So much more than “just” pictures

After a great discussion about the arts in the English classroom tonight via #engchat on Twitter, I have to admit I was rather shocked at reading this post discussing a NYT piece on the “loss” of picture books.

Now, you must understand…I am a big “visual” person. After all, my studies for my MA in English centered around rhetoric and composition focusing on visual rhetoric. However, it’s not just because I feel strongly about the visual that I see a big problem with the fact that picture books are slowly fading away.

There’s so much behind what goes into the picture itself, even advanced college students could analyze all that goes into one tiny picture. Furthermore, I have even personally used graphic novels to help me understand things better (i.e. Persepolis and Buddha for Beginners). And if picture books help promote literacy, why would we not encourage our youth to take advantage? (Because in reality picture books are much more “adult” than most realize.)

 

NCTE Day #4

As many of you all know, I am very interested in multiliteracies, specifically involving the “visual” element. Thus, it was only appropriate that I make my way to a session about using visuals!

Some of the important things I walked away with include the following:

• struggling readers can still “read” books through images –> then the words fall into place
• teachers need to help their students take time to read images (think: picture book, graphic novel, advertisements, signs)

Furthermore, if you don’t think that the visual can be beneficial in your classroom, think about these ideas:

• image arrangement and what that tells the reader
• materials that make up the images and how they can help tell the story
• movement across the page
• art and typeface

We need to use and develop a language of pictures to help students