DOCSLIB.ORG

Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy Danilo M

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy Danilo M Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy Danilo M. Baylen • Adriana D’Alba Editors Essentials of Teaching and Integrating Visual and Media Literacy Visualizing Learning 1 3 Editors Danilo M. Baylen Adriana D’Alba Educational Technology and Foundations Educational Technology and Foundations University of West Georgia University of West Georgia Carrollton, Georgia Carrollton, Georgia USA USA ISBN 978-3-319-05836-8 ISBN 978-3-319-05837-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-05837-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015930552 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is a brand of Springer International Publishing Springer International Publishing is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Foreword “The question is not what you look at, but what you see.” —Henry David Thoreau, Journals, Vol. 1, November 16, 1830 Visual and media literacy have been a part of my life and my educational interests for, well, forever it seems. I am honored to have been asked to introduce this book, and am hopeful that the many interesting chapters shared here will make a differ- ence to educators at all levels of teaching, administration, and design of curricula or professional development. The topics are multidisciplinary and involve multiple aspects of media and visual literacy. One of the editors, Danilo M. Baylen, has grown from a young doctoral student at Northern Illinois University, sharing his home country culture through a display of native textiles in my visual literacy course years ago, to an experienced, respect- ed member of academia with a strong interest in visual and media literacy as part of his work in literacy and technology, as well as having an enviable career in higher education both as a professor and an administrator. As his former professor, I am proud of his having co-proposed and completed the editing of this text. Becoming an Advocate for Media and Visual Literacy With all the attention focused on media and visual literacy in the twenty-first cen- tury, it might be helpful to look at the interest as it developed over time. My own history mirrors the growth of visual and media literacy in education, and the experi- ences of many of the experts in these areas who have been active in promoting and researching these topics over the past 40 or more years. How do educators become advocates for visual and media literacy? As a baby boomer, I grew up loving the movies. Early TV was nothing like it is today, but it was still a cultural influence not to be ignored. After all, the Beatles first appeared on TV when we boomers were in high school! And since my father was a photographer, I spent hours in our home darkroom learning from those emerging images, like many others did in the “Kodak” era of the 1950s. v vi Foreword In the 1970s, with media and visual literacy concepts emerging from commu- nication scholars like McLuhan and visual communications experts such as Donis Dondis, Jack Debes, and others, we had a great deal of freedom to explore cur- rent events and media as part of our language arts curriculum. In 1972, along with many of those still working to promote and improve these literacies, I was teaching language arts to middle school students (in Illinois, USA). We showed educational films as part of our instruction, and used literature to film translations such as The Diary of Anne Frank to help motivate students. We taught media literacy, using public media such as billboards, newspapers and magazines, and television news, and had students create their own publications. We developed a unit on television and studied narrative structures, character development, genre, stereotyping, adver- tising, humor, and suspense. Students wrote, recorded, and edited news and comedy programs with original commercials as a culminating activity. After school hours, I started a film club to both study and create movies with students, and sponsored the school newspaper. We knew that our activities were motivating and that they helped develop litera- cy and language skills and critical thinking abilities. But I do not recall ever having heard the terms visual literacy or media literacy until, after 5 years of teaching, I started to study educational technology and communications in graduate school. At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, I focused my attention on visual communi- cations media and critical analysis skills for students of all ages. Many of us in our doctoral studies were interested in critical analysis and images. Our student cohort included David Considine, now considered one of the pioneers in media literacy, and his colleague Robert Muffoletto, and so discussions about film, photography, affective learning, and the impact of images were a regular part of my education. My first published article presented ideas for teachers wanting to add critical viewing of video to their curriculum activities, based upon my earlier experiences. And my doctoral dissertation investigated 8th graders’ understanding of narrative elements of short fiction from film and video. This represented a change in education, since previous research in technology-related topics was quasi-exper- imental and rarely involved real classrooms of students. During and after graduate school, my early articles included “You’ve Ruined TV for Me,” an article titled after a comment from an 8th grader after our long televi- sion unit was over. He was complaining that he now saw all the misplaced micro- phones and bad shadows in TV programs; he had developed critical viewing skills along with our language arts activities. It was through other members of that Madi- son cohort that I learned of the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA), in which I have been very active since 1982. This organization was one of the first to offer a definition of visual literacy and a place for scholars, educators, artists, videographers, and so on to debate ideas and share strategies, projects, educational research, and materials. IVLA has annual conferences where research and projects from around the world in multiple disciplines have been presented and shared since 1969, with published Selected Readings from the conferences each year. It is one of the groups helping to promote the importance of media and visual literacy today. Foreword vii Through IVLA, I met the international scholar Rune Pettersson, who has con- tinually added to the scholarship in information design and message design along with other aspects of visual literacy. Recently, he wrote about early visual literacy (Pettersson 2013): A historical view shows that discussions about the use of images have a long history. Sev- eral definitions reveal that visual literacy is an ability, a competency, or a skill. Visual literacy is an interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and multidimensional area of knowledge. Different kinds of visuals may be applied in almost all subject matter areas and in different media. From a theoretical view, visual literacy includes visual language, visual thinking, visual perception, visual communication, and visual learning. Seen from a communications view, presentation of an intended message involves a wide range of professional interest groups concerned with its design, production, distribution, and use. (n.p.) To me, this brief discussion captures the essence of both visual and media literacy. The many foundational theory areas, the multidisciplinary nature of the issues, and the importance of helping to develop the skills for improved communication have always been the foundation of these literacies in my opinion. The two terms have often seemed competitive, overlapping, and not necessarily disparate in their mean- ing and approach. One difference often noted has been that visual literacy is less connected to any particular medium, and therefore, more universal. I often told students in my visual literacy graduate class that visual literacy was the overarching term, and media literacy fit within it. Media literacy may seem more fluid because it must respond to and change with the media and technology available, such as newer digital tools and global access to Web-based social media imagery. But that could make visual literacy the more static term. So with this shared background, it should not be surprising that visual and media literacies have been woven into my teaching and scholarship throughout my career at Northern Illinois University. I have been active in promoting these literacies to teachers, administrators, library media specialists, and researchers for over 30 years. Like many other academic programs around the country and the globe, we routinely have offered our graduate level visual literacy course for education and museum studies students, and I have been very pleased to see the increased attention to these concepts in the standards and professional expectations of K-20 educators.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Information Transliteracy”?
