Multiliteracies in ELA Classrooms

In their article, Using Graphic Novels, Anime, and the Internet in an Urban High School, Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher provide an interesting discussion on the use of graphic novels within the classroom as a way to develop visual literacy and writing skills amongst students. According to Frey and Fisher, graphic novels are a form of popular culture that has the potential to engage students in authentic writing and allows for the scaffolding of important literary skills by teachers. As a teacher candidate who used a graphic novel during my practicum, I found that they are an engaging tool for developing students’ writing skills and introducing them to critical visual literacies that are relevant to modern society. However, while Frey and Fisher have successfully demonstrated effective teaching approaches to using graphic novels in the classroom, they do not stress the importance of teachers being well versed in how to read and understand graphic narratives before they begin to teach it to a classroom of students.

While on practicum at John Oliver Secondary, I decided to use the graphic novel Maus in my Communication 11 classroom in order to help develop writing techniques and visual literary skills of my students. During our exploration of the text, I found that simple elements, like the quality of cartooning, served as a basic yet helpful tool to teach my students about literary devices like hyperbole and metaphor. By analyzing these intentional features of the text, my students developed a better understanding of these literary devices and how cartoonists use them to create meaning in their graphic novels. During our study of Maus,we also explored the historical ramifications of the Holocaust, and critically analyzed certain reappearing themes in the graphic novel like family, memory, guilt and war. Thus, while graphic novels are helpful tools to develop writing skills, I also found that they could be linked to certain cultural or social issues for the purpose of class discussions.

In many ways, I agree with the root argument put forward by Frey and Fisher; that graphic novels can be an effective and inexpensive way to introduce critical literacy concepts and develop writing skills. However, early in the article Frey and Fisher state that “students seemed reluctant to discuss [graphic novels], perhaps because it would disclose a literary form belonging to their generation” (Frey & Fisher, 19). While this may be the case for many adolescents, I found that most of my students lacked a basic understanding of how to read graphic novels as well as the visual literacy skills needed to critically analyze the text. Therefore, I think that before students can use graphic novels to improve their writing skills they must be taught how to engage with a graphic novel properly. Teachers must understand the specific form of integrated literacy that is required to elicit meaning from a graphic novel and must also be well versed in how to read the text before they can begin to teach their students. Before my students started critically analyzing the main themes of Maus or using the text to develop certain writing techniques, we discussed the basic elements that graphic novelists use to create meaning on the page. Whether it is the style of lettering, the ordering of the panels, or the use of a speech balloon to set mood or tone, each element in a graphic novel is carefully chosen by the author as a way to communicate their message to the reader. Students must be aware of these elements prior to reading a graphic novel in order to fully understand it.

-Cody Macvey

References:

Frey, Nancy and Fisher, Douglas. “Using Graphic Novels, Anime, and the Internet in an Urban High School.” The English Journal 93.3 (2004): 19-25.

With an article devoted to “addressing persuasive visual messages” (Farmer 33), and which opens with the line that “if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a few images can constitute a persuasive argument” (Farmer 30), I found myself taking a closer look at the image presented at the beginning of the article, and generally paying more attention to the visual layout of the article, in an attempt to analyze it in the same ways that it suggests that teachers should train students to analyze advertizing and other media. The article suggests that what makes an image persuasive is “content, context, and connotation”, so with that in mind, I delved deeper into the article’s visual presence.

