How Visual Essays Build Media Literacy and Critical Thinking in Middle School
Visual essays are a powerful tool for helping middle school students think critically, develop media literacy, and strengthen specific skills. When students combine writing with visuals to convey a message or argument, they’re not just creating—they’re analyzing, evaluating, and communicating with purpose.
What Is a Visual Essay?
A visual essay combines text and imagery to explore a theme, explain a concept, or make an argument. Students might use tools like Google Slides, Canva, or Adobe Express to:
Craft a central idea or thesis
Select images that support their claims
Write concise, meaningful captions or paragraphs
Organize their content intentionally for clarity and impact
Depending on how the teacher structures it and for what purpose, the task can take many forms and accomplish many goals realted to writing, designing, and thinking.
What is Media Literacy?
Media literacy is the ability to critically analyze, interpret and act on media messages. This includes understanding how media influences opinions, shapes culture, and conveys meaning through text, images, audio, and video and communicating it. Media literacy helps students become thoughtful consumers and responsible creators of digital content.
For middle school students, media literacy means:
Critically analyzing what they see and hear in news, social media, advertisements, and entertainment
Recognizing bias, purpose, and credibility in sources
Understanding how visuals, words, and design work together to send messages
Creating their own media—like visual essays—with intention, accuracy, and awareness of audience
Media Literacy Meets Critical Thinking
Creating a visual essay requires more than just choosing pretty pictures. Students must:
Analyze texts or topics deeply enough to identify key messages
Evaluate which visuals communicate those ideas effectively
Synthesize written and visual elements to support a clear argument
Reflect on how their design choices impact audience understanding
This process strengthens media literacy while also reinforcing critical thinking. Students learn to question sources, consider bias, and think about how images shape meaning.
Video essays can be tailored to fit just about any subject area or topic. The example below provides an example for a High School Film Editing elective in which the editing choices in the film “Parasite” are examined.
Planning for Visual Essays
Visual essays naturally hit key ELA and SEL goals without needing to over-plan. Students practice writing arguments or explanations with evidence, connect ideas across texts and visuals, and use digital tools to publish their work—all aligned with Common Core standards. At the same time, they build SEL skills: exploring their voice and identity (self-awareness), managing their time and choices (self-management and decision-making), and working with peers through feedback or collaboration (relationship skills). It’s a meaningful way to integrate literacy, creativity, and social-emotional growth in one project.
Visual essays work across content areas. Try them for:
Literature: Analyze a character’s arc or theme visually
History: Show cause and effect through timelines and imagery
Science/Health: Explain processes or public health topics
Social justice: Combine research and visuals to advocate for a cause
Whether used as a summative assessment or a creative alternative to a traditional essay, visual essays let students show what they know in a format that feels modern, relevant, and rigorous.
Visual essays develop critical thinking, media literacy, and communication skills—while supporting both academic and social-emotional growth. They're a smart addition to any middle school ELA or interdisciplinary unit.
