Final Project for Summer Semester- Picturebook

For any classmates who would like to see my picturebook, "Birds of a Feather", or read the analysis guide, here are those links:

"Birds of a Feather" Picture Book by Jared St. Martin Brown
Analysis Guide

Create a Picturebook (Week 8 Assignment)

Purpose- A Storybird Picturebook

My Storybird picturebook features the art of Nidhi Chanani.  I felt it was important to be consistent with my artwork choices, and there is no better way to do that than to stick with a single artist.  I found these images to be delightful and versatile.  The most effective images are found on page 3, in which we see a young woman chasing a will-o-the-wisp through a forest at night.  The woman is running but she appears happy, as if she is enjoying the thrill of discovery.  She is exhilarated.  This really takes the away the potential for negativity in interpreting the meaning of “secret” or “must discover,” which some may assume is about struggle.  In fact, smiling is used throughout the images.  On pages 1-3 the smiles provide a sense of joy.  On the final page we see a sense of contentment as she grins while looking toward the sky.  I am hoping that no one will assume that she has “arrived” at something final, but has merely discovered some secret that is just for her. 

Picturebook Review- Bink & Gollie

Nestled between the genre of picturebook and graphic novel, the Bink & Gollie tales by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee are geared toward young children and yet the artwork and unique storytelling make these books so interesting to adults.  This means they are perfect for those of us whose children require them to read a story aloud every single evening.  While Bink and Gollie entertain children with stories of friendship, community, and imagination, they transport the adults back to the type of world created by those master-craft comics of our youth such as Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes.  So far, the authors have released three books, but I will focus this review on the original, simply titled Bink & Gollie.

Characterization

The story is set in a world that is just slightly different from our own.  Two friends, whose relationship is rather sisterly, live at the top and bottom of tree just outside of town.  Bink, the younger one, lives at the bottom in a cute ramshackle cottage.  Like her hair and clothing, it is decorated haphazardly.  At the top of the tree lives the adolescent, Gollie, in a tree house that looks like it was designed by Frank Lloydd Wright.  Inside it is decorated with mid-century modern artwork and furniture.  Midway between the two, on a branch, is a park bench where they sometimes meet, perhaps symbolically, in the middle.  At the bottom tree, they share a mailbox.  In this world, neither Bink nor Gollie seem to have parents.

Bink is all of the unbridled passion of childhood.  She is obsessed with food, and she does not regulate her emotions.  If she is lonely, she tries to do something about it.  If she upset, she expresses that without shame.  She is quite simple… however, according the authors, she has dreams about Andy Warhol.

Gollie, on the other hand, is slightly more complicated.  She exists in that weird place in which older children find themselves, between adulthood and childhood.  As her short haircut indicates, she is attempting to look grown up, however the tiny bow shows that she still retains some juvenile qualities.  As we see in Gollie, throughout the book she tries to appear mature and wise, but inside she is attracted to kid’s stuff.  When she is alone we may find her sitting and reading like an adult, and other times she find her playing a game of pretend.  This blend seems to explain her attachment to the youthful Bink.  Around her, Gollie can both exercise her adulthood by providing sisterly guidance, while indulging her childhood by taking Bink to the fair or sharing a giant stack of pancakes.

Young children are likely to connect to both characters.  They can identify with Bink’s behavior while taking comfort in the older sister appeal of Gollie.  I imagine that many children will connect with both characters as they resolve conflicts and solve problems.

Images

The images, by Tony Fucile, are perfection.  There is a sort of minimalistic clutter to each image.  Fucile incorporates incredible detail in ink sketches, yet only colors certain elements in each.  This gives the reader an impression of a very busy world, while showing us that only certain elements in each image matter to the story.  Some of the pages are arranged like comic book panels, with white gutters framing the pictures.  Others are full page spreads which allow the reader to dive into this world. 

At least half of the story comes from the pictures.  In fact, the authors do not spend any time at all explaining the setting or the characters inner thoughts and feelings.  That must be inferred from the pictures.  Everything from fashion sense, to facial expressions, to body language in the images keep the readers informed about each character. 

Text

The text also employs this sort of complex minimalism.  The story is told primarily through snippets of dialogue.  Notice that every line is surrounded by quotation marks.  Sometimes we are told who is speaking, and other times we must use the picture to infer.  The text hovers inside each picture, almost like a comic dialogue bubble, only the does not exist.  As a writer myself, I find myself delighting as much in which parts of the story are not included as much as those that are.  The stories can span only a few hours, or even an entire season, and the text provides no explanation.  However, the tension between the modes of text and image are so balanced, that the reader can infer everything important.  This keeps the story moving, and forces the reader to participate in the creation of Bink and Gollie’s world.

