Multiliteracies in ELA Classrooms

Blog Post #1

What struck me most about Farmer’s presentation (and some of the other authors we have read thus far) of the concept of visual and digital literacy, is that she asks us to examine it through the same lens that we would a piece of text.  This lens reveals that each of the visual elements and principles (shapes, lines, colours, textures, balance, contrast, proportion and pattern) “constitute the vocabulary of visual art.”  In the linguistic framework that Farmer is imposing on visual literacy, this would be considered elements of the syntax.  Of course, one must understand all elements and principles in order to avoid misinterpreting a text; and as we know in the study of linguistics, syntax is often examined in tandem with semantics.  Therefore, just as we are asked to explore the contextual connotations of a sentence (or a full text) in studying semantics, students must also strive to unpack the background and context of a visual piece to derive its true meaning.  However, the digital world has further complicated this puzzle.  For instance, techniques such as cropping may change or manipulate the context of an image; changing the saturation or size will change the emphasis within the image; and removing pieces or altering the arrangement of the image will skew the viewer’s perception of the content.  Students more than ever must be aware of the fact and the manner in which images can be altered, and be equipped to look for inconsistencies.  This is especially important considering the amount of images they are bombarded with every single day.

The Farmer article presents a lot of strategies in tackling visual and digital literacies with students.  For starters, it suggests that students must understand the idea of persuasion.  Many images are created with the intent to persuade its viewer.  Farmer writes, “in order to convince the viewer of a specific idea, mass media producers who understand the language and connotations of visual literacy can manipulate images to elicit desired responses–a strategy that is used increasingly with the advent of digital tools.”  The producer must understand the aforementioned concepts of visual syntax and semantics in order to fully engage and persuade a viewer.  In teaching media and visual literacies, the article suggests having students engage with the idea of persuasive visual literacy first-hand, through project based learning.  For example, in my practicum I taught a media studies unit with a heavy focus on advertising.  Within that unit students had to analyze a series of advertisements, both print and audio-visual commercials.  However, despite front-loading/scaffolding the students with the relevant information, they had difficulty identifying which elements of each ad was the root of its persuasive argument.  This activity was later followed by an assignment where students themselves had to produce an ad.  They had to choose from a variety of persuasive advertising appeals, utilize them in their ad, and have to explain them.  In doing so, the students would have had to consider – according to Farmer’s viewpoint – each of the syntactic and semantic components that create meaning.  Students really enjoyed creating their own ads, and were able to demonstrate their critical thinking and understanding of persuasive language at a much deeper level.

Works Cited:

Farmer, Lesley S.J. (2007). I See, I Do: Persuasive Messages and Visual Literacy. Internet @ schools, 14(4), p. 30-33.

By: Christa Wolbers