Over the past two decades, educational scholars have seen major shifts in how literacy is viewed.... more Over the past two decades, educational scholars have seen major shifts in how literacy is viewed. One of these shifts has been toward conceptualizing literacy as a set of social practices that people embody and value. To disrupt current definitions of literacy, the valued practices that keep those forms of literacy in place must change. We, the authors, have significantly changed our social practices to include personal, systematic, and continuous study of the arts, so much so that we identify both as literacy researchers and practicing artists. As such, our understanding of literacy has changed. This article presents our thinking as artists and literacy researchers about meaning making, including our ref lections on how working in the arts has impacted our perspectives on why the arts are significant to literacy practices. We do not suggest that we abandon what we already know about good language arts programs, but our frame is now different. We now ask, How might we understand literacy, not only through a literacy lens but also through an arts lens? What insights might be gleaned about literacy from careful study of one's social practices around the arts? As literacy researchers who are also practicing artists, we are developing a language to see differently; we have learned to "talk trade," a way of talking and creating within disciplines, such as art. In so doing, we have embodied call to "break with the taken-for-granted...and look through the lenses of various ways of knowing, seeing, and feeling in a conscious endeavor to impose different orders upon experience" (p. 5). As artists who happen to be literacy researchers, we are brought together into a studied conversation about how the arts help us notice aspects of literacy that we had ignored previously. Jerry's (third author) cartoon (Figure ) situates the three of us at Echo Point, a metaphorical space that acknowledges inf luences, or echoes, that have shaped us as literacy researchers and practicing artists, and offers us perspective on Copyright of Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy is the property of International Reading Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
in English language arts instruction is not difficult and can increase students' understanding an... more in English language arts instruction is not difficult and can increase students' understanding and motivation.
How do primary students construct understandings of the opposite sex? In what ways do these const... more How do primary students construct understandings of the opposite sex? In what ways do these constructions manifest in the visual texts created in literacy and language arts classrooms? Using visual discourse analysis (Albers, 2007) and scheme analysis as interpretive methods, we analyzed the visual texts created by 23 third grade students created at the end of a unit of study in which students explored gender stereotypes. Findings suggest the need for close readings of the graphic, structural, and semantic information conveyed by visual texts that children create in literacy and language arts classes.
Children's literature has been analyzed through a number of different theoretical lenses, includi... more Children's literature has been analyzed through a number of different theoretical lenses, including critical literacy, feminism, and multiculturalism. Yet, given the prominence that image plays in such literature, little if any work in literacy has analyzed children's literature from the perspective of art theory. This study first theorized how and why artists render visual representations as they do. It then used this theory to analyze images in Caldecott award-winning literature. Three findings emerged from the analysis: (a) image types cut across time, culture, and artists' rendering; (b) images embody stable representations of culture; and (c) images tend to render visual binaries and invite oppositional readings. Implications are discussed for developing and using a theory for the close reading of visual imagery in children's literature.
Over the past two decades, educational scholars have seen major shifts in how literacy is viewed.... more Over the past two decades, educational scholars have seen major shifts in how literacy is viewed. One of these shifts has been toward conceptualizing literacy as a set of social practices that people embody and value. To disrupt current definitions of literacy, the valued practices that keep those forms of literacy in place must change. We, the authors, have significantly changed our social practices to include personal, systematic, and continuous study of the arts, so much so that we identify both as literacy researchers and practicing artists. As such, our understanding of literacy has changed. This article presents our thinking as artists and literacy researchers about meaning making, including our ref lections on how working in the arts has impacted our perspectives on why the arts are significant to literacy practices. We do not suggest that we abandon what we already know about good language arts programs, but our frame is now different. We now ask, How might we understand literacy, not only through a literacy lens but also through an arts lens? What insights might be gleaned about literacy from careful study of one's social practices around the arts? As literacy researchers who are also practicing artists, we are developing a language to see differently; we have learned to "talk trade," a way of talking and creating within disciplines, such as art. In so doing, we have embodied call to "break with the taken-for-granted...and look through the lenses of various ways of knowing, seeing, and feeling in a conscious endeavor to impose different orders upon experience" (p. 5). As artists who happen to be literacy researchers, we are brought together into a studied conversation about how the arts help us notice aspects of literacy that we had ignored previously. Jerry's (third author) cartoon (Figure ) situates the three of us at Echo Point, a metaphorical space that acknowledges inf luences, or echoes, that have shaped us as literacy researchers and practicing artists, and offers us perspective on Copyright of Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy is the property of International Reading Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
in English language arts instruction is not difficult and can increase students' understanding an... more in English language arts instruction is not difficult and can increase students' understanding and motivation.
How do primary students construct understandings of the opposite sex? In what ways do these const... more How do primary students construct understandings of the opposite sex? In what ways do these constructions manifest in the visual texts created in literacy and language arts classrooms? Using visual discourse analysis (Albers, 2007) and scheme analysis as interpretive methods, we analyzed the visual texts created by 23 third grade students created at the end of a unit of study in which students explored gender stereotypes. Findings suggest the need for close readings of the graphic, structural, and semantic information conveyed by visual texts that children create in literacy and language arts classes.
Children's literature has been analyzed through a number of different theoretical lenses, includi... more Children's literature has been analyzed through a number of different theoretical lenses, including critical literacy, feminism, and multiculturalism. Yet, given the prominence that image plays in such literature, little if any work in literacy has analyzed children's literature from the perspective of art theory. This study first theorized how and why artists render visual representations as they do. It then used this theory to analyze images in Caldecott award-winning literature. Three findings emerged from the analysis: (a) image types cut across time, culture, and artists' rendering; (b) images embody stable representations of culture; and (c) images tend to render visual binaries and invite oppositional readings. Implications are discussed for developing and using a theory for the close reading of visual imagery in children's literature.
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