Growing Literacy Skills with Visual Thinking Strategies on Virtual Art Museum Tours

Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is an art curriculum and facilitation method developed by cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen and museum educator Philip Yenawine (Yenawine, 2013). Art museum educators employ VTS to support aesthetic appreciation through close looking and judgment-free discussions centered on works of art. In this article, I describe a virtual tour for K-5 students at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida that employs Visual Thinking Strategies and intentional language while paraphrasing student comments. Students on virtual tours build visual and reading literacy skills through facilitated engagement with art