I don’t think I could like a picturebook more than this.

Bink & Gollie Official Website

Week 6 Reading and Discussion

Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne is styled in a cartoon-ized Social Realism but has many of the characteristics of a post-modern picture book.  It tells its story through multiple narrators, and uses four “interconnected narrative strands differentiated by shifts in temporal and spatial relationships, and/or shifts in narrative point of view” (Serafini, 2014).  In addition to these, Voices in the Park uses a typographical effect by changing the font for each narrator.  According to Frank Serafini, these are all indicative of a post-modern picture book.

The book also utilizes several picturebook codes.  It uses the code of position and size by placing the image at the strong place on the page.  The pictures always sit the left, so as the catch the eye first before the text is read.  The book uses the code of frame by placing the image in a box that we must look through into another world.  The text lingers in the margin land outside of the picture where we will notice it after we have explored visual elements.  Finally, the code of color draws us in to see the image and “read” it before we read the black and white text.  The color is used to set the majority of the mood on the page, and the text relies heavily upon it to convey the story.

Speaking of the text relying upon the image, like many picturebooks, Voices in the Park lets the image tell more than half of the story.  Whereas a textbook or a newspaper page tend to use pictures to supplement a page full of text that could otherwise stand alone, a picturebook could not stand without its images.  The emphasis of picture and text are reversed.  The picture tells the story and could almost stand alone without the text.  A careful observer might infer the entire story of Voices in the Park without any text at all.  This is how it should be, otherwise the text and the images might actually render one another superfluous or redundant. 

In structure, the book is arranged into four different chapters, narrated by four different characters, who are arranged around a map of a park where all of the stories will intersect.  As the reader travels through the stories, we see that each image is positioned at the left, and is filled with color and movement.  To supplement the story we see a text narration in the margin outside of each page.  By the end, of the book we are able to use both image and text to see how each story has intersected.

Ideologically, we may notice that the book deals with how communal spaces, like a park, and the interactions that happen there can provide some healthy alleviation for the burdens caused by urban isolation.  Both people and dogs find some release and encouragement from what had begun as a very bland and lonely day.  The reader is left to conclude that people (and dogs) need other people… even strangers at times.

References

Serafini, F. (2014). Reading the visual: An introduction to multimodal literacy. New York: Teachers College Press.

Analyzing Visual Images and Design In Picturebooks

Analysis of Voices In The Park by Anthony Browne

1. Where is the text located? Within the image? Separated by borders or white space, Why?

The words in this picturebook are located to the right and they are separated by white space.  This is consistent throughout the book, and I think this is make the picture come first in the way the eye reads (which in English speaking culture is from left to right).

2. Are the illustrations double page spreads, single page images, collages, overlapping images, or portraits?

The illustrations seem to be single page images that share the page with block of text.

3. Consider the series of images in the picturebook. Do the images change over the course of the book? Do they get bigger, smaller, change?

The images are consistent in size.  The majority of them contain an animated element, and some sound effects.

Analysis of Page from Voices In The Park by Anthony Browne

1. What is fore-grounded and in the background?

The fore-ground features an anthropomorphic ape person, sitting in a chair.  He is wearing the clothes of a working class man.  The background is mostly white, but it contains his shadow which is cast from the light of a television.  We cannot see the television.  It is implied.

2. Consider the path your eyes follow as you approach the image. What catches your eye first? Why is that element salient?

The first thing that catches your eye is the ape character in the foreground.  He presents about 90% of the emotion conveyed by this page.  His facial expression and body language show his feelings even before you read the text.

3. What colors dominate the image? What effect does this have on you as reader?

This picture is filled with the blues, both literally and metaphorically.  The characters clothes, and his giant shadow are blue.  And since we tend to think of melancholy as “blue” in color, this helps convey the emotion.

4. Consider the use of white (negative) space. Are the illustrations framed or full bleed? How does this position you as a viewer?

The text is separated by white space.  There is a clear gulf between the image and the words, and this helps to make the image come first.  There also seems to be a pause between noticing the pictures and noticing the words.

5. What is the reality value or level of abstraction? Are the images life-like or stick figures?

For cartoon characters, they are lifelike.  I find this character to be particularly realistic because of his clothes, and body pose.