    International Conference “Media and Information Literacy (MIL) for Knowledge Societies”, 24-28 June, 2012, Moscow, Russian Federation Can one speak of an “information transliteracy”? Vincent LIQUETE ( Bordeaux University – IMS/CNRS UMR 5218 [Human Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (Team CIH)] [email protected] / [email protected] Summary of paper: The issue of transliteracy in general and particularly informational transliteracy is increasingly being debated worldwide and from extremely varying perspectives. These concepts refer to highly varied cultural and professional realities and contexts. In this paper we will discuss three dimensions and issues. First, we will attempt to delineate the scope and range of current thinking by researchers in information and communication sciences in France with regard to informational transliteracy, and present its four main components. Second, we will lay the claim that the informational transliteracy approach goes beyond the “Media and Information Literacies (MIL)” approach, in particular by giving all due importance to issues related to learning with computers, i. e. “computation”. Finally, we will present some new thinking that is currently being implemented in the French education system and will present some research projects involving informational transliteracy (LIMIN-R project, Translit project, etc.). Key words: Transliteracy / Information culture / French educative system / Informational practice /Competencie / Forward For twenty years now, the notions of information literacy and thereafter Translitteracy have been the subject of a wide range of definitions and an extensive scientific literature, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world. We will attempt during this presentation to demonstrate some of the main dimensions in terms of skills and attitudes in the various literacies that are giving rise to the new forms of training and support required in the future.
    [Show full text]
  • Critical Visual Literacy: Multimodal Communication Across the Curriculum
    WAC, WID, ECAC, CAC, CXC, LAC — VAC? Critical Visual Literacy: Multimodal Communication Across the Curriculum Barb Blakely Duffelmeyer and Anthony Ellertson, Iowa State University and the University of Wisconsin Abstract: "Critical Visual Literacy: Multimodal Communication Across the Curriculum" makes the case for expanding the pedagogical space and communication possibilities in undergraduate communication-intensive and linked (learning community) courses by allowing students to create multimodal texts that deal with civic and cultural and/or discipline-specific themes. We argue that, rather than diluting the opportunities for rhetorical education—now comprised of critical literacy, visual literacy, and critical technological literacy in today's increasingly fast-moving visual and electronic cultural environment—multimodal composing more meaningfully reflects the environment in which students receive and generate text today. Using a theory base that draws from the literatures of composition and CAC, visual literacy, new media theory and ecology, and the theory and pedagogy of critical technological literacy, we make a case for this expansion of communication opportunities in undergraduate communication-intensive classes. Specifically, we show how multimodal composing reinforces and further develops at least three essential characteristics of a critically literate person, thus helping to lift what W.J.T. Mitchell (2002) so aptly called the "ideological veil": 1) understanding that a text is not a transparent window on reality, but is constructed; 2) developing and demonstrating rhetorical awareness both as a composer of text and as a reader of text; and 3) developing agency as a communicator and as a reader, rather than opting for the passivity that our popular media environment makes so easy.
    [Show full text]
  • Engage and Excite All Learners Through a Visual Literacy Curriculum
    Engage and Excite All Learners Through a Visual Literacy Curriculum Xiuwen Wu National-Louis University, Chicago Mark Newman National-Louis University, Chicago Please address all correspondence to: Xiuwen Wu National-Louis University National College of Education 5202 Old Orchard, Suite 300 Skokie, IL, 60077 Phone: 2242332774 Email: [email protected] Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Assocation New York City, March 24-28, 2008 Engage and Excite All Learners Through a Visual Literacy Curriculum Xiuwen Wu National-Louis University, Chicago Mark Newman National-Louis University, Chicago This paper discussed a study involving two groups of teacher candidates’ implementations of a visual literacy curriculum in their preclinical field experience. The purpose was to explore whether the curriculum provided a viable way for them to implement Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in teaching their diverse learners, including students with disabilities and English as a second language learners. Teacher and student surveys, reflection notes, lesson plans, and artifacts in the lessons were analyzed. Findings indicated that the visual literacy curriculum promoted universal access to learning and conversely, UDL principles provided valuable guidelines for creating lessons that maximize the effectiveness of the visual literacy tