Literacy in Today’s Diverse English Classroom
By: Crystal L. Beach
Capstone Project
Committee Members: Diana George (director) and Katrina Powell (reader)
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INTRODUCTION
‘Visual literacy’ will begin to be a matter of survival…”
- Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, Reading Images
Over the years, a cultural shift has taken place in the English classroom
involving literacy, composition, and critical theory. Though traditional forms of
reading may be declining, as reported by the National Endowment of Arts’ recent
“Reading at Risk” survey, students are still reading. In fact, students are entering the
classroom with a variety of reading skills, specifically with stronger visual skills. Not
all traditional views on literacy in the English classroom should be abandoned, and
the physical text will always play an important role. Yet, the visual has become an
increasingly imperative part of life as we know it, and the skills required to
understand the theory, rhetoric, and overall meaning of the visual have become
necessary for all. Thus, educators must adapt and find ways to work with these skills
and help students develop them so that they are better able to read the world
around them.
BACKGROUND ON VISUAL LITERACY
Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from
information presented in the form of an image. Visual literacy is based on the idea that
pictures can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through a process of
reading.
- Wikipedia
The definition of literacy has greatly impacted how education has been
shaped over the years. “Although the great debate in literacy was once very much a
question of which approach to reading (phonics or whole language) was most
effective, with changing texts it becomes more a question of which text type”
(Antsey and Bull 101). This fact is particularly important when looking at the
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multimodal texts in readers’ hands today. Visual literacy, which is said to have been
first coined by John Debes in 1969, is one of the growing foundational literacies in
today’s classrooms. As Debes stated,
Visual Literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can
develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory
experiences. The development of these competencies is fundamental to
normal human learning. When developed, they enable a visually literate
person to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects, symbols,
natural or man-made, that he encounters in his environment. Through the
creative use of these competencies, he is able to communicate with others.
Through the appreciative use of these competencies, he is able to
comprehend and enjoy the masterworks of visual communication. (IVLA)
The New London Group, a group comprised of a variety of professors from
distinguished universities all over, studied and presented “a theoretical overview of
the connections between the changing social environment facing students and
teachers and a new approach to literacy pedagogy that they call ‘multiliteracies.’”
They state,
Pedagogy is a teaching and learning relationship that creates the potential for
building learning conditions leading to full and equitable social participation.
Literacy pedagogy has traditionally meant teaching and learning to read and
write in page-bound, official, standard forms of the national language.
Literacy pedagogy, in other words, has been a carefully restricted project –
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restricted to formalized, monolingual, monocultural, and rule-governed
forms of language. (1)
In other words, and especially with diversity becoming more noticeable in the
classroom every day, the New London Group noted the importance of accepting a
more broad idea of what literacy included. They felt “Multiliteracies overcome the
limitations of traditional language-based approaches by emphasizing how
negotiating the multiple linguistic and cultural differences in our society is central to
the pragmatics of the working, civic, and private lives of students” (New London
Group 1). “This includes understanding and competent control of representational
forms that are becoming increasingly significant in the overall communications
environment, such as visual images and their relationship to the written word”
(New London Group 2). This view of multiliteracies can, for example, include using
graphic novels, digital storyboards, and advertisements to overcome traditional
“text-only” limitations. In addition, not only do these examples draw on visual skills,
but they also create a rich medium from which many interpretations can be derived,
all shaped by the individual reader’s personal experiences.
In order to set the foundation and see why visual images are important to use
in the classroom, it is necessary to understand how the human mind works. The
mind works in a very unique way in which it processes, stores, and retrieves
information. People store new information not only as verbal labels (words), but
also encoded into mental pictures, known as visual imagery. University of Northern
Colorado’s professor emerita, Jeanne Ormrod, has studied extensively how visual
imagery and the mind work. She states, “Visual images can be stored quickly and
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retained over long periods of times. For this reason, students tend to learn more
material and remember it longer when whatever they are studying is concrete and
easily visualizable” (228). Not only do visual images provid a “powerful storage
mechanism,” but they also form the “basis for a number of effective mnemonic
devices” (338). Thus, overall, visual images allow students to draw on previously
stored information more quickly and to continue to learn concepts more
meaningfully because they are able to relate the concepts to the visually stored
information. In regards to using the visual, this point is important because the key is
to have your students relate more meaningfully to what you are teaching. In
addition, John Berger states,
Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can
speak.
But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is
seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that
world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded
by it. (1)
Even the actual presence of written text requires visual acknowledgement.