6. Are there any recurring patterns in the images?

Everyone in the story is a human-like gorilla (with human arms).  They all seem to live in a 1950’s style New York City.

7. Are there any anomalous elements? Things that stick out, or seem out of place? Are these important to consider?

I didn’t find any anomalous elements.  I felt the design was pretty consistent throughout.

8. What is the artist trying to get you to look at through leading lines, colors, contrast, gestures, lighting?

I think the artist is trying to get you to notice the facial expressions and body language of the characters before you notice anything else.  The illustrated characters dominate the page.

9. Are there any recurring symbols or motifs in the images?

There seems to be a dog in every picture.  The dogs seem to represent freedom and the draw of the outdoors.  The dogs are part of the reason each character visits the park, and they help as a catalyst to heal some of the depression in the story.

10. Consider the style or artistic choices? Are they appropriate, and how do they add to the meanings of the picturebook?

Turning people into animals is common convention that can make even somewhat serious stories palatable for children. 

11. How are the images framed? Are there thick borders or faded edges?

This particular image is not framed by any lines.

12. Consider the setting of the story. How is this realized in the images? Realistically? Metaphorically?

The setting (a fictitious city) are realized in some skillful artwork.  I think they come across very realistically, even though the artist has added a ton of activity to some scenes.

13. Consider size and scale. What is large? Why are certain elements larger than others? Does this add to meanings of power, control?

Usually the characters are the largest elements in the picture.  This causes you to focus on the people before the background or the text.

14. Consider the viewers point of view. Do characters directly gaze or address the viewer? Are the characters close up or distanced? How does point of view add to relationships with the characters?

The characters do not fully acknowledge the reader, even though they speak in first person.  It is almost as if each character is speaking to his or herself.

Reading and Discussion 5

Reading Reaction

Chapter 3

“As society moves away from the dominance of written language texts, we are also moving from the printed page to the electronic screen (Kres, 2010).  Both of these changes, from language to image and from page to screen, represent fundamental shifts in how we perceive the world and communicate meanings, and the modes and resources available for representing what we know” (Serafini, 2014, p. 30).

I completely agree with this, however, I think we will never drop word-only texts completely… even in art, just like we will never drop image-only work.  This is because people recognize that there is value in sticking to one mode once in a while.  Think about this:  What do people always say “the book is better than the movie”?  It is because the book has reached us through a single mode, and we have used our own minds to provide the rest.  The film has reached us in a multimodal way that leaves the “viewers” mind with less to do.  Sometimes we still want to be engaged by a single mode… other times we do not.  We didn’t need to give up walking just because the bicycle was invented.  Each can serve its own purpose and provide enjoyment in its own way.  However, I must admit that the invention of the car has caused some people to give up both altogether…  How does today’s communication technology fit into this analogy.  I will have to wait and see.

Chapter 4

“As digital technologies make producing and disseminating multimodal ensembles easier, changes in the way people use these texts and the power of relations between producer and consumer are continually evolving…” (Serafini, 2014, p. 47).

Certainly, technology has made it easier to publish, to vote, to create… to do a lot of things.  I think the biggest change in relationship between creator and audience has been the closeness of connection.  I can sort of “follow” my favorite songwriters in almost real time as they release songs and videos, accompanied by e-mail and social media notifications, and I can comment on their work in a way that they could read if they wanted to.  They, in turn, can do the same to what I create.

Chapter 5

“Artists use visual symbols and motifs to convey meanings beyond the literal or denotative level” (Serafini, 2014, p. 61).

This is simple and true.  The sooner we can get students to start seeing motifs and symbols in what they view, the sooner we can get them to understand that those were put there on purpose to help add a layer of meaning to the text.

Photo by ExpeditionMedicine

CONTENT ANALYSIS

What do you see?

Here I see two middle-aged men.  They are Toureg, nomadic people from the Sahara. One is wearing a wrist watch, and holding a stick.  The other looks directly at the camera and his face is partially covered.

What is the image about?

This just seems to be an “action shot” in which the two men were caught on film in the course of their day.

Are there people in the image? What are they doing? How are they presented?

To two people are presented in a very non-contrived fashion.  This appears to be a quick picture, and if I were to guess, I would say they are mounted on camelback, and the photographer is on the ground below.  Toureg people ride camels, by the way.

Can the image be looked at different ways? Explain how the image might be interpreted from two diffferent socio-cultural perpsecitves. Which perpective is dominate? 

I feel that this image is likely to be interpreted a number of ways.  Americans tend to lump many people who wear African or Middle-Eastern dress into a single group.  The head and face coverings, and the robes and scarves are foreign to the everyday American experience.  I actually think many Americans might interpret their style as “old world” or indicative of a “developing country.”  Touregs, however, are still nomadic by choice, and they do use many forms of modern technology (electric guitars, motor vehicles, watches, etc.).

How effective is the image as a visual message?

This picture is effective at telling the story, albeit, one that must be inferred by the viewer.

VISUAL ANALYSIS

How is the image composed? What is in the background, and what is in the foreground?

The background is a clear blue sky.  The foreground contains the two figures described above.

What are the most important visual elements in the image? How can you tell?

The most important visual elements in the photo are the eyes of the two men.  Both of “smiling eyes.”  One looks at the camera and one looks in the distance. 

How is color used?

The various blue hues stood out to me.  I believe the photographer isolated the two men before the sky to show the overpowering blue.  I feel it was an “artistic” decision to do so.

Can the image be looked at different ways?

I think the image can be looked at in a number of ways, but like any portrait it is up to the view.  Very little is being conveyed for emotional manipulation.

What meanings are conveyed by design choices?

The meaning I get here is that people of various lifestyles can lead happy and healthy lives.  Nomadic people do not need to be moved into suburbia.

References

Serafini, F. (2014). Reading the visual: An introduction to multimodal literacy. New York: Teachers College Press.

Illuminated Text

My Three Brain Networks

My Three Brain Networks

Recognition Network

Items I recognized:

Arm Chair, Dining Room Chairs, 7 Framed Pictures, A Bouquet of Flowers, Apron, Dress, Dress, Overcoat, Shoes, Books, Piano, Child's Boots

Strategic Network

How old are the people in this picture?

6 people are between 25-35 years old. The child is 9 or 10.

What historical period and geographical location do you think this picture represents? Why?

These people are in Victorian era, America.

How might the people be feeling in this picture?

The woman is stunned that the man has returned from a long absence, and everyone wants to see the reults of her emotions.

Affective Network

What in particular strikes you about this picture?

The woman standing up seems struck by the man's entrance.

Note something about yourself that might have led you to focus on these particular aspects:

The man is watching the woman, as if waiting for her reaction as she notices him. I have often returned from a long trip to be greeted on my return.

Reading and Discussion Week #4

1. A quote I liked this week: “Because of changes in technology, our society will most likely not go back to a time when written texts are distributed without accompanying visual images” (Serafini, 2014).  This idea really helped me realize that print dominated media was probably just limited phase.  Throughout about readings, it occurred to me that many ancient cultures used multimodal texts in various, and that it was the printing press that caused the mass produced picture-less page to emerge.  However, thanks to technology, we are gravitating toward style of hieroglyphics, or illuminated books.  Perhaps combining words with symbols, pictures, or even music is a more human approach.  Maybe it’s how we’ve always wanted to write and read.

2. Why should educators care about multimodal texts?  To quote Serafini on this one, “In order to support students’ development of the skills necessary for success in modern times, teachers need to develop units of study that focus attention on these ensembles and create lessons that help students make sense of these complex texts” (2014).  Serafini is correct.

3. How is your definition of literacy different or similar to the definition of literacy presented in the book? Or how did the reading change or expand your definition of literacy?  My definition of literacy used to be “Students can read proficiently at grade level.”  It has now changed to say that it is being proficient in communicating, understanding, or doing something in a particular context.  My great-grandparents would have been considered highly literate in their agricultural lifestyle by this definition of literacy.

4. How can visual literacy support the development of the kinds of reading and writing we want children to learn through schooling?  Visual literacy can help students make critical assessments of the visual elements of a media message.  This gives them a greater advantage  because they become more aware of why and how a media message was created.

5.An online resource: Check out this article and its embedded videos.  It relates to our reading by attempting to give teachers some practical tips to help break the ice on visual media discussions- Edutopia- 10 Visual Literacy Strategies

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6. An image that relates: 

Creative Commons License

Just one more time, I wanted to take us back to remember the visual nature of ancient languages.  This meant something to the people of its time and culture.  Those who understood it were literate.

Replaced by a Computer

I chose to respond to this week's media collage prompt.  I will try to let the image speak for itself, but I'd like to point out that I used some metaphor and metonomy.  Metaphorically, I used some "cookie-cutter" looking teachers next to a blackboard to express the limits of top-down lecture classes.  The red "X" represent the concept of "deletion."  Each of these teachers can be replaced by a computer.  However, there is still a human element to teaching via computer, and in the center I featured a teacher who wisely uses digital media to connect to variety of other students and teachers.  The metonomy here is that the red arrows represent connectivity.  All images were found on Flickr used by permission through CC license.  I only used images that were allowed to be altered.

Weekly Reading #3

1. A quote from the text:

“Moreover, assessment is very much about context and needs to take into account the particular circumstances of the course, the students, and the teacher, as well as the possibilities afforded by the assignment, the modes, and the medium. Even if it were possible, then, it would be unwise to apply a set of assessment criteria to all types of assignments at all places” (Sorapure).

Madeleine Sorapure’s webtext, “Between Modes: Assessing Student New Media Compositions offers us a new way to begin assessing multimodal creations, primarily because none existed.  As she points out, it is not enough to use the principles of graphic design to assess all media compositions.  That takes away from the uniqueness of graphic design, and fails to recognizes the uniqueness of many other forms.  As the quote above points out, each type of media needs to be judged on its own terms.

2. My history with multimodal assignments:

I have asked students to create presentations in my class, and have set some light criteria for creating those in Powerpoint and Prezi.  One of my favorite assignments of the year consists of asking students to rethink the history of the idea of “race” in America.  This assignment is connected to a reading of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and to some scientific, historical, and social studies discussion found on the PBS webpage: “Race the Power of an Illusion.”  Although some students work hard to create some interesting presentations, I find myself judging them solely on content… and this seems a pity, because why give them a presentation assignment and then assess it like a report.  I am ready incorporate some of the suggestions in Sorapure’s article.

3. An example of metonymy:

CC License

This artwork by Shepard Fairey shows his mastery of creating tension between modes.  The image of the sad or prayerful young Native American, next to the background of historical imagery, next to the words themselves send the message in a powerful way.  This is a great example.

4. An example of metaphor:

CC License

This example of metaphor is not as powerful, but still I can't but help but make connections between this and life.  The single streetlight remains dark at dusk, while all those in the background have already come on.  There is an anxiety to the image, and sense of sadness.  I wouldn't hesitate to use this image next to some text in a presentation to communicate something specific to the audience.

5. My takeaway from these readings:

I have already started to realize that I need to put some more time into creating a strategy for assessing multimodal presentations and into helping students make self-assessments.

References

Sorapure, M. (n.d.). Between Modes: Assessing Student New Media Compositions. . Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/10.2/coverweb/sorapure/between_modes.pdf

Understanding Metaphor and Metonymy

I tend to begin my semester in high school English with a discussion on metaphor.  Most upperclassmen come equipped with the textbook definition of metaphor as “literary device” so they think they know it.  That is, until I start using music, speeches, and everyday conversation to help them see how metaphor is infused into almost everything we hope to express.  And since metaphor is so pervasive, I actually ask them to scour the world and look for examples of writing with no metaphor.  It is a challenging assignment, and it often only by accident that a student will stumble upon that rare song that is entirely literal in all that it has to say.  In poetry, I think, one must go to the work of William Carlos Williams to find a poem without metaphor… yet even then, it is hard to say if his literal, real-world images are meant to be symbolic of something else.    Once a student’s eyes are opened to metaphor, they begin to see it everywhere.  As an example, I went back and emboldened each word or phrase with metaphoric qualities.  I did not mean to use them.  It’s just that metaphor is infused into common prose.

Where this assignment has challenged me is to begin considering the prominence of metonymy.  This added a new layer to my thinking of symbols in language.  Throughout the reading, it suddenly occurred to me just how metonymic early written languages were.  Like cave paintings… and later, hieroglyphics.  I think of Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and how he was able to look at the ancient pictures and still interpret the universal meaning.  How does a reader of cave paintings, hieroglyphics, or an urn compare to today’s ‘reading’ of the symbols and words in digital media?  Is the internet a return to this kind of communication?

Flickr CC License

To answer our discussion prompts on this topic: 

What is metaphor? Give example from the reading.

Metaphor is when one term is linked to another through analogy.  Metaphors often show or imply a connection between two seemingly unlike things, and yet the reader is often able to understand the connection.  Our reading uses the term “leech” to describe a friend who always borrows money.  We understand that the friend consumes money like the leech consumes blood.

What is metonymy? give example from the reading. 

Metonymy is when a wordless symbol is substituted for a word, idea, organization, etc.  Our reading used the example of the Nike ‘swoosh.’

How did you apply the concepts of metaphor or metonymy? How well did you apply them? Give an example from your presentation of information.

Although my presentation did not contain a great deal of metaphor or metonymy, I did use a few images such as two children dressed in blue and gray Civil War uniforms to represent violence.  And as for the soundtrack, it was chosen for its similarity to video game “chip tunes” to help represent the overall theme of “Learning Through Play.”  By no means did I “ace the test” of metaphor use, but the few metaphoric moments in my presentation were intentional.

Review 3 of your peers presentation of information and  identify a good example of Metonymy and Metaphor. Take a screen shot of the example upload it to your blog and explain why it is a good example.

 This example of Metonymy by Jaime Ford covers a lot of information without using written words.  I can see that the over 8 million STEM workers of the near future will work with genetics, astronomy, chemistry, geology, and technology.  This is so much better than a list.  Ford’s entire presentation uses this technique wisely.

I find Lady Gaga fascinating.  Here Ashley Phillips pairs images of the pop singer in a sort of political drag outfit next to an American flag, with rainbow colors behind here.  As a culture, we get the use of the color scheme with the term equal rights, because the LGBT equality movement has used the rainbow as a symbol.  This is a good use of metonymy on Phillips’s part.

This image from Candi Thomas’s presentation stood out to me.  The two images sum up “Hotel Life” without having to explain why that can be a challenging part of being a motocross racer.  The carpet in the image on the left serves as a metonymic reminder of what hotels look, feel, and smell like.

References

Ford. J. (2014, June 1). Multimodal Presentation on STEM Education. [Web log message]. Retrieved on June 7, 2014 from http://biologyitgrowsonyou.blogspot.com/2014/06/multimodal-presentation-on-stem.html

Orden, A. (n.d.). metaphor and metonymy. Retrieved on June 5, 2014 from http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/metaphormetonym.htm

Philips, A. (2014, June 2). Lady Gaga. [Web log message]. Retrieved on 
June 7, 2014 from http://ashleyphillips2504.blogspot.com/2014/06/multimodal-imformation-presentation.html

Thomas, C. (2014, May 28). Motocross: Multimodal. [Web log message]. Retrieved on 
June 7, 2014 from http://sportmotomom1.blogspot.com/2014_05_01_archive.html

PLAY!- A Multimodal Presentation

Multimodal Presentation File

Self-Assessment of Presentation 6/7/14

Readability

Is the typeface attractive and readable?

Yes.

Are there any statistics or other data that would be easier to read in a chart, graph, or table?

Not many.  I could include some data on brain development, but I will only do that if it doesn’t complicate the message too much.

Is high-contrast text, including boldface and all caps, brief enough to be legible?

Yes.  One or two slides are problematic due to a white on light color issue, but I can correct that.

Images and Other Graphics

What do images and other graphics contribute? Do they illustrate a concept? highlight an important point? show something that is difficult to describe in words alone? If the images and other graphics are only decorative, consider removing them.

The images are paired with each concept in order to give some real-world example to the term on the slide.

Are images and other graphics the right size—big enough to read or to see the important detail?

The images were expanded to dominate the slide.  I am not sure if that idea works for the viewer, but I like it.

Do images have an obvious focus? Will readers see the part that matters? If not, consider if you can crop the image.

I am not sure how other viewers will react to each image.  I intended for each image to illustrate the concept in the way that clear, but I will have to see how my audience feels.

Are the charts, graphs, maps, or other graphics clear and informative?

I only used images for this.

If color is used, is it appropriate to the audience and purpose? Does color direct emphasis where it belongs? Are too many colors used?

All of the images are brightly colored, and were chosen based on that in part.

Content Learning

How do all the formal elements, pictorial as well as textual and symbolic, contribute to your emotional response or intellectual understanding of the concept?

This presentation was created to simulate the joy of play.  It is my hope that the fun images, and exhilarating youthful music will remind adults of childhood while expressing the Psychology of “Learning Through Play.”

Weekly Reading #2

every trend becomes history, eventually
Photo by drakegoodman Flickr CC license
Link to Image

I would like to publicly announce that I am done with the idea that digital media is corrupting our communication skills.  While this change did not come about solely as a result of this week’s readings, the articles did contribute to some ideas that have been developing in my mind over the past few years of teaching.  I came to school a curmudgeon of language.  As an English teacher, I felt it was my job to convince kids to put down the laptop computers, iPods, and video games (it was 2008- no smart phones yet), and to get them to write the way that human beings are supposed to.  However, as technology changed, and as tablets and smart phones entered the scene, and as more news, television, radio (podcasts) and film went online, I started to notice two things: 1) Communication through digital media seemed to be enriching my life. 2) The struggling readers and writers in my class were not necessarily those who carried iPads, or used Twitter, or played Fruit Ninja, or were frequent users of Instagram.  In fact, there seemed to be very little correlation between a kid’s fondness for his iPhone, and his ability to write a research paper.  And anecdotally, I feel that the students who are the least developed in their traditional writing skills are those who also do not engage with digital media that often.  Think of your struggling writers… Are they adept at using the internet?  Probably not.

Once I realized these two things, my attitude started to change.  Perhaps it was only fitting that I stumbled upon a few digital media classes in FSU’s online campus that put me in touch with the sources to help explain much of this.  Two books, Critical Digital Literacies as Social Praxis by Avilia and Pandya, and Video Games and Learning by Kurt Squire were big eye openers for me, and put into words the trends and ideas I was observing.  As for this week’s readings, I think the NCTE research brief Adolescent Literacy is a good summary that many English teachers will trust.  I plan to post the section “Research-Based Recommendations For Effective Literacy Instruction” in my plan book for anyone who wants to evaluate it.  Lately, I have been incorporating the new definitions of reading and writing into my English class lessons, and it may help me to back up my ideas. 

The best thing that teachers can do to make reading and writing in school a more positive thing is to teach kids that there are ALL KINDS OF WRITING and that EACH MODE OF WRITING HAS IT’S OWN GUIDELINES.  Sadly, many youth come to high school thinking that a paragraph has five sentences, and that all “school writing” is the same.  They are unaware that they themselves can write about subjects they like, in genres like, in a unique creative way.  Additionally, many young people are unaware that the rules that apply to an argumentative essay may not apply to a narrative essay, or that the rules that apply to history report do not apply to a newspaper article, or that the rules that apply to an informative essay do not apply to a creative short story.  We need to teach them that they can write music reviews, movie reviews, editorials, poems, short short stories, long developed fiction, nonfiction narratives, blog posts, etc.  And when we teach them these things they need to learn some of the traditional guidelines that go with each.  When my students discover this, it is liberating to their whole way of thinking about and describing the world.

And let me just be clear, by “writing,” I mean that they will often create in the language of the day- with pictures, color, etc.  I like to use the following video, entitled “WORDS” by Will Hoffman and Daniel Mercadante to help teens start to recognize the connection between words, images, and context.  These two filmmakers are sometimes credited as “Everynone” and that is the name of their website.  I first encountered this video through the WNYC Radiolab podcast entitled “Words” and I highly recommend it.  A word of caution about this film: The Radiolab version of this film is edited for use with general audiences.  The unedited version of the video from Everynone’s website contains some mild adult content… So I wouldn’t use it with young students.  My classes are 11^th and 12^th grade.  

Digital Media Effects on Conventional Reading and Writing Practice

It’s difficult to get some folks to believe the claims made by Josh Karp’s article “Does Digital Media Make Us Bad Writers?” or Motoko Rich’s article “Online, R U Really Reading?”, especially if they are in my profession- teaching.  Even when a prestigious linguist like John McWhoter speaks in defense of text lingo, it’s hard to keep teachers from rolling their eyes.  Years ago many people sided with the early notion that social media, and other communication technology would bring about the end of what had been centuries of stable, sophisticated  English, and they have never bothered to take another look at contemporary trends or at history itself. 

The first thing to remember is that our rosy mental picture of history and “the good old days” is often incomplete.  This goes for language too.  Sometimes people read Hawthorne or Melville and make the mistake of thinking that this is how people used to communicate.  Yet, as Stanford professor, Andrea Abernathy Lundsford says “There never was a golden age where everybody could write well,’ says Lunsford. ‘Writing is hard” (Karp, 2010).  We should keep in mind that the great writers were exceptional in their time, that they were writing for their day, their culture, and telling their stories in a way that were making up as they went along.  Even our hallowed Shakespeare was “winging it.”  Many scholars and critics have shown that Shakespeare made up words, invented suffixes, and threw together some new terms and phrases to express himself to his culture in his time.  He changed the language for the 1600s.  Today, the changes continue.  “It was very clear as we entered the new millennium that writing was undergoing really, really profound changes, probably more so than in the last 2,500 years,’ Lunsford says. Writing, she says, is ‘a plastic art.  Writing always changes given the context. It molds itself to the changes” (Karp, 2010).  Just as The Bard’s context was the Renaissance of art of and philosophy, ours is the advent of unprecedented communication technology.  The changes will affect our language, and our language will contribute to the change.

One of the most notable changes at this time is what reading is, and how it is done.  “Reading” is no longer just looking at words on a page.  It is words, pictures, and color presented in a variety of formats.  While this change tends to disturb traditionalist it doesn’t frighten the youth.  “Young people ‘aren’t as troubled as some of us older folks are by reading that doesn’t go in a line,’ said Rand J. Spiro, a professor of educational psychology at Michigan State University who is studying reading practices on the Internet. ‘That’s a good thing because the world doesn’t go in a line, and the world isn’t organized into separate compartments or chapters” (Rich, 2008).  Reading will continue to follow this trend, and writing will too. 

Thank heaven, then, for rational thinkers like John McWhorter.  A writer of great books about the history of English (that are entertaining even for we non-linguists), McWhorter approaches the whole topic with an informed perspective.  In his 2013 TED Talk, McWhorter cites many examples of critics who declared that English was about to die, before showing us that text lingo is not the death of language, but a type of language.  It’s a code that some switch to in order to communicate effectively within a certain context.  He is right.  Did Morse Code or telegrams ruin English?  Did the creation of ASL ruin English?

For a while now I have found myself more likely to side with the “Web Evangelist” side of the issue as opposed to the traditionalist harbingers of doom.  I do not believe that modern technology is destroying people’s ability to read and write, but rather has demanded of us a more engaged mind when interacting with the world.  We forget that it’s only recently that the general public had access to mass produced reading material, or the time to even read it.  It is likely that your great-great-great-great-grandfather and grandmother were working by the sweat of their brows from dusk to dawn, and weren’t doing a great deal of reading by candlelight each week.  While they were intelligent in their own way, and in their own culture, they were not nearly as well-read as the average twenty-something today.  When printing technology improved and changed publishing, more people read and the variety of reading material increased.  Thanks to digital publishing, this is happening again. 

So to my teacher colleagues who are concerned that this is the beginning of the end, I say think it over one more time.

References

Karp, J. (2010, January 26). Does Digital Media Make Us Bad Writers? | Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning. Does Digital Media Make Us Bad Writers?. Retrieved May 25, 2014, from http://spotlight.macfound.org/featured-stories/entry/does-digital-media-make-us-bad-writers

McWhorter, J. (2003, February 1). Txtng is killing language. JK!!!. John McWhorter:. Retrieved May 25, 2014, from http://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk

Rich, M. (2008, July 26). Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?. The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2014, from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Introduction

I was born in West Virginia and have lived there all my life except for eight years in which I lived in different places throughout Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona working for the USAF.  Although I loved, much about my life in Phoenix, AZ, I knew that, for me, West Virginia was the right place to raise children.  I wanted my kids to be barefoot in the country, climbing trees, and “catchin’ crawdads in the crick” just the way I used to.  So, after those adventurous years in the Southwest, I moved back to Appalachia in hopes of becoming a school teacher and starting a family. I met Albani my first day back in WV and we were married ten months later.  This is our tenth year together and we now have three children.  These days, I teach English and Theatre at Bridgeport High School and I truly love my job.

I have recently switched to the Digital Media & and New Literacies graduate program because I found that I was enjoying the classes associated with that major, and I felt that, in them, I was encountering ideas that were new to me and beneficial to my own students.  I signed up for this class because I wanted to continue my own journey into some of these “cutting-edge” ideas about how digital media has become a part of our daily lives and education.  To some, my interest in this may seem to conflict with the love of nature that I expressed in the previous paragraph, but to me it does not.  To me, an ideal society would balance respect for the natural world with the development of technology, and would allow one to guide the other.

This video entitled "Literacy is Like Velcro" reflects my current attitude toward literacy.  I would be interested to see what my classmates and instructor have to say about it: Literacy Is Like Velcro

This Dilbert comic by Scott Adams illustrates one attitude that many educators have toward digital media:

Here Dilbert's boss reflects the current state of technology in many schools: Let's just acquire the technology so that we can say we have it, so that we look good to the public... We don't need to have a real educational goal or use for it.