Hi Sheila and thank you for your insightful reply. I am currently writing an 
honours thesis on the topic and appreciate own international understandings 
gained. It surprises me that in merica visual literacy is not a topic because 
of the very few references I have found on the topic come from America. What 
you say about visual images is very much a part of visual literacy. Since the 
world is made up of images it is of utmost importance that children are 
offered the opportunity to have them used across the key learning areas such 
as in sciencand maths. In Australia however the primary site of vi is 
substantiiated in the English a  syllabu   
en but as you say visual literacy can form part of any subject areaIn our 
Science Syllabus we hava strand called information and communbcation and this 
explores the different ways of communication, visual imagecan be a verye an 
important issue in this strand. In the English Syllabus the conception of 
literacy includes viewing and this has significant implications on the place 
of visual image study in the classroom.
If I may can I ask you another question that I am burning to know? You speak 
about children creating visual texts and interatng them into pedagogic 
practice across the subject areas but how can you assume that children have 
the knowlede to understand the meaning constructed in them. Our English 
syllabus informs educators that although children come to school with 
knowledge about visual images it is not to be assumed that this knowledge is 
shared by all . By providing children the opprtunity to study visual texts 
and explore meaning making codes, students can beme critical reciepents of 
this information. Have you ever seen any lessons where students are provided 
the opoortunity to explore the visual texts in its own right. Students are 
continually taught to critically evaluate the written word in school what is 
your insight into evaluating the visual semiotic system. Thanks again and I 
hope to hear from you oce more
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