For this reason, in order to truly understand how visual literacy works on the most
basic level, educators must exam how people actually see written texts. Stephen
Bernhardt, professor at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, discusses this
idea in his article “Seeing the Text.” He states, “The physical fact of the text, with its
spatial appearance on the page, requires visual apprehension: a text can be seen”
(Bernhardt 66).
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There is a difference in that classroom teaching “assumes essay organization
as the norm,” whereas “outside the classroom visually informative prose is
pervasive,” and not just in technical classroom fields (Bernhardt 67). For example,
students are surrounded by advertisements, “texts designed for public audiences”
that “typically adopt visually informative strategies” (Bernhardt 67). However, in
the classroom, “the control of rhetorical relations is strictly internal to the text,
integrated within the paragraph and sentence structures” (Bernhardt 68). “Instead
of helping students learn to analyze a situation and determine an appropriate form,
given an audience and purpose,” too often teachers give writing assignments that
“merely exercise the same sort of writing week after week, introducing only topical
variations” (Bernhardt 77). Therefore, strategies of rhetorical organization in the
writing classroom will need to move “increasingly toward visual patterns presented
on screens and interpreted through visual as well as verbal syntax” (Bernhardt 77).
Bernhardt says, “If we are to encourage students to experiment with visible features
of written texts, we would increase their ability to understand and use hierarchical
and classificatory arrangements” in the composition classroom (66). Furthermore,
By studying actual texts as they function in particular contexts, we can gain
an improved understanding of what constitute appropriate, effective
strategies of rhetorical organization. At the same time, we can learn from
such studies how successful texts are composed and what part schools can
play in encouraging students to become able, creative composers.
(Bernhardt 77)
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In fact, the “semiotic system associated with visual texts encompasses elements
such as colour, line, format, texture, and shape that students need control over in
order to make meanings” (Antsey and Bull 102). For these reasons, developing
sound pedagogical strategies to implement these changes is an imperative part of
the English classroom today.
Though there has been a significant shift to adding visual literacy practices in
the classroom, Edmund Feldman, distinguished university professor at the
University of Georgia, says, “‘literacy’ when applied to the reading of images entails
the use of a very mixed metaphor” (195). It is important to note the following:
At present, most persons (from children watching their television sets to
adults looking at magazine ads) are visually literate in the sense that they are
capable of receiving and acting on the signals sent out to them by electronic
and printed pictures. They are not visually literate if by literacy we mean the
ability to understand the rhetoric…(Feldman 195)
In addition to this point, by associating visual images with learning, there is a larger
sense of “richness of meaning” based on what a person is experiencing (Feldman
198). At first, one might believe that multiple meanings result in more confusion
because everyone infers different meanings based on their perceptions of the image;
however, instead it seems that these differences support the idea that all people, no
matter what their background may be, exhibit active learning and application of
images as a visual language of sorts (Feldman 199).
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GETTING STUDENTS MOTIVATED
Every student in the class had some interest that was anchored in authentic reading
and writing; it was just something that lived well outside of our classroom, and
something that hadn’t yet led them to see themselves as uniquely and richly literate.
- Sara Kajder, Bringing the Outside In
In today’s English classrooms, at any level, students arrive with varying
strengths of reading and writing skills. Perhaps an even greater struggle in the
secondary English language arts system is the fact that teachers are faced with “the
pressures of state-mandated, high-stakes assessments and a curriculum full of more
required content than would be easily understood” (Kajder 37). For this reason,
teachers may often find themselves faced with the problem of how to best reach
their most talented students, but more importantly, how to best reach their
struggling students as well especially when “their test scores and student files
reflected several years of that (struggling) thinking” (Kajder 15). When the students
do not value traditional reading and writing activities taking place in the classroom,
teachers must look into the out-of-classroom lives that the students are engaged
with on a daily basis. As Sara Kajder says of her students in Bringing the Outside In,
“Each time they picked up a manual, jumped online to instant message a friend, or
got on the Metro and headed into town, they were readers” (15). Supporting
Kajder’s belief that reading (and writing) take place outside of school, Peter Elbow,
renowned expert in the field of Composition Studies, made this comment about his
own process of learning to write, “We learned it (how to write) in the gutter, we
didn’t learn it in school” (Elbow). However, Kajder points out, “But, unless we
started by seeing one another and the possibilities of what reading could be, I
couldn’t see how we were to get to the work (state tests) at hand” (37). Thus,
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teachers must help their students create connections between their out-of-school
and in-school literacy practices, which is where the visual can help initiate these
connections.
