier in the unit — such as revisiting a math problem, a diagram of an ecosystem, a political cartoon, or a historical map — can jog memory and strengthen retention across lessons. 

Reviewing learning
At the end of a unit — or as a quick check-in before an assessment — images can support reflection and synthesis. Returning to an image introduced earlier in the learning can prompt students to articulate growth using prompts like, “I used to think… but now I know…," making learning visible and reinforcing key takeaways.

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Deepening Learning with See, Think, Wonder

At BSMART, we began our workshop series by pairing images with the See, Think, Wonder protocol from Harvard’s Project Zero. This simple routine offers students accessible entry points into new topics by inviting them to observe closely, make meaning, and ask questions.

Teachers quickly noticed that See, Think, Wonder worked well for introducing concepts. Over time, however, they wanted students to think more deeply and produce more sustained, coherent writing. To support this shift, we experimented with layering prompts, expectations, and complementary strategies onto the protocol.

Below is one way See, Think, Wonder can grow from an observation routine into a tool for deeper thinking, writing stamina, and critical analysis.

1. Start With Observation: Introducing Concepts
Use the basic See, Think, Wonder protocol to hook learners and surface initial ideas:

• See: What do you notice?
• Think: What do you think is happening?
• Wonder: What questions do you have?

This version works especially well at the beginning of a unit or lesson, offering all students a low-barrier way to engage with new content.

2. Add Prompts and Expectations: Deepening Thinking and Writing
To push student thinking and support clearer written responses, add scaffolds to each part of the protocol:

• See: Can you describe what you see in more detail?
• Think: Why do you say this? Explain using the because or because–but–so strategy.
• Wonder: Offer at least four questions — two about what you see and two about what you think.

Setting expectations for complete sentences, transitional phrases (e.g., I see… This makes me think… This leads me to wonder…), and length helps students practice writing full thoughts and explanations.

3. Extend the Routine: Building Stamina and Critical Thinking
As students grow more comfortable with the protocol, See, Think, Wonder can be combined with additional strategies to deepen analysis:

• Build writing stamina by using a timer and asking students to write continuously, starting with short intervals and increasing over time.
• Practice prediction and reasoning by pairing See, Think, Wonder with strategies like Because / But-So or other comprehension techniques.
• Strengthen questioning and collaboration by integrating tools such as QFT (Question Formulation Technique) or K/W/L.

These extensions shift the routine from a one-off activity into a flexible structure that supports critical thinking across disciplines.

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Based on our explorations at BSMART so far, we’ve seen that starting with images — and intentionally layering protocols, questions, and clear expectations — can spark curiosity, deepen thinking, and support the development of critical thinking and writing skills across disciplines.

Images alone aren’t the magic; it’s how we structure students’ interactions with them that makes learning visible and accessible. We encourage you to experiment with these strategies in your own classroom to create meaningful entry points for every learner. We’d love to hear how it goes.

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Your Next Step

Turn Images Into Invitations to Engage
Literacy Unbound helps you design learning that starts with access and builds toward depth. Through practical structures and routines, you’ll learn how to turn moments of curiosity into sustained thinking, writing, and inquiry.
Learn more →