I decided to choose something that I read recently with my Grade 6 students. Coincidentally, it was a pretty easy title and plot that I could describe using only a few emojis. I started with the title because it is a compound word that I knew would be easy to represent through emojis. For the plot, I chose emojis that would represent the objects and events in the story. Mainly, I was using symbols. With symbols, it relies on established ideas of the object that everyone can recognize, even if these are generalizations or stereotypes. For example, a person with long hair would represent a female. A person with both of their hands up would represent confusion and curiosity. Similarly, having both hands crossed would mean rejection and aversion. These may be interpreted differently for different cultures.

According to Kress (2005), sequence is important in speech and writing. On the other hand, the spatial arrangement of images is crucial for viewers to comprehend the text. For my story, I started off by putting the original house on the left side. In the second line, I depicted the main character going through a door to get to another, similar house. I then decided that it would be easier for the viewer to understand if I always kept the other house on the right-hand side and the original house on the left-hand side. This way, I can make it very distinct which house I am referring to.

While creating my depiction, I was thinking about how Kress (2005) argues that there is a specificity of depiction compared to the vagueness of words. What does this suggest about images and their limits on imagination? Reading a book may allow readers to use their own imaginations, while turning it into a film will depict the story in a specific way. These film adaptations are often met with criticisms because it is impossible to match every reader’s initially imagined version of the story. Conversely, Bolter (2001) suggests that films are now “culturally more important than novels” (p. 53) and some films are now being novelized. The current generation is exposed to visuals more than texts. How then, can we balance multimodality in learning? 

This is especially difficult in English class. One time, before reading a short story, I gave my students an introduction to the author/story and put a picture of the characters on my slide. After reading the story, my students told me I should not have shown them the picture first because it ruined the story for them. I still think about this mistake I made a lot and how the image limited their imagination. While I understand depictions being useful in classes like science, in English class it is important to still prioritize allowing students to read and interpret on their own.

References

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kress, G. (2005), Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, 2(1), 5-22.