One of the emerging reading and writing genres in the English field is that of
the digital storybook. The digital storytelling phenomenon originated at the Center
for Digital Storytelling (CDS) in Berkley, California. “Digital storytelling is exciting in
its ability to convey powerful themes and messages in brief, 2-5 minute video
pieces” (Creative Narrations). The approach used by CDS is effective in the
classroom because it focuses on personal voice, which ties in directly to the idea
behind narrative writing (CDS). “A digital story is – the melding of human voice and
personal narrative, using technologies only as tools that bring these elements
together into one text” (Kajder 17). Supporting these beliefs, Tom Banaszweski of
Maria Hastings School in Lexington, Massachusetts states,
At the beginning of the school year, students answered a survey about
writing that asked, "Are you a writer?" Sixty percent responded yes. After the
Place Project (digital storytelling project), they responded to the same
survey. "Are you a writer?" Ninety-nine percent said yes. Nothing is
foolproof, but I have yet to find anything as motivating and influential on
students' self-expression as helping them tell stories about an important
place. The added dimension of video provided a meeting place for these
students and their creativity. (Banaszweski)
Thus, digital storytelling provides a realm in which students can stretch their
literacy skills using powerful images to help tell their story. In fact, students are now
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working as “not only readers and writers but also as directors, artists, programmers,
screenwriters, and designers” (Kajder 16).
Digital stories do not limit the way students view literacy because they
include a wide range of elements that cater to the literacy skills students have
already developed outside of the classroom. Kajder supports this idea by saying,
Building on their visual and verbal literacy skills, my students paired their
images with fairly sophisticated written reflections, explaining the event,
what meaning it represented, and how it enriched, complicated, or
challenged their understanding of literacy. Here literacy wasn’t just limited
to the ways in which students engaged with print texts, but instead reached
out to include exchanges outside of and beyond the classroom. (60)
With that said, Example 1 (in Appendix 1) highlights how a student could develop a
personal literacy narrative, further motivating and engaging the student to become
an active participant in the literacy environment inside the English classroom. “The
power of using digital images in this work comes in the students’ representations of
their constructed story worlds” (Kajder 73). In Example 1, the author works through
her tale of how literacy became an integral part of her life and further shaped her
literacy practices as she grew older. The digital story combines personal
photographs that help support her literacy story and guide the reader through the
pages of her digital storybook. For this reason, students are not only making real
world connections, but also using the visual to enhance their understanding of what
those connections are all about.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF GRAPHIC NOVELS
Their (graphic novels) diversity and quality are stronger, the readership more curious
and receptive, the media less hyperbolic. No passing craze or graphic novelties this
time; a medium is coming into its own.
- Paul Gravett, Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know
Recently, many educators have delved into using new forms of visual literacy
that were traditionally looked down upon in their classrooms. For example, graphic
novels have become a new, innovative tool in the classroom to help encourage the
use of visual literacy skills. In regards to graphic novels, Paul Gravett explains in
depth about various elements, assumptions, thoughts, and beliefs about graphic
novels in his book Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know. He states, “Images
and text arrive together, work together, and should be read together” and that
images and text work together, “one informing the other” (Gravett). His point is
noteworthy because it suggests that the visual element is an essential key element
in developing visual literacy as images supplement and work with text.
As far as graphic novels are concerned, they are beneficial in this element
because they provide readers with an opportunity to form their own interpretations
of the images and text to an extent, all the while creating a more accessible ground
to understand the rhetoric behind the novel because they are better able to relate to
the images. Feldman also points out “that everyone must learn to read images
because our culture is increasingly represented and perceived in visual terms”
(200). In addition, by using graphic novels, teachers are able to incorporate all of the
above issues of visual literacy into the English classroom.
The graphic novel now offers English language arts teachers opportunities to
engage all students in a medium that expands beyond the traditional borders
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of literacy. The graphic novel, a longer and more artful version of the comic
book bound as a “real” book, is increasingly popular, available, and
meaningful. (Schwarz 58)
Former high school English and German teacher and current Oklahoma State
University professor, Gretchen Schwarz, examines the use of graphic novels based
on the need for students to learn multiple literacies. She points out that graphic
novels still promote goals of traditional literacy, as they get students reading more,
which is always a beneficial activity (58). “Educators have urged the use of comics
as an alternative, appealing way for students to analyze literary conventions,
character development, dialogue, satire, and language structures as well as develop
writing and research skills” (Schwarz 58). Schwarz states,
Increasingly, scholars and teachers realize that in a media-dominated society,
one traditional literacy – reading and writing of print – is no longer sufficient.