The initial image content is of a young woman in a blue shirt, with crossed arms and a skeptical expression on her face. At first glance, we might take the contextual meaning that she is a visual model for the championed stance of skepticism and critical thinking. Looking deeper at context and connotation, and applying some of the analysis techniques recommended by the article, such as considering “who created the message”, “why was the message created”, and “what values, lifestyles, and points of view are represented or omitted” (Farmer 32), I took time to think about why the image was included, why that image was specifically chosen, how it influenced me, and whose values and intentions were being communicated. I was certainly struck by the use of colour, as my second look prompted me to realize that the young woman’s shirt was the same cool azure as some of the accent text, bullet point markers, and dividers between sections. I questioned the effect of the colour scheme, and also questioned whether the young woman’s photo was changed to make her shirt match the scheme, or whether the colour scheme was matched to her actual shirt colour as photographed. The colour scheme of azure, rust red, white, and a much paler azure used in some of the charts, not only granted a coherence and cohesiveness granted by the continuity of the colour scheme, but it also had aesthetic and emotional effects. It is a non-threatening and visually appealing colour scheme, which created an emotional feeling of calm, stability, and authority, that I feel encouraged me to take on a trusting demeanor. The colour scheme connotated an environment of comfort and trust, and helped convince me of the textual argument. Taking a cultural perspective and trying to further understand their “visual coding system” (Farmer 31), I also suspect that as this article was produced in the United States of America that there may have been a subtle connection to their flag, whether it was a conscious or unconscious decision, and that the basic red-white-blue colour scheme would be likely to evoke an American’s patriotic sensibilities and cause them to feel an ethical responsibility to their students and by extension, a responsibility to the wellbeing of the country as a whole, in an endless feedback loop.

These visuals were subtle, yet had a powerful impact of the article’s effectiveness. My own education in visual literacy, possibly augmented by the approaches recommended by this article, have equipped me to unpack the article at both textual and visual levels, and to better understand the meaning being communicated. These skills assist me in assessing visual and textual messages every day, and while I am able to recognize the techniques being used to persuade me in this article, I am the one who has carefully weighed and considered, and decided that the argument has merit, rather than being passively led to agree with Farmer’s conclusions.

Question to Consider:
Visual literacy extends beyond the critical analysis of illustrative or photographic image, and includes all of the visuals included in a given product: the colours, shapes, fonts, and layout. What conventions of this layer of communication do you consciously understand and interpret, and how much of it is interpreted on a subconscious level?

References

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

By Amanda Cameron

The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy may not be created or destroyed, only changed in form. All creative endeavours are subject to the same Law. We do not create out of nothing but simply change or utilise mediums to produce an effect: a representation of the cognitive process which deigns us to place this next to that, chip away here or there, mix this with a cropped version of that, take this short story and rewrite it for the stage.

But why am I not satisfied with the thought only or the inner mind’s vision? Why do I seek to engage certain objects and often in ways they may have never imagined? Why does a particular scene hold a significance for me or lead me to think that to capture it would be an or the ultimate expression of my artistic thought? Why does a poem inspire me to manipulate its language for my own ends? And what makes me think that at any point what I am doing is creating? The piece (the work) is the material manifestation of the drive which leads me here—the passion which compels me to make art.

Some artists admit their predilection for collage or pastiche. We even have words like collage or pastiche to lend credibility to this sort of endeavour. But it is all as such. We are all simply changing that which was already there. Not some postmodern apathetic notion of the futility and unoriginality of existence in this time. It is a continuum upon which we sit. Ashes to ashes…paint to canvas. The matter remains the same only altered by the contortions we exact upon it. And despite its inclinations otherwise. To be an artist is to be despotic with ones tools. I make them do what I want them to do; I change them in form.

When I put paint to canvas it remains paint and canvas. I have simply exacted a juxtaposition neither the paint nor canvas had the will or means to exact. I do not create, therefore, I rearrange. Art may not be created or destroyed, only rearranged in form. This is how I make art.

Such is true with the adaptation. Indeed, this Law of Conservation of Art insists that adaptation is inevitable. There is no reason why one might argue beyond personal proclivity that the media of raw language or visual representation is any more valid than an already extant piece of writing. Indeed, art must evolve in order to exist and this evolution requires, along with the altering of raw materials, that certain works are co-opted and changed in form.

I have stated
the argument
that was in
my brain

and which
you may or may not
contradict
in a new post

Forgive me
it was inevitable
so sweet
and so cold

~ gunita.

