Reading Images Part 2: A picture is worth 1,000 words (What Visual Literacy Looks Like)

Reading Images Part 2: A picture is worth 1,000 words (What Visual Literacy Looks Like)

Jim Burke’s chapter on visual images in Illuminating Texts is fascinating! There is so much exciting and interesting information on images and visual literacy that the chapter will warrant at least three posts! The information is thrilling as for me as a teacher but I also think the idea of images as language will captivate students.

This is part 2 of 3.

Burke writes, and we as teachers know, that everyone thinks differently. Many people think in pictures and can understand abstract ideas when they are illustrated and they can see what the idea looks like.

He quotes Temple Grandin, “I think in pictures. Words are a second language to me.” He also describes that physicist Stephen Hawking developed “an entire lexicon of shapes and images for himself, a geometric vocabulary through which he could describe the world he spent his time trying to understand. Vincent Van Gogh tried to describe his style of thinking to his brother in a letter. He wrote, “Really, we [artists] can speak only through our paintings.”

Burke relates this to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, Howard Gardner discusses, in depth, Van Gogh and other artists. Their intelligence is “special” which is “the capacity to perceive the visual world accurately to perform transformations and modifications upon one’s initial perceptions and to be able to re-create physical stimuli.’”

Burke goes on to quote Donald Hoffman, author of Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See. Hoffman says, “Vision is not merely a matter of passive perception, it is an intelligent process of active construction. What you see is, invariably, what your visual intelligence constructs.” Burke explains that this means “to see is to read, or, to paraphrase Shakespeare, all the world is a text and we are merely readers of it.”

We’re constantly encountering images. Images can be used to:

• Describe
• Explain
• Narrate
• Persuade

Examples include:

Photographs of the scientific process which explain the process (textbook pages)

Stained glass windows, which tell a historical, cultural story (like the windows at Chartres)

Photographs of a natural disaster that describes the scale and nature of the disaster (like the BP oil spill, the tornado in Joplin, MO or the earthquake in Japan)

Countless of advertisements, in which people use images to persuade us about ourselves and their products.

Burke also discusses the book Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design by Kress and van Leeuwen. “The book’s guiding principle is that we should teach children to recognize the choices authors (which her includes artists, Webmasters, mathematicians, scientists, journalists) make and then realize the consequences of those decisions insofar as they change the meaning of text or affect the reader. It is through conscious and unconscious use of this grammatical sense that we convey, and, as readers, discern meanings and motivations of not only the author but also the characters within the text, as well as ourselves.”

Visual literacy has been defined as follows:

From the beginnings of human culture, visual awareness has been a key element to communication. Just as information conveyed by the written world holds a significance for humanity in the 20th century, the symbols of early cave paintings held a deep significance for the artists and cultures that produced them. Over time these symbols and meanings changed into the alphabets of the world of today, which are the basis for verbal literacy.

To be verbally literate, one must posses and be able to manipulate the basic components of written language: the letters, words, spelling, grammar, syntax. With the mastery of these elements of written communication, the possibilities of verbal expression are endless. Visual literacy must operate within the same boundaries. Just as there are components and common meaning for the elements of verbal literacy, elements and common meaning exist for the elements of visual literacy.

The fundamentals of all visual communication are its basic elements; the compositional source for all kinds of visual materials, messages, objects, experiences…

The elements are summarized in the following list:

• the dot [the most basic of visual elements], a pointer, marker of space
• the line, the restless articulator of form, in the probing looseness of the sketch and the tighter technical plan
• shape, the basic outlines, circle, triangle, and square
• direction, the surge of movement that promotes character of the basic shapes
• value, the most basic of all the laments, the presence or absence of light
• hue and saturation, the make up of color---coordination of value with added component of chroma
• texture, optical or tactile, the surface characteristic of visual materials
• scale, the relative size and measurements of an image
• dimension and motion, both implied through sfumato and other techniques

These are the visual elements; from them we draw the raw materials for all levels of visual intelligence. It is with the understanding of these elements that a viewer can come to understand visual syntax. Visual literacy is the ability, through knowledge of the basic visual elements, to understand the meaning and components of the image.