Today’s young people also have to read films, TV shows, magazines and web
sites. Both practical information and the stories of culture come from many
media, especially those made possible by current technology. (59)
With this said, graphic novels combine both visual and verbal elements making
them a good fit to incorporate the “traditional alphabetic literacy,” as well as the
emerging elements of visual literacy (Schwarz 59). As Gravett points out,
“Remember that words don’t always literally describe or reinforce the pictures; one
can clarify and amplify the other, or they can be entirely separate…Their interaction
can shift from page to page, panel to panel, within a panel” (10). When using graphic
novels, students must pay attention to “the usual literary elements of character, plot,
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and dialogue,” yet they “also have to consider visual elements such as color, shading,
panel layout, perspective, and even the lettering style” (Schwarz 59).
One of the most important elements Schwarz describes in regards to the
graphic novel is that “the graphic novel offers teachers the opportunity to
implement critical media literacy in the classroom – literacy that affirms diversity,
gives voice to all, and helps student examine ideas and practices that promulgate
inequity” (62). In addition, “Many graphic novels offer more diverse voices than
traditional textbooks and can open up discussion about issues such as social justice”
(Schwarz 62). Art Spiegelman’s Maus is an excellent example of a graphic novel a
teacher could use to support Schwarz’s point on diversity. Though not a traditional
text, such as The Diary of Anne Frank, Spiegelman’s story is just as powerful as he
illustrates a very realistic account of his father’s, Vladek Spiegelman, story as a
Jewish survivor of Hitler’s realm in Europe during World War II. Spiegelman’s
“characters are all presented as various types of anthropomorphic animals,
according to nationality or race” (Wikipedia). For example, he uses mice to depict
the Jewish people, cats to depict the Nazis, and pigs to depict the Polish people (see
Figures 1-mice, 2-cats, 3-pigs in Appendix 2). Furthermore, Spiegelman consciously
shows how prejudice based on nationality and race were a major factor in the
Holocaust as he shows how Vladek’s home used to be loved by all before the
downfall created by Hitler as the mice wore masks to skirt around Europe (see
Figures 4 and 5, respectively, in Appendix 2). Not only are anthropomorphic animals
used to make the characters easy to relate to, but Spiegelman’s use of shading and
expression are key elements to the success of his novel. For example, as a Nazi
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threatened Vladek, the character is barring his teeth and looking directly at the
reader; thus, allowing the reader to live vicariously through Vladek’s story, as if the
reader were actually the one getting reprimanded (see Figure 6 in Appendix 2). The
Lacanian Gaze most definitely characterizes the gaze of the Nazi in this situation, as
supported by Gillian Rose in her book Visual Methodologies. Here, she discusses the
Lacanian Gaze as “striated by inherent failure” (128). In addition, “since the Gaze
looks at everyone, men as well as women are turned into spectacles through it”
(130). Thus, it does not matter who the reader is, since they are an active reader
living vicariously through the narrator’s shoes, the reader becomes further
subjected to Spiegelman’s work.
Another example of a powerful graphic novel would be Marjane Satrapi’s
Persepolis. Satrapi’s personal narrative memoir details her childhood growing up in
Iran during the Islamic Revolution. This novel shows that though Iran is practically
on the other side of the world, children there still have fun and have similar
interests compared to the children in the United States, as shown by Figure 7 (in
Appendix 2). However, Satrapi’s memoir also shows how different life is for
children growing up in Iran. Figure 8 (in Appendix 2) shows how Satrapi was
severely reprimanded for not wearing her scarf low enough and or wearing the
traditional outfit worn by women. Examples similar to Figures 7 and 8 would allow
an opportunity for class discussion on equality issues of gender and nationality, to
name a few. These examples would also provide a way to talk about cultural
differences, values, and freedoms that vary from the United States to countries like
Iran. However, the important aspect to note in using both Spiegelman and Satrapi’s
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graphic interpretations is that they are able to provide a more personal, relatable
reading experience for young adults to read and truly begin to understand ongoing
diversity issues that would otherwise just be paged through in a traditional, text
only history book, for example.