Response

Frey and Douglas do a succinct job of explaining how graphic novels are useful educational tools in the classroom. It was also interesting to see the themes and ideas within the texts being transferred into the students’ own written works. Though it is not explicitly stated, the authors seem to imply two main ideas: that graphic novels (and popular culture in general) are only resonant in the urban/diverse classroom in cities like San Diego, and that students must find some sort of personal connection or parallel to the text in order to enjoy and make use of the literary-visual materials they are given as classroom texts. With increasingly “wired” classrooms, distances between urban, suburban, and rural classrooms are decreasing.

While they do not explicitly deny the universality of graphic novels within popular culture, they do not include this idea in their discussion. It is also important to acknowledge that there is a boundary between what was/is taught and what specific media students take personal cultural ownership of. As educators we should certainly respect what students claim as their own and what would not be fruitful to teach.

With the risk of stating the obvious, graphic novels and other media (film, television, art, etc.) are not only enjoyed and read worldwide but these stories –  those outside the reader’s frame of reference – can leave a lasting impression. An experience or narrative that does not fall within ones own purview can often teach us the most. Art Spiegelman’s MAUS (being an easy example) shows us the experiences of those persecuted and those who witnessed genocide first hand in World War II. This is a text that is often taught in classrooms, and not only within urban and inner-city contexts. Students may have trouble taking perspective and connecting to seemingly distant experiences but it is our job to bridge this gap. Once this division is diminished, what can be gained becomes all that more expansive to the reader.

Question(s) to ponder:

1. Can there not be an intersection between what is “teachable” and appropriate and what students already have a pre-existing interest in reading/viewing? How do we tread through material that students may want kept out of classroom analysis and dissection? What sort of consultation should we doing with our classes?

2. Where is there more value in literature (graphic or otherwise)? Do we take more from a recognizable narrative or from one completely outside of our own knowledge? Do we take different ideas and meanings from both, to the point where we are comparing “apples to oranges?”

Graphic Novel as Prompt

During my B.A. at SFU, I was exposed to a few different graphic novels. The one that stuck out for me the most was Ann Marie Fleming’s The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam. Fleming uses the – very open – format of the graphic novel to explore and display her own personal and familial history. The narrative is centred around the author’s relatively mysterious/unknown great-grandfather Long Tack Sam, a world famous vaudevillian in the early 20th century. The text is also accompanied by a film where a lot of the images have been taken and adapted from and put in the novel (and vice versa). What is most fascinating about the text is its intersectionality and how it transcends genre. Within about 160 pages we see: memoir, autobiography, biography, geographic exploration, history (Canadian and international), cultural interaction and exchange, etc. All of these themes and ideas are doubled (or squared, we might say) in the format of the film.

This overt openness of the graphic novel genre and format leads back into the idea of the graphic novel as prompt. Again, there is a value and importance in students taking an assigned text and turning into something of their own. Not only does this move us away from the passive mode of simply reading and accepting a text but it also encourages students to continue the narrative in a direction that they find meaningful. The students can also have endless choice in how they want to present their resulting creative texts.  Some may wish to work alone, other collaboratively. Some may wish to follow the children’s book format (e.g. Sendak’s The Miami Giant), others in an audio visual format (E.g. Long Tack Sam). Students can have constraints on what topics they are considering/presenting, and how much time they get, without being limited by how it is presented. With increased accessibility through the internet, such assignments/projects can more easily be created and shared worldwide.

Possible assignments/prompts:

1. Create a children’s book based off of a Shakespearean play, such as Julius Caesar.
2. Create one page of a comic book/graphic novel translated from a canonical text, e.g. To Kill a Mockingbird.
3. Adapt a frequently studied graphic novel/comic/picture book into a one/two/three act play, e.g. Death of a Salesman as a generic guideline.
4. One group creates a video/theatrical representation of a graphic novel, the other a text-based representation.

• What does this transfer do to the story? What is lost or gained in this translation? Which genre/format does what for the reader/viewer? -> How can students be meta-cognitive of the process of creation/publication?