Burke also writes that many scholars argue that our “entire social evolution is moving toward the increased use of images to communicate more efficiently and effectively.” Our culture understands a visual language made up of images and movements with its own grammar, abbreviations, clichés, lies, puns, and famous quotations.

Incorporating images into the classroom (in any content area) provides an important facet of literacy and opportunities for students to make meaning. Images speak to learners.

Reading Images Part 1

Illuminating Texts by Jim Burke devotes a chapter to “Reading Images”.

When readers look at written narrative we look for certain obvious design clues. For example, in English our eyes begin at the upper left corner and move to the bottom right corner.

Burke writes that when looking at images and nonword texts, the reader must ask “Where do I begin?”

He goes on to say that visual text “requires a level of reading, of active meaning making through construction and inference using a variety of strategies.”


He describes touring Chartres Cathedral in France. The tour guide “regards the cathedral as a multimedia text consisting of engravings, stained-glass windows, paintings, words, images, and the performed texts of sermon and song. And they interact with one another according to their form and function the very architecture reflecting the principles of universal order that are similarly embodied in stories told through images that surround visitors to Chartres.”

The guide reads the images then incorporates them using “all the same skills we typically use to read a poem or an essay, which are based on knowledge of:

• Design
• Features
• History
• Language
• Original content
• Relationships
• Style
• Symbols

The guide explains the story being told by drawing on his knowledge of Christianity and Art History. “So it goes with poems, speeches, even statistical information, all of which, like the Chartres portal, are situated in a time, a tradition, and a technique with features, that if read patiently and intelligently, can help us understand the story the artist wants to tell.” The guide narrates the textual images in the cathedral. He uses textual details such as the way a sculpture’s “hands are arranged or how a lamb is curled up at another’s feet.”

The guide asks the following questions:

• What are we looking at?
• Why are we looking at it?
• What questions does it bring to mind?
• Why did the artist make it?
• How did the artist make it?
• Why did the artist place it here?
• Why did the artist choose the materials?
• What did it mean to people back when it was originally made?
• Why didn’t the artist sign his name to these works of art as today’s artists do?

In exploring the answers these questions the viewer/reader learns a powerful story. The viewer/reader goes on to make meaning by drawing on Discourse and literacy strategies.

Images are so important in the classroom. An obvious example of reading images in my classroom is the field trip. Students can experience text by becoming part of it!

Reading The Test

An entire chapter of Illuminating Texts is devoted to Reading the Test.It is not "specifically about standardized testing, though the current focus on such high-stakes tests is partly responsible for the inclusion of this chapter."

Author Jim Burke discusses testing, the politics of testing (for more on the politics of testing Burke recommends reading Alfie Kohn's book The Case Against Standardized Testing.) and reading the test in the chapter and on the companion website.

He goes on to write that, "Readers of tests must do the same things readers of other texts do if they are to understand what a test says or asks." Burke's purpose for this chapter is to create awareness of evaluative text elements. Test are another genre of text. "If students are taught to read the design and language of tests, we can help them master the genre."

He breaks down elements that combine to become the form and function of a test. He also offers strategies for reading and taking the test.

• skim and scan
• do the easy questions first
• read all the possible answers first before choosing one
• eliminate the wrong answers
• paraphrase the question before answering
• watch out for traps (like the word "not")
• try to answer the question before looking at the answers
• read rescursively
• read the test answers out loud in your head
• read the answer sheet
• answer in the order that works best for you

He says that if a student takes time to think deeply about it what will be asked on a test there will be no surprises if the student is prepared.

Burke provides the following steps to prepare students for any quiz or exam in any class. This example is geared for middle school and beyond but I think I could easily modify it for my elementary students.

Note that many of the strategies used in preparing for a test by creating a test are examples discussed in our readings.

Not only will this exercise help with test preparation, it will also develop literacy and show students how to be effective, literate learners.

