Bringing in Visual Texts to Develop Print Reading/Writing Skills

[timothy shea]

For the past decade I have been intrigued with discovering ways to tap into our students' innate interest in visual texts (film, media, graphic novels, photography, video games, etc.) to help them develop stronger literacy skills. While Kelly does discuss briefly the ways he uses graphic novels to enhance and develop reading, there has not been much discussion on the use of other visual texts, particularly film.

I think we as American educators are missing out on golden opportunities to capitalize on our students' visual and technology strengths and use those strengths to help them develop in areas of literacy where they may struggle. Besides the fact that our students need to be able to value and critique these ubiquitous visual texts in and of themselves, there is SO much potential and empirical research to support the use of these texts in constructive ways to develop strong reading and writing skills.

My particular research focuses on the ways nonfiction film can function as a mentor text for gifted adolescent writers and I have also conducted studies which include the reading and critical thinking connections.

I know that English teachers are notorious for abusing film in the classroom by simply showing a movie version of the book they just read while grading papers in the back with very little engagement occurring between student and film. What I propose is using film in the same way we should teach good literature. We should use film to discuss language and style, characters and plot, but mostly to examine the ways we tell stories and how our various modes of storytelling can inform and enlighten other forms.

I welcome your thoughts and experience in using film- both successful and unsuccessful, especially in relation to Kelly's book, Readicide.

To reiterate my main question: In what ways can film be used to help cure this growing epidemic of "Readicide"?

[Carol Jago]

A NAEP report on student achievement in music and visual arts is due out soon. Maybe we can use this data (the first we've had since 1997) to help foster arts education and visual literacy. Here's the link:

Copies of The Nation's Report Card: Arts 2008 and complete data from the 2008 arts assessment will be available online at http://nationsreportcard.gov at 10 a.m. EDT on June 15, 2009.

[Amy Kremer]

I incorporate film analysis into my classes each year with films that complement the topic/theme we are studying versus just books made into movies, and we focus on how to read a film critically-what are the tools a filmmaker uses, how do they tell their stories. We answer the same sort of higher order thinking questions about the films' stories, settings, themes and characters that we do when we read novels, plays and short stories. We also actually work as the youth jury for our local film festival, and our students are trained in how to view films critically by the education staff of the festival. This is a highlight of the year for our students. I enjoy that our students learn to use active minds while at the cinema, a common activity, and they begin to transfer these thinking skills to "reading" the rest of their world experience. This mindful viewing experience helps them to pay closer attention to details that they may have missed before, and I believe this translates into stronger reading skills across the spectrum.

[Lynne Kelsey]

I use documentary film in my classroom, sometimes to give background - a bit of a video on Mary Shelley, or a clip from the show on the Little Ice Age that connects that phenomenom with the writing of Frankenstein. One of my favorite videos is called North Korea: A Day in the Life, which I show when we're reading 1984. This particular program has no commentary - just subtitles that translate the speech of the North Korean family that was followed by the filmmakers (who were from the Netherlands, which is how they were able to gain access to the Hermit Kingdom). My students have to draw their own conclusions between the video and the novel - more thought-provoking.

I actually don't show the film versions of the books we read, largely because they're simply not that good. As I tell my students, "Never judge a book by its movie." (I saw that on a t-shirt.)

[RHE]

We use the film version of The Outsiders to contrast to text especially for characterization. After the film is done we discus how it is different from the text. Interestingly some students prefer the text to the film and vice-versa. When we do our unit on folklore we compare the Traditional Cinderella story, to the Rough-Faced Girl, Yeh-Shen, and the film Ever After. The students in this case tend to identify more strongly with the film version. The last film we use is Kung-Fu Panda. We use it to introduce the various archetypes including the Hero's Journey. This was our first year to use it, so we don't really have a strong opinion about it. I think we will re-use it, but we need stronger supporting material to make it more effective.

[loris]

Sorry my imperfect English.
In greek "theorizing" is to observe, to know how to see the bottom, not stopping to appearances. The visual metaphors in Greek intridono and characterized from the outset the philosophical attitudes are by no means random or purely rhetorical. Indicate, however, a peculiar quality of our brain, which is "essentially a visual brain, with dozens of areas that contain neurons that respond only, or even to visual stimuli"
But what is seen, as it happens?
A specialist study on perception, states with clarity the real absurdity and the serious lack of any scientific realism naive, that for which "the world looks like this because it is so"
Indeed, as we walk from the chair in front of us to experience its significance for us is something which "nobody has the slightest idea" and that involves a very complicated set of conditions, structures, transitions

To begin with, the human species is almost totally blind and this should be understood to the letter because our visual systems are able to take a very small part of the electromagnetic spectrum, that between 380 and 700 nanometers, "there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of your neurons and your philosophy reductionist could say Hamlet became a scientist. The visual system of our species is composed of three structures: the eye, visual pathways, the visual areas of the brain. The first captures the light or, more precisely, the electromagnetic energy that converts into retinal nerve signals, and the streets carrying these signals to the brain that transforms these images into electrical impulses and equipped for the construction of meaning, makes them semantically consistent creating-in this sense-reality.

[loris]

The colors, for example, have no existence in the so-called objective world, matter and therefore the all-items-only possess the ability to reflect intensity varies with the incident electromagnetic energy that strikes them. The colors are created dall'apparato perceptive of different species-and therefore who see the world in very different ways-both in relation to the percentage of light reflected from (reflectance) is the intensity of the light that strikes them (lighting). The result is called luminance, and this feature is not of matter but of the brain.