Though some librarians are hesitant to delve into the new trend of graphic
novels, Maureen Mooney, a library media specialist at the Saint Gregory School for
Boys in Loudonville, New York, describes how graphic novels can work in libraries
in one of her recent essays. She makes a strong point when she says, “If you acquire
graphic novels, young adults will come. Chances are that young adults will check out
more than just the graphic novels in the collection once they realize what is there
for them” (1). For example, by enticing a student with visual representations of
important historical events, a teacher now has the opportunity to further the
student’s interest by suggesting more “traditional” research books with facts about
life during that particular time. Not only will the student end up reading more, but
he or she would essentially be developing research skills and perhaps even learning
how to develop a research paper from his or her interests. This example is
important because it shows how graphic novels have the potential to promote more
traditional views of literacy in the classroom when used correctly. However,
Mooney does warn that graphic novels should not be categorized under genres such
as “horror and supernatural” because “the public may view these items as materials
to be censored without realizing what a wonderful medium is being used” (1).
Furthermore, “some reluctant readers will gladly pick up a graphic novel over a
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typical novel, and since the illustrations support the text, graphic novels also help
encourage literacy” (Mooney 1).
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has also taken a positive
stance on the use of graphic novels in the writing classroom. “Comics and graphic
novels can be used as a ‘point of reference’ to bridge what students already know
with what they have yet to learn,” says Shelley Hong Xu, associate professor in the
Department of Teacher Education at California State University (NCTE 1). Xu does,
however, make the point that before rushing into graphic novels, teachers should
learn more about their students’ experiences with them, as well as respect their
enjoyment of graphic novels with a focus on them as a “tool for bridging” versus
solely “instructional materials” (NCTE 1).
NCTE associate Cat Turner, a secondary English specialist and teacher at
Henry Wise Wood High School in Calgary, Alberta, points out that graphic novels
have the same components that traditional novels include, with the most significant
difference being the graphic novel’s text is “both written and visual” (NCTE 2).
Example 2 (in Appendix 2) affirms Turner’s beliefs by showing a comic that was
created with all of the literary elements of a story, including setting, plot, and
character development. Through her experience of assigning students to create a
guidebook to help teachers understand graphic novels, Turner reports, “Not only
did the students become the experts, but they also demonstrated their awareness of
the craftsmanship that goes into each of these texts through the creation of the
guides” (NCTE 2). To further support the example Turner highlights, Sharon
Webster, English department chairperson and literacy coach at Narragansett High
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School in Rhode Island, says, “We need to take advantage of every learning
opportunity to engage our students in a way that acknowledged the visual world in
which they live” (NCTE 4).
Not only can graphic novels provide a medium students can better relate to,
but they can also change the way students see literature as well. Professor Rocco
Versaci of Palomar College describes this in his essay titled, “How Comic Books Can
Change the Way Our Students See Literature: One Teacher’s Perspective.” He feels
that as teachers of literature, we should not push students to accept what our
definition and value of literature is, as they will only resent it. In addition, we should
encourage our students to have their own voice; thus, we want them to become
“active, critical, and engaged readers,” not simply protégés of our own thoughts and
beliefs (Versaci 61-2). He goes on to explain,
Adolescents and teenagers today are surrounded by diverse and increasingly
complex media, and some will often find classroom materials to be dull,
irrelevant, or both. But by placing a comic book – the basic form of which
they no doubt recognize – into the context of the classroom, teachers can
catch students off guard in a positive way, and this disorientation [in his
experience] led students to become more engaged by a given work….
The reason for this engagement is largely attributable to the form itself.
Unlike more “traditional” literature, comic books are able to quite literally
“put a human face” on a given subject. That is, comic books blend words and
pictures so that, in addition to reading texts, readers “see” the characters
through the illustrations. (62)
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Furthermore, Versaci mentions that comic books can both challenge students to
think more critically and deeply, and not jump to presumptions that deny literary
possibilities (for example, by immediately demeaning comics) (66-7). Thus, graphic
novels can help bridge this gap and prove to be a very successful tool for adapting
lessons to increase visual literacy skills.
BREAKING DOWN THE IMAGE
…it is crucial to look very carefully at the image or images in which you are interested,
because the image itself has its own effects.
-Gillian Rose, Visual Methodologies
Brian Selznick’s novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, is a graphic novel that
pushes and challenges readers, exactly as Versaci describes. Selznick includes many
genres into his novel, combining elements of picture books, graphic novels, and film.