Discussion prompts:

1. Fleming ends up doing a lot of self discovery in addition to revealing more about her family’s past. Is it feasible to get our own students to do similar kinds of research and the self-reflection and -realization that comes out of this searching? There is undeniable value in bringing everything back to the self. How or should we ask this of our students?

2. What graphic novels or visual narratives do we connect with? Are these the same kinds of texts we would want to adapt into our own perspectives and narratives?

3. How might a graphic novel prompt be used when classroom resources and technology are limited? Seeing as how the genre is open, how can we as educators work around these sorts of limitations while still giving students to opportunity to, as Ezra Pound said , “[m]ake it new”?

-George Frankson

Works Cited

Fleming, Ann Marie. The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam. New York: Riverhead Books, 2007.

Frey, Nancy, and Douglas Fisher. “Using Graphic Novels, Anime, and the Internet in an Urban High School.” English Journal 93.3 (2004): 19.

Some suggested texts to use as prompts (which will be brought into class for our perusal and consideration):

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie | | Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography by Chester Brown | The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam by Ann Marie Fleming | The Castafiore Emerald by Hergé | The Last Musketeer by Jason| Watchmen by Alan Moore | The Miami Giant by Arthur Yorinks & Maurice Sendak

The second half of the twentieth century saw the introduction of television and its transition into the Internet. With it a generation of people grew up with images being in consistent conjunction with the stories in our lives. In coalition with this technology has quickened our access to information and desire to connect our thoughts to images. I would argue more so than any generation before us, we are one that imagines self-created images less yet is more visually flexible. As a member of one of the first generations to grow up with the internet, I can understand how some students desire to be presented with not only words but images as well.

The article “Using Graphic Novels, Anime and Internet in Urban High Schools” by Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher articulates the authors practice of introducing images in order to support student’s writing. The students involved in the class were predominantly ELL and struggled with writing. Through the use of images as writing prompts, the students slowly became more comfortable with the writing process. I found it particularly interesting that as the students practiced they became more experimental and successful with their sentence length and word choices. Towards the end of the article the authors explain of their final assignment with the students, where they are asked to write in conjunction with images. I found this particularly appealing as I see this to be a good way for ELL learners to convey some of their ideas even though they can’t always articulate them. By telling a story in this way I feel the challenge of writing seems more manageable.

The article was written in 2004. Students today are much more attached to technology than those a decade ago. While the article mentions use of the internet for the projects, there was very little of it in comparison to a class today. If one were to do similar projects today it would be important to remember that students have an even greater attachment to images, but more importantly, video. While I like the idea of using graphic novels/stories for writing prompts, I would like to extend these ideas to using video, perhaps silent, to have students generate dialogue and explanations for stories. If technology and resources permit, it would be great to possibly have students act out their own short stories on video. Writing would of course still be significant, but it would be an adaptation to an ever-changing literature world.

It is important for English teachers to clearly articulate that English is not simply a study of books that were written a century or more ago. It should be clear that English is thriving and around us constantly. It is not just a language and for communication, but a chance to think creatively, argue your ideas, interact with others and develop yourself. With a changing world that seems to just keep speeding up, it is significant that students of today are flexible enough to adapt to the world of tomorrow. Fortunately there are many ways to approach the teaching of English, and the use of images can be a helpful tool.

Dalyce Firby

Question:

Is it more important to teach the classics or how to think?

What ways can we use images to teach English?

Works Cited

Frey, Nancy and Fisher, Douglas. “Using Graphic Novels, Anime, and the Internet in an Urban High School.” The English Journal 93.3 (2004): 19-25.

Adapting the Adaptations– A Fair Comparison? By Justin Bolivar.

Daniel Radcliffe is Harry Potter, Jennifer Lawrence is Katniss Everdeen, Leo is Romeo, Gregory Peck is Atticus Fitch, but there is no way in hell that Rooney Mara is Lisbeth Salander.

Why is it imperative in our roles as readers and viewers that we have specific bonds with characters? Do we feel violated when a film adaption casts someone in a role that is not what meets our mind’s eye? Do we also feel cheated when a character is adapted that does meet our expectations?

In Bortolotti and Hutcheon’s article “On the Origin of Adaptations: Rethinking Fidelity Discourse and “Success” — Biologically,” they discuss the idea that “[a]s a biologist and a literary theorist, [they] decided to look to the possibility of new questions and answers for narrative adaptation theory by investigating the relevance to cultural adaptation of the insights about adaptation in post-Darwinian biology.” (444) In the work, they establish that there is a homogenous relationship between Darwinian biology and how we culturally adapt texts. The key question that the article asks is “how useful is this kind of reductive judgmental discourse in determining either the artistic significance of a work or its cultural impact or even its vitality?” (444)

When considering that an adapted text “stands on its own as an independent work, and can be judged accordingly” (444-445), I think back to Wolfgang Iser’s text “Interaction Between Text and Reader.” Iser states that every “literary work has two poles, which we might call the artistic and the aesthetic: the artistic pole is the author’s text, and the aesthetic is the realization accomplished by the reader.” (391) If a text is presented to the reader or viewer, and they adapt the text to their own meaning. If we split a text into the artistic and aesthetic poles, then every time we read or view a text we adapt it to our own lens, and impose a personal adaptation. So even if a text is adapted from folklore or a book to a visual representation, as a reader or viewer we then adapt the text again. Since we are in a mode of constantly adapting, I agree with Bortolotti and Hutcheon’s idea that adaptations need to stand alone as independent works, and that it is not a fair to either text to look at them in unison.

When we think of literary adaptions in the classroom, we tend to favour print texts over visual texts. Why is this the case? Looking at the example of “Romeo and Juliet,” my school advisor was adamant that the 1996 Baz Lurman film be shown at the end of the unit, and that we should stick to reading the play as a class. However, if we are studying the text as a play and not a community reading activity, then are we really teaching it effectively? When approaching the unit, I first started with the community reading approach, but found that our classroom “adaptation” was not conducive to learning, so I sought out several visual versions of the play, and as a class, we discussed the differences in film, stage, and oral adaptions of “Romeo and Juliet.”

Works Cited:

Bortolotti, G. and Hutcheon, L. (2007). “On the Origin of Adaptations: Rethinking Fidelity Discourse and “Success” — Biologically.” New Literary History, 38(3), pp. 443-458.

Iser, Wolfgang. “Interaction Between Text and Reader.” Book History Reader. Eds. David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery. Oxon: Routledge, 2006. 391-396.

One of the earliest commercials I remember having an impact on my was that of the House Hippo. It was a message from Concerned Children’s Advertisers, and was probably the coolest thing I had ever seen. Did I know there were no such things as house hippos, of course; but even to this day I hear my peers talking about that commercial. Visual media can make quite the impact. Lesley Farmer’s article, “I See I Do: Persuasive Messages and Visual Literacy”, makes some very salient observations about the lengths that media is manipulated in our society, and how this can often be directed at students. While the house hippos of my childhood were not meant to sell anything, and the use of image manipulation in other ads at that time was, at least to my recollection, fairly mild, in today’s society there seems to be no escape. 

Farmer’s article has a number of lists that I think could be very useful in the classroom, due to not only their content, but the accessibility of the language. In addition to listing some basic principles of images (30-31), another list had a lot of suggestions on how to tell whether or not an image has been manipulated, such as “[s]hadows fall at different angles or lighting is inconsistent” and “[i]mage resolution varies in different sections of the composition” (31). When I did a critical media literacy unit in Planning 10 during my practicum, I only had one lesson to talk about advertisements. Due to the limited amount of time, my class jumped right into analyzing things such as who the ad was targeting and how they were doing this, but I wish I had had both more time and this article so that before the advertisement lesson, we could have covered some basic image manipulation tricks, and scaffolded up.