It is, as you see, so confirmation of the obvious importance of the sustained-gnoseological costruzionistica to name but a few names from recent-Husserl, Varela, von Foerster, Piaget, von Glasersfeld, Manzotti Tagliasco-and that is one of the most significant areas convergence between scientific research el'ontologia
While explicitly stating that they do not want to draw inferences from his philosophical investigations of the psychology of perception, stress the concept several times (in quality 'as an artist) and see the objects outside of us is' presumably an illusion: in a very concrete sense, they are located in your brain, "I am" construction of our brain "A proof is that to see the world you get used to, since we learn from small and, contrary to our beliefs blind us to do, given the restore sight to a blind man is a dramatic, which often causes depression, "for an adult who has closed his eyes in early childhood and later reopened forty thanks to surgery, the reality is nothing but a mishmash confusing, indecipherable and sometimes terrifying movements and colored spots'

In all this the fact however remains that for our students "There is no learning without social interaction."

[loris]

Gardner
80 Years


Gardner
80 Years
Howard Gardner:
Incorporates and develops the theory of
Bruner on systems
knowledge representation
Focuses on systems
symbols used in different

Critical concept of intelligence seconds
Piaget
Intelligence = Faculty che e ':
Universal in the way of developing
= Proceeds through a succession of stages equal in every
culture.
United in different areas of knowledge
= Spread out evenly in all knowledge.
(Eg those who are good at math is good even in language)

In brief seconds Gardner ...
Different cultures are not so regular as
successive stages of development suggested by Piaget.
Children may show levels of development of different thoughts
in tasks of equal complexity

8 ways
to know the world
INTELLIGENT WAY OF LEARNING
VISUOSPAZIALE use of space through visual means (eg drawings,
VERBAL LINGUISTIC language (eg read, write, speak, solve puzzles etc..)
Observation and understanding of the environment and how it works (eg
outdoor activities, interactions with materials and concepts that relate
the environment.
NATURALISTICA
MUSICALE use of rhythm and melody (eg, singing and listening to music)
LOGICAL-MATHEMATICAL activities involving problem solving, logic games experiments
individual tasks, introspective, metacognitive reflection in accordance with its
rhythms and personal goals
INTRAPERSONALE
INTERPERSONAL interaction with others (eg games)
Mediation and bodily movement (eg sports, handling materials,
recitation etc.

[loris]

Applications in the field
educational
Gardner criticizes the school that prefers a method of teaching and
assessment of linguistic and mathematical logic.
Warning!
The performance of a student may be judged a failure
because it does not possess the kind of intelligence from inside the school. ... for example
GUIDELINES OF THE NURSERY SCHOOL
(1991)



What does the motivation
study?
How can I build a
learning environment that
is motivating for my students?

Never uttered these words?
"This student has the ability ',
could do, but did not want "
"Not enough is committed"
"Do not draw any satisfaction from
study "
'It is precisely demotivation "
Giving a reward may decrease the
intrinsic motivation?
Yes, if: the reward
is seen as an attempt to control
(= Receive a reward only if they do what they want
the teacher).
Distracts from the task
(='s Reward depends on the vote, so my goal is
get a good vote)
alters the meaning of playing a role.
(= Are rewarded for studying and then the task is not the case
nothing)
WARNING!
... In addition to the concept of reinforcement as
bonus material
remember that the CURIOSITA'è a need to satisfy.

[loris]

ESERCITAZIONE: Based on the notions views
so far, what do you?
Compared to what topics addressed in class?
Compared to the possibilities of working in groups or individually?
Compared to the problem of who decides the objectives and procedures (e '
task by the teacher? Pupils have to decide? You can
collectively decide?)
Compared to how to deal with pupils who have a
specific expertise, a passion, an interest?
SUGGESTIONS ...
activity 'of the class must take into account the interests of
students and to propose new situations that stimulate curiosity.
decide together objectives and procedures
(= Meeting point between interests and teaching activities)
valorise who is an expert in a certain area.
build a class in which the groups are chosen freely.
Greeting all loris

[Hellen Harvey]

Now we are talking my language. I am a film crazy person and I will use film at any opportunity in my high school English classes. However, rare is the Hollywood film in my class as I see it as my mission to introduce documentary, foreign and independent films to my students. Students can sign out films from my extensive collection and they write reviews on films and books and post them on our blog.
When I talk about reading a film just as we study and analyze books, a gateway to reading is created for my students. Important ideas are found in both film and books and this is powerfully demonstrated when film is part of the reading experience.

Adding to the earlier observation in the first or second thread about the need for building a reader's experience and background knowledge, quality films and especially documentaries go a long way to build such knowledge. I have never regretted the time spent viewing a film in class as I see the rewards in motivation (invaluable) and shared experience. We can discuss and refer to the film's ideas and events in subsequent discussions, activities and readings.

I have a media literacy blog where I share effective films and documentaries with my English Department.

[Hellen Harvey]

Persepolis
I have had great success using this graphic novel in my Junior English classes. In an attempt to bring cultural understanding and the graphic novel experience, Persepolis fit perfectly. We read some articles about Iran's history and issues about the Muslim religion especially with reference to the decision by the French gov't to ban religious symbols from their schools. We debated this and compared it to our dress code issues.
Reading Persepolis was a real eye opener for my students. For many of my struggling readers it was the first book they read cover to cover. They admitted their eyes were opened to many stereotypes they had about Iran and Islam.

I am going to build on this experience next year by adding the Rick Steves' travelogue video on his visit to Iran -awesome!

[loris]

I congratulate you
great work