Based on the notion that visual decisions play an important role in what children recognize and interpret in books and that teachers have a special responsibility to help students become visually literate, this article draws parallels between visual and verbal concepts and suggests some activities for teaching "picture reading" skills in the classroom. A brief overview of the basic concepts of visual literacy emphasizes the interconnectedness of verbal and visual language, noting that both (1) have a surface and a deep structure, (2) rely on an innate grammar that provides rules for dealing with an otherwise chaotic universe of communication, (3) involve interaction between the picture and the viewer, and (4) interact when an individual encounters a picture in context with print. These parallels are drawn to help teachers understand that many of the same techniques of verbal language analysis are useful for visual analysis. Thus, the eight activities described offer teachers and students unique opportunities to build language competence while automatically extending verbal language competence. (JD)