When reading this article, a brief discussion in Claire Ahn’s LLED 449 class came to mind, in which she talked about visual rhetoric in young adult literature. She showed numerous book covers for the same novel, and the class picked which ones would appeal to which readers, in terms of age range. When we discuss how images are changed and why this is important with our students, I think we also need to touch upon why are we seeing this one particular image in the first place.

One activity that Farmer suggests is “[a]sk students to locate online images about an international issue; each student (or small group) might choose a different country or culture. Ask them what visual principles appear to be universally applied or culturally defined. To what extent does culture impact the message?” (31) This helped me identify a possible issue when assigning some of the other activities suggested. As Farmer notes, if students lack cultural capital, and do not know our particular culture’s coding, they may very easily misinterpret signs and, therefore, meaning (31). This is something that I had not considered very much when conducting my lesson with my Planning 10 class, but feel I need to be very aware of going forward, and ties into my discussion question.

Question for discussion:

The article talks about how important it is for students to be aware of visual manipulation, and suggests multiple different ways of introducing projects aimed towards this in the classroom. Bearing potential class compositions in mind, what are some possible difficulties that may present themselves, or how might these activities where students are producers need to be adapted?

Work Cited:

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

Lesley Farmer’s brief, four-page, article has been one of the most practical articles I have read since September. As part of our Education program, we have been exposed to many theories and questions surrounding literacy: what is literacy? how many literacies are there? how do we use them? define them? etc. Farmer’s article aims to clarify the concept of visual literacy, and readers are not only provided with a definition of what visual literacy is, but we are also given examples of construction concepts and principles, deeper level thinking prompts to ask our students, extra resources on the topic, the reasons why teaching visual literacy is important, and much more. Overall, the article was laid out in simple language which made it a pleasure to read, and, coincidentally, the layout of the paper made the text more appealing to the eye. I felt that the most important parts of the article, when looking for theoretical discussion points, were the introduction and the last page as they discuss what visual literacy is and why it is important. The rest of the article was filled with the technicailities behind visualliteracy and examples of how to discuss this with, and develop it in, your class.

In the introduction, Farmer describes visual literacy as the ability to be “critical visual consumers and producers” (2007, p. 30). This means that our students need the skills not only to understand and analyse presented visuals, but also to create their own visual pieces. I found this extremely interesting, because when I have thought about literacy in the past, I have only thought of it in the sense of reading, or internalizing something, not creating it. However, I see the benefits of having the term literacy include both understanding and production. In order to start developing an understanding of visual messages, we should have students “evaluate visual messages in light of what the producer is trying to convince the viewer to do or think” (p. 33). This relates to the traditional English classroom definition of literacy in that in understanding a literary work, we try to analyze the author’s tone, mood, and intention. In order to further establish this literacy, though, we need to have students move on from understanding to actually using these manipulation techniques themselves (p.33). Such techniques can include altering digital images through cropping to remove a certain context, changing visual sequences to alter the cause-and-effect implications, and changing the size of certain items to change perceived importance (p. 32).

The most intriguing and most beneficial part of this reading, in my opinion, is the section (on the last page) in which Farmer outlines specific ways in which students (or any audience) can identify image alterations. By providing us with this information, Farmer is providing us with tools to identify manipulative images. I feel that this will highly benefit our students who live in a world where they are subject to a bombardment of photo-shopped, and otherwise altered, images that tend to have more of a negative impact on their mental health than anything.

Question for Discussion during the Seminar:

Some digital images are edited so well that it is impossible for the average person to tell if an image has even been altered. Do you feel that critical viewing should only be applied to photos that have been altered? Or should we assess and evaluate all visual images regardless of editing?