While this seems like a long and complicated process, students soon begin to read and listen differently, identifying by those events and ideas likely to be on the test as you read.

Step 1. Gather Essential Information.

• Ask the teacher what will be on the test and whether it is permissible to use notes, books, or other tools.
• Ask the teacher questions like on what to expect what and this test cover.
• Ask how the test breaks down: Are there multiple-choice questions? If so, how many? Short answer? An essay question? Any matching?”
• Ask if there will be study sessions or additional preparation materials provided prior to the exam.
• Ask if you should focus on anything in particular when preparing.

Step 2. Assemble Available Resources. Prepare to create your own exam. To do this you will need the following materials:

• all your notes, chapter study guides, and old tests and quizzes
• the textbook or other primary documents/texts on which the exam will be based
• study guides, word lists, or other preparation materials your teacher has given you to help you prepare for this specific exam
• your answers to the questions in Step 1: i.e., will you be able to use notes in class? If so, that might determine what you should study and the format of your notes

Probability Continuum. When evaluating the likelihood of a question or information appearing on the exam, consider the following probability chart to help you decide:

Step 3.

Identify Likely Test Items. Create a working draft of the exam, which you can then use to prepare you for the real exam:

• Read through old tests and quizzes and, using the Probability Continuum above, ask “Will this question/subject appear on the exam?” If the answer is “probable” or “certain,” then write down the question or the fact.
• Go back through your notes and study guides and look to see what your teacher has emphasized. Look at each new topic and ask, “Will my teacher include a question or have me write about this?”
• Use your textbook (if you have one) to identify crucial information, events, or ideas likely to be on the exam. Look in the following places for such information, then ask: “Will my teacher include this on the exam?”
• Chapter preview/overview at the beginning of each chapter
• Section headings
• Bold words in the text (e.g. vocabulary words)
• Chapter study questions and other guides, reviews, and resources listed at the back of the textbook.
• If the publisher maintains a web site for the book, check to see if they offer any practice questions or additional study guides).

Step 4. Create Your Own Exam. At this point you should have a list or outline of probable questions that will appear on the exam with which you can make your own practice exam. Write the in such a form that allows extra space for notes or reminders while studying. Then write down the correct answer (or leave space for it).

Step 5. Create Your Own Essay Question. If there is to be an essay portion to the test, develop some likely essay prompts.

• Remember that essay prompts ask students to explain, discuss, or reflect on the meaning or importance of a subject.
• Essay questions do not have simple answers. While they may ask you to agree or disagree, they always ask you to explain, discuss, or defend your idea.

Burke ends the chapter by affirming "the value of knowing how to take tests well, though again that does not imply that we should turn our clases into test-prep sessions." It is our job as teachers to find the balance.

I like viewing the test as another genre of text that students must be familiar with in order to develop literacy.

If you don't want to bore your readers...

I'd like to reiterate some super significant information on reading (& writing!) the Internet. I feel like it got lost in the previous post.

Remembering that following Internet-Reader-friendly features below will help and engage readers!

For those of you reading this, I promise I'm trying to incorporate these features into my posts to be more helpful to you!

• KEYWORDS ~ Highlighted keywords (hypertext links served as on form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others)
• SUBHEADINGS ~ Meaningful subheadings (not “clever” ones)
• BULLETS ~ Bulleted lists
• ONE IDEA PER PARAGRAPH ~ One idea per paragraph (users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph)
• INVERTED PYRAMID ~ The inverted pyramid style (i.e., starting with the conclusion)
• HALF THE WORD COUNT ~ Half the word count (or less) of conventional writing.

This information comes from a 1997 study by Morkes and Nielsen concluded that the listed features help Internet readers most.

Lists & lists & links (to enhance Reading the Internet)

In Illuminating Texts, Jim Burke devotes each chapter to reading prevalent forms of text. In the chapter, "Reading The Internet" he discusses types of texts on the Internet, types of websites and questions to ask. He also gives a examples and makes classroom connection.

Types of texts* on the Internet

• blogs*
• social networks*
• chat rooms
• e-mail
• listservs
• multiple user domains (online communities)
• newsgroups
• threaded discussion groups
• World Wide Web

*I added blogs and social networks because the book was published in 2001 and does not include these types of texts in the list.

Types of websites:

• Commercial (.com or .net)
• Educational (.edu )
• Institutional (.org )
• News/media (.com )
• Personal (.com )

Purposes of websites:

• To educate
• To entertain
• To inform
• To persuade
• To sell
• To share
• To support

It is important for students to understand the types of websites and to know the purposes of websites. It is also important to show students how different types and purposes can be combined in one site to create a powerful means of communicating. It is important for students to fully understand the meaning of a site. Burke writes that websites are “the most common online text and the one where students are mostly likely to encounter information of dubious credibility.” He spends time discussing how to help students discern credibility and read these sites.

A 1997 study by Morkes and Nielsen concludes that the following features help readers most:

• Highlighted keywords (hypertext links served as on form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others)
• Meaningful subheadings (not “clever” ones)
• Bulleted lists
• One idea per paragraph (users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph)
• The inverted pyramid style (i.e., starting with the conclusion)
• Half the word count (or less) of conventional writing.

Just some questions to ask when evaluating a website:

• What information do I seek?
• What type of information do I need most?
• What will I use this information for?
• What are the terms (key words and phrases) I should use to conduct a successful search?
• What are my criteria for selecting documents to read or information to use?

Questions readers can ask to infer the quality and validity of the information on a website. Some sites may be well written but the information presented may be untrustworthy. The intelligent reader must look beyond surface details and consider factors covering several topics.

SOURCES

• Where does the author get the evidence to support his claims?
• What other sources –experts, publications, institutions—does the author cite?
• Does the author represent himself as an individual? Or does her represent a larger institution?
• Who is responsible for the content of the site?
• Is the source of all information clearly identified and properly cited?

TIMLINESS

• When was this written?
• Is this information consistent with our current understanding in this field?
• When was this site last updated?

AUTHORITY

• On what basis is this person or organization qualified to inform people about this subject?
• Is this the author’s field of expertise?
• How current is the author’s knowledge of this subject?
• Does the author or institution clearly establish or provide links to its credentials, affiliations and sponsors?
• What awards, if any, has this site won, and are these awarding agencies credible?
• Does this person or institution have a reputation for thorough, accurate, objective work?

AUDIENCE

• Does the author clearly identify his intended audience?
• Do the advertisements, if the site as any, provide further insight to the equality of the content and its intended audience?
• Does the site suggest any bias in favor of its audience’s perspective?
• What do the website’s link tell you about its audience?
• Does the site offer an “About Us” section or an introduction that describes the site’s purpose and intended audience.

QUALITY CONTROL

• Are articles published by respected, peer-reviewed journals, newspapers, or reputable magazines prior to or in addition to being published on this site?
• Is the information within the site consistent in terms of point of view, tone and content?
• If the site offers a biased perspective on a subject does it provide and opposing view or opportunity for readers to respond with other perspectives?
• Are all the site’s links internal or do some connect you to outside sources that lend credence to the site’s content?
• Is information offered as fact or opinion? Is this clearly stated to the reader?
• Are authors of all content clearly identified? Are any of the articles anonymously written?

Text! Fascinating...

This video references many terms from Gee's Theory of Literacy...

Language

Language is the body of words and the systems for their use common to people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition. Language is a system for the expression of thoughts, feelings, etc, by the use of spoken sounds or conventional symbols. It is the faculty for the use of such systems, which is a distinguishing characteristic of man as compared with other animals. It can mean the language of a particular nation or people: the French language any other systematic or nonsystematic means of communicating, such as gesture or animal sounds: the language of love. It is the specialized vocabulary used by a particular group such as medical language or programming language. It can also be a particular manner or style of verbal expression.

Secondary Discourse

Secondary Discourse is interactions with the public sphere-schools, churches, community groups, state and national businesses, agencies and organizations.

Linguistics.

Linguistics is the science and study of language.

Enculturation

Enculturation is apprenticeship. It is the process whereby individuals learn their group's culture, through experience, observation, and instruction. It is the social process by which culture is learned and used by a human infant.

Socialization

Enculturation is related to socialization. Socialization refers to the deliberate shaping of the individual, in others; the word may be used to cover both deliberate and informal enculturation. Socialization is the continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior, and social skills appropriate to his or her social position; the process of inheriting norms, customs and ideologies. It may provide the individual with the skills and habits necessary for participating within their own society; a society develops a culture through a plurality of shared norms, customs, values, traditions, social roles, symbols and languages. Socialization is thus “the means by which social and cultural continuity are attained.”

Meta-knowledge

Meta-knowledge can be loosely defined as "knowledge about knowledge.” It is knowledge about a preselected knowledge. (Interesting related link: http://www.skeptical-science.com/science/metaknowledge-internet/); “Meta-knowledge can actually make you better able to manipulate your first language”; Meta-knowledge is liberation and power.

Cake Wrecks & Textual Intelligence

One of my favorite blogs is Cakewrecks.com. I rarely cease to laugh out loud when reading it. While it is not literacy specific, what makes it appealing is based in literacy. Jen Yates started this blog in May of 2008 “one night when she was bored. She honestly never thought anyone would read it.”

CakeWrecks.com won the 2008 Blogger's Choice Award for Best Humor Blog, and three 2009 Weblog awards (Bloggies) for Best Writing on a Blog, Best New Blog, and Best Food Blog. She has also written a book Cake Wrecks: When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong

Jen explains what a cake wreck is:

A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

In addition to wild looking icing blobs and laugh-out-loud-to-tears inducing visuals, some of what is extremely funny are the grammatical errors in the inscriptions. Punctuation, misspellings, homonyms, and decorator interpretations of the text totally change the meaning and the intended response to the cakes.

Jim Burke author of Illuminating Texts offers a companion website to go along with the book.

Featured on the website is an article he wrote Developing Students' Textual Intelligence Through Grammar which relates to the Cakewrecks inscription dynamic. (It is also reminiscent of Lynn Trusso’s books, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Girl’s Like Spaghetti and Twenty-Odd Ducks: Why, every punctuation mark counts! )

In the article Burke discusses Textual Intelligence. He writes:

Textual intelligence (TI), a term I like, refers to our knowledge about how texts---literary and informational, on a page or a screen, spoken or written---work. TI requires that students understand the difference between usage---where and when, or under what conditions a word or its meaning is appropriately used---and grammar---the rules that govern the structural relationships between words in sentences.

TI also applies to how texts are made, and how different grammatical structures create meaning for or affect the reader.

Burke wants students to understand and develop textual intelligence to learn and experience how language shapes meaning and causes in readers certain feelings.

To describe textual intelligence, Burke uses the metaphor “intellectual tool belt.”

TI asks text builders (readers and writers) to decide what tools they need, how the structure works and what materials will work best on a particular job/text.

In making those decisions readers and writers might ask questions and analyze:

• Format (Why write this as an essay instead of a poem or short story or dramatic monologue?)
• Sentence type and structure. (What type of sentences---e.g., short, staccato ones, or long, rolling ones---are most appropriate for the effect I want to create in the reader?)
• Tone (How do I create a dark (or anxious or somber or comical) tone in a story?
• Clarity (Should I use a list here with bullets instead of paragraphs? How do I keep everything in the list parallel?)
• Word Choice (What words will make the reader feel that this character was wise, dangerous, evil or good? What word makes the idea clearest? What word is best?)
• More Word Choice (What words do I need to choose to make the character, idea, information, content in the text come alive for the reader?)

Having textual intelligence and insight into the text provides “some sense of power in a world where language is often used to coerce and confuse instead of clarify and communicate.” By developing a TI tool belt loaded and heavy with tools needed to write and read different kinds of texts in different media for different audiences and purposes.