For this reason, his novel provides teachers with an almost endless amount of
resources to create unique lesson plans for their students to delve into this one-of-akind novel. One example in which teachers could use the novel, and still tie the novel
creatively into the demands they must meet for the Standards of Learning (SOLs)
would be developing a lesson around onomatopoeias. Figure 9 (in Appendix 3)
shows a sample exercise on working with onomatopoeias using Selznick’s images
that teachers could implement in the classroom. Not only does the lesson have
students learning and working with onomatopoeias, but the plan makes students
essentially create their own text from a sequence of images (Figures 10-16 in
Appendix 3).
Yet, there is more behind the images in Selznick’s work than meets the eye.
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In Selznick’s book, the opening and closing scenes are of a moon sequence in a still
frame. However, if one imagines a movie reel, the images would ideally pass by in
sequence, in a moving frame. Thus, Selznick immediately shows and later reminds
the reader of the film-like images apparent throughout the book. As Example 3 (in
Appendix 3) shows, the opening and closing images are included in this booktrailer
and an antique finish applied to add emphasis and mimic an “old movie” film so that
the images appear as if they were being projected by a movie reel.
All of Selnick’s images are hand drawn and are sketched with even the most
minute details portrayed with vivid accuracy as if the reader were actually a
character in the novel (see Figure 17 in Appendix 3). “Each picture takes up an
entire double page spread, and the story moves forward because you turn the pages
to see the next moment unfold in front of you” (Selznick). With that said, the images
are what propels and helps tell the story of Hugo, not just the words; without the
images, the story would be missing an imperative element. Thus, a book trailer is an
exceptional way for students to incorporate images and text in such a way that
shows their individual creative sides and understandings of how Selznick’s images
work within the novel. When producing Example 3, the image analysis goes deeper
in the sense that in order for the producer to understand the rising climax and
underlying themes in the story, he or she must pick and choose very specific images
from Selznick’s novel to help support their moving, visual claim.
Moving images also have a semiotic system and occupy a central part of
literate practice…Often the reader and viewer has to content with the codes
and conventions of still and moving images to interact successfully with any
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given site. Full engagements is dependent on an individual’s ability to
operate across a number of different modes. (Anstey and Bull 102)
In regards to Example 3, since the focus was to be on the images, text was kept
minimal and clean in appearance, as to not distract from the images. This point ties
directly into Ellen Lupton’s belief that authors should, “Say more, write less,” where
in the case of Example 3, the images say more and speak for themselves. However,
the text was a necessary piece to the trailer because it helped guide the viewer
through the overall plot and theme of the book. The text is streaming into the middle
of the page, and is placed on the black background (minus one clip towards the end)
to help create the minimal effect. In fact, the reason the one clip at the end is
different is because Selznick incorporates a dark, plain drawing in the book and
since this sketch was a conscious illustration on his behalf to declare the ending of
the book, it was necessary to include a representation of this sketch in the trailer as
well. The trailer integrated images and text in a successful manner that illustrated a
comprehensive, individual, creative reading of the book. Thus, in the end, Selznick’s
graphic novel shows how there is much more to the images inside of many graphic
novels, and that these novels can perhaps help students develop their own believes
of what literature really is in today’s highly visual world.
THE VISUAL IN THE WORLD AROUND US
Like linguistic structures, visual structures point to particular interpretations of
experience and forms of social interaction…Meanings belong to culture, rather than to
specific semiotic modes…
- Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, Reading Images
Virginia Tech professor, Diana George, supports the above descriptions of
visual literacy in her essay, “From Analysis to Design: Visual Communication in the
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Teaching of Writing.” In her essay, George calls for “a new configuration of
verbal/visual relationships, one that does allow for more than image analysis,
image-as-prompt, or images as dumbed-down language” (334). She explains how
the notion that teaching reading demands “attention to more than print literacy”
dates all the way back to 1946 and the “instructor’s edition of the popular Dick and
Jane elementary reader series; thus, teachers have known for awhile that they must
teach “students to read pictures as well as words” (337).
George’s belief that “students have a much richer imagination for how the
visual might enter composition than our journals have yet to address” led her to
construct an assignment focusing on “visual argument.” The visual argument has to
make a “claim or assertion and attempt to sway an audience by offering reasons to
accept that claim” (George 349). Though some might argue that students would take
advantage and find the assignment as simply “play,” George found quite the opposite
in her classroom. She states,
The students in these classes were clearly very serious about the
arguments they were making. They were also quite serious about how a
visual argument should be evaluated. Given an opportunity to design
evaluation criteria, students turned to the same criteria we would find
common for written assignments: Does the visual make an argument? How
well does the visual communicate that argument? Is the argument relevant to
the course and to the assignment? Is it interesting? Is it clear or focused?
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In other words, these students and others like them took the visual in its
broadest sense as a form of communication through which they could make a
sophisticated and relevant argument. (351).
Through her example, George shows how “by deeply engaging students in visual
rhetoric, such assignments can move our students past deeply entrenched
assumptions that words are the makings of ‘high culture’ while mere pictures are
the makings of ‘low culture’” (352).
As stated before, students today are living in a very visual world. From the
magazines lining the grocery store check-out lines to the graffiti on the sides of
buildings, students are consuming visuals everywhere they turn. However, they lack
the skills required to analyze and produce a response to all they have consumed. In
fact, one wonders if students truly do understand that what they consume
ultimately defines who they are, or better yet, who society views them to be. This
idea is where Roland Barthes’ ideas of myth and the image help readers better
understand the images they are consuming. In order to be able to understand the
relationship between the myth and the real, it is important to establish what exactly
a myth is. The myth is a product of the dominant bourgeois society, meaning that
the myth represents the dominant group’s values. The dominant group can be
separated from those below it in areas such as gender, race, and socioeconomic
status. “Bourgeois ideology invests in universalism,” in that it hopes to create a level
ground on which everyone can relate (Barthes 154). For this reason, the “bourgeois
ideology continuously transforms the products of history into essential types,”
meaning that the transformation from history creates the myth, which appears
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normal and real to the people of the bourgeois society (Barthes 155). Here, the
myth creates and supports the ideology that gives rise to the myth, as the myth
operates to enforce particular meanings, such as visual rhetoric through
advertisements) that are portrayed through the way people use them in society. In
order to create a dominant ideology, the myth is naturalized so that the history of
the “real” is lost. By losing the historical background, people incorporate the myth
into their every day lifestyles, despite their level within society, believing the myth
to be true and real. However, their actions are not supporting what is real, but
instead the people are actually distorting what is truly real, by falling into the realm
of false conceptions created by the myths. For example, a group of young girls seeing
a billboard of a richly dressed, beautiful young woman and aspire to be her, not
acknowledging that the woman’s photo has been physically altered by imaging
software to make her look “perfect,” but instead focusing on what they can do to be
more like the young woman (see Figure 18 in Appendix 4). Barthes supports this by
stating, “Myth hides nothing and flaunts nothing: it distorts; myth is neither a lie
nor a confession: it is an inflexion” (Barthes 129).
In Mythologies, Barthes also suggests that the “naturalness with which
newspapers, art and common sense constantly dress up a reality…is undoubtedly
determined by history” (Barthes 11). The idea that “naturalness” is “determined by
history” leads to the definition of what is “real,” particularly when there is an
underlying “display of what-goes-without-saying” (Barthes 11). In other words,
something is deemed to be real when people associate a feeling of naturalness with
it. However, the real is historically situated, which means that the representation of
Beach 24
what is real ultimately changes over time to align with the dominant ideology and
capitalist views of society.
Specifically in the English classroom, creating visual arguments can stem
directly from incorporating advertisements into assignments. Not only do students
have to read (or consume) the rhetoric behind the image, but they also have to
produce a piece of work that shows they have gained the necessary skills required
to critically approach the world around them. Example 4 (in Appendix 4) is an
example of a video to show students so that they begin to question all of what they
consume. This video is particularly useful because as Barthes states in Rhetoric of
the Image, “the image is felt to be weak in respect to meaning” (32). Yet, in reality, in
advertising the signification of the image is undoubtedly intentional” and “if the
image contains signs, we can be sure that in advertising these signs are full, formed
with a view to the optimum reading” (33). Furthermore, by forcing students to take
a particular stance on one of the advertisements and produce an argument
supporting their stance, teachers can tie in every aspect of the rhetorical situation
and even go into document design as well.
MUSEUMS AND THEIR PLACE IN THE CLASSROOM
A painting expresses ideas and emotions in ways that arguments, graphs, charts,
poems, and stories cannot. To miss paintings, sculptures, and photographs is to miss a
lot. Woks of art, however, provide knowledge and experiences only if the
works of art are interpreted; not to interpret them is to miss them.
- Terry Barrett, Interpreting Art
Jose Pedro Schwartz, assistant professor of English at the American
University of Beirut, writes that museum-based pedagogy is the “teaching of verbal,
Beach 25
visual, technological, social, and critical literacies” in his essay, “Object Lessons:
Teaching Multiliteracies through the Museum.” He states,
Teaching visual literacy through the museum means stressing the
importance of the material context in determining an object’s meaning:
accompanying texts, display, technology, installation (sequence, height, light,
combinations), layout and design, and overall architecture. (33)
Scwartz’s statement here is supported by Rose’s description of “compositional
interpretation” in Visual Methodologies. Compositional interpretation looks at the
arrangement of the image, how the image was made, and the foundation of what
went into the image as well. It “remains a useful method (of visual methodology)
because it does offer a way of looking very carefully at the content and form of
images” (Rose 39). Furthermore, Rose points out that composition refers to all of
the following elements: content, color, spatial organization, light, and expressive
content (40-50).
Since “a museum-based approach thus analyzes how objects interact with
their physical setting to form persuasive arguments that are primarily visual,”
teachers must remember that the images and composition behind the images placed
within the walls of the museum are all very important pieces to the puzzle when
helping students utilize visual literacy skills (Schwartz 34). For example, Example 5
(in Appendix 5) acts as a “teacher in your pocket” podcast that walks students
through a critical reading of the images in the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke,
Virginia. Once students view the images through a critical lens, they will apply that
knowledge to write their own examples of literary terms based on specific pieces
Beach 26
within the museum’s different galleries. A noteworthy fact is that not only does this
podcast create an engaging multimodal activity focusing on visual skills for students
to participate in, but it also helps establish relationships between schools and
museums, which is one of the founding pillars of the Taubman Museum of Art. The
museum’s staff goal is that through collaborations, the museum will “provide
educators with methods to help students better understand and retain core content,
to assist them in developing higher level critical thinking skills, and to help students
use technology in an innovative manner” (Taubman).
Yet, since many of our students are known as “digital natives” today, even the
inclusion of moving images in a museum atmosphere is particularly fascinating as
well. In fact, society is now reshaped by these digital natives, who “were all born
after 1980” and “have access to networked digital technologies” (Palfrey and Gasser
1). “Often the reader and the viewer have to contend with the codes and
conventions of still and moving images to interact successfully with any given site.
Full engagement is dependent on an individual’s ability to operate across a number
of different modes” (Anstey and Bull 102). The Museum of the Moving Image,
located in Astoria, New York, creates a learning environment in which viewers are
engaged with moving images, as supported by its mission statement:
Museum of the Moving Image advances the public understanding and
appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television,
and digital media. It does so by collecting, preserving, and providing access to
moving-image related artifacts; screening significant films and other movingimage works; presenting exhibitions of artifacts, artworks, and interactive
Beach 27
experiences; and offering educational and interpretive programs to students,
teachers, and the general public. (Museum of the Moving Image)
In addition, the museum’s exhibitions can also tie back into Rose’s idea of
compositional interpretation. Though many of the terms described previously with
still images also applies to moving images, Rose points out that terms such as miseen-scéne (spatial organization of a film) and montage (temporal organization) are
also now included into the visual literacy discussion involving moving images (Rose
51). For example, the museum’s current exhibition, “Behind the Scenes,”
“illuminates the many processes involved in producing, marketing, and exhibiting
the moving image,” which creates an opportunity for teachers to push their students
to critically assess the exhibition while further developing critical image reading
skills, too.
CONCLUSION
Literacy as we know it is not in a crisis, but instead evolving as we know it.
- Crystal Beach
Ultimately, our world is constantly changing and “we transact with our visual
culture in complex, participatory, (and) sometimes disorienting ways” (Sperling 1).
As it becomes a “world made not only of words, but images and sounds, as well as
colors, all of which are increasingly integrated into multimedia constructions”
(Burke 149), we must focus on adapting our teaching strategies to best utilize our
students’ skills. The role of multiliteracies is to affect change in how we teach
reading and writing, and change equals new pedagogies. Therefore, with the
emergence of visual literacy becoming as important as textual literacy, we, as
educators, must best meet our students’ needs by adapting and incorporating
Beach 28
pedagogical styles that reflect visual literacy in our English classrooms. We must
expand our notion of what “literacy” means today. We must invent classrooms
where Hugo and others can inspire and motivate our students. And yet perhaps
most importantly, we must help our students become critical thinkers, analyzers,
and readers of the world around them.
Beach 29
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