References

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

Lesley S.J. Farmer’s article, “I See, I Do: Persuasive Messages and Visual Literacy,” talks about the power of visual media to persuade its viewers. Farmer argues, “students need to know and apply technological visual principles and skills to become critical visual consumers and producers” (30).  In order to be critical visual consumers, students require extensive knowledge about the visual elements and principles used in visual media, such as line, dots, shapes, scale, direction, dimension, texture, value, color, balance, contrast, proportion, pattern, and variety (30-31). I think that learning about how to interpret these elements and their persuasive uses should be a part of all courses in grade school, not only those focusing on visual art or media.
Farmer’s argument is even more relevant now than when this article was written in 2007; now, in 2014, students have hundreds of encounters with digital and visual media every day. They need to learn the skills required to be able to decode the messages they see, and to be able to think critically about why and how they are receiving these messages. Without these skills, students will live their lives being subliminally convinced or persuaded by visual media, to an extent that can influence the world around them: “Digital tools also make it much easier to manipulate images in order to convince and persuade viewers. Even newspaper photographers have altered or combined different images in order to generate a more compelling story or editorialize about an issue; their efforts change election results, impact court decisions, and influence global politics” (32). Once students are able to unpack the messages they receive from visual media, they are better equipped to inquire further about the meaning of the image and its purpose. They can engage in more in-depth critical thought about a variety of topics pertaining to the image. I liken visual media literacy to some of the literacies required in an English class. In English classes, students are required to decode the messages that texts present, trace connections, identify themes, determine purpose and relate ideas to broader social and cultural issues and topics. To understand visual media, they need to decode the message of the image, trace connections between images and between form and meaning, identify themes, determine purpose, and relate the image to broader social and cultural issues. Thus, visual media literacy is a translation of English language literacy into the visual realm. Students need to learn how to “read” images just as they need to learn how to read texts. It will ensure that they are always in control of how they process the imagery they encounter on a daily basis, and it will ensure that they are also able to create compelling and convincing images themselves.

Discussion question for Seminar Lead:

How can we incorporate learning about visual elements and principles and understanding different cultures’ visual coding systems into subjects like English and Socials?

Rebecca Thomas

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

Farmer’s article “I See, I Do: Persuasive Messages and Visual Literacy” focuses on the tactics used in visual media to persuade viewers to perceive something in a certain way. He states that pictures can be a very persuasive argument. A main concern of Farmer’s is equipping students with the tools they need to discern visual messages. Advertisers use a variety of techniques to grab our attention. They are aiming to establish credibility and trust, to stimulate desire for a product. Their main goal is to persuade us to act through buying their product, joining their cause, supporting their product, etc. In order to help students protect themselves from these persuasive visual messages they need to be taught to be conscientious consumers. Farmer encourages teachers to integrate this type of learning into the curriculum through project based assignments, and states, “…young people often overlook the subliminal impact of those messages. Making visual messages an explicit academic inquiry helps students pay more attention to their environment and provides them with skills to respond critically to those visual messages” (32). Not only do students need to understand the typical visual techniques used in visual messages, they also need to go beyond learning facts and into more critical thinking. This notion is in alignment with Bloom’s Taxonomy as is coincides with higher order questioning. Farmer suggests that students should first analyze images around the school like yearbooks, publications, or newspapers. Students can then create their own persuasive visual message using various types of software. The whole goal is to make students question what they are viewing. One major goal as a teacher is to encourage life long learning. Teaching students how to question and decipher persuasive messages is going to aid them throughout their lives. This will not only help them decide what to buy, but also who to vote for and what bank to subscribe to. As a Home Economics teacher, Farmer’s article particularly resonated with me in relation to grocery shopping.  A goal of Home Economics is to teach students how to properly nourish their bodies through buying healthy food products. Many food products are advertised as “healthy” touting such phrases as “high fiber”, “lot fat”, and “low sugar”. However, with close examination of the visual techniques used students learn how misleading these messages are. Consumers often overlook examining the nutrition facts and simply take the products claims as truth. Teachers across all courses need to make their students critically question persuasive visual images. Students should all graduate from high school having learned how to properly decipher and analyze the visual messages that bombard them every day.

Question:

How can teachers teach students about what makes an image persuasive in relation to their particular teaching subject?

Anna Fenn

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