Reading The World...from the moon

The purpose of education in this society is to bring the kids up to be conversant with the most important ideas and the representation systems that are used to express them. –Alan Kay

Burke begins the first chapter by discussing his experience as an elementary school student viewing “a small square of light that promised a glimpse into the next world: the first walk on the moon…a sacred moment…we all experienced the same sense of awe, our open mouths spelling out our wonder.”

Today things are more complicated. There are all manner of information sources. Burke says, “Information, whether it is about a product, an idea, history, or science has become one more product in a market saturated with texts, each one competing with other…”

The teacher’s role is to provide students with “a tool belt heavy with strategies and the skill to use them appropriately when reading---and making---texts.”

Burke quotes James Gleick:

All those clamoring activities line up by rank, in order of the power of their claim on your attention. That book looks appealing but this magazine pulls harder. Even better is that new jazz recording, but then you prefer the exhilarating rush of an online session of the game so fittingly called Total Annihilation. It’s, as if, corrupted by haute cuisine and soft mattresses, we can’t go back to the simple pleasure of bread and butter and sleeping under the stars. (1999)

Burke argues, “Through textual studies students can and should bee required to—think and operate as practitioners of the domains they are studying…” Imagination’s role in education has been dismissed as “irrelevant or even dangerous.” As teachers we must encourage and support students in experiment with “a series of possible selves through our disciplines, while helping them develop the necessary abilities in those subjects in the hope that they will find the ones they wish to become in their adult lives...” Students are constantly engaged in reading the world and reading themselves in a search to discover “where they fit into the texts of the world.”

Read the World!

The book I chose to blog about is:

Illuminating Texts: How to Teach Students to Read the World

by Jim Burke

http://books.heinemann.com/products/0497.aspx

About the book:

Today's students face such a barrage of competing texts in so many different forms and media that it's almost impossible to know what to trust and where to turn anymore. So it's now up to teachers to help students determine not only what should be read, but how it should be read.

Illuminating Texts, Jim Burke's most ambitious book yet, addresses this issue. It explores the powerful idea of "textual intelligence," offers both practical and theoretical information on teaching and reading, and explains how to incorporate the newest ideas and techniques into actual classroom practice. Jim also presents an important argument for teaching what students will need to know, and be able to do, in the future—one of our primary responsibilities as educators.

Each chapter has a clear focus—e.g., Reading the Internet, Reading Textbooks, Reading Literature, Reading Images—and all follow a similar format, including background information and rationale, standards connections, questions to ask, classroom connections, elements of the text, and additional resources. You can turn to the book for a five-minute read and find some questions to use in your next period. Or you can read an entire chapter, to help you clarify your thinking.

Illuminating Texts' accompanying website—www.englishcompanion.com/illuminating—continues and complements the book by providing additional resources, all of which are frequently updated.

The world needs "childish" thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism...

I'll kick your ass with literacy!

I heard my personal favorite quote on literacy in 1996. I saw and heard homeless guy in Seattle’s Pike Place Market yelling to no one and everyone, “I’ll kick your ass with literacy!” While I find it humorous I also find it to be absolutely real. Literacy is a powerful tool.

Why should I blog?

Why should I blog?

• To express myself. If have something to say, a blog provides a place to say it and be heard.
• To connect with people in the world of literacy.
• Many blog are written to encourage connections and interactions with others experiencing similar insights. Blogging brings like-minded people together. Starting a blog can help you find those people and share your opinions and thoughts.
• To establish myself as a teacher interested in the power of literacy.
• To make a difference for myself and for others.
• This blog is literacy-based. In trying to express myself and to provide information I am enriching myself.
• To stay active and gain knowledge in the area of literacy.
• Successful blogging is dependent on writing and posting frequently. I must provide updated, fresh information. This is an opportunity for me to stay active and gain knowledge in the area of literacy.
• To develop connections and to stay connected from different parts of the world by sharing literacy related texts, stories, photos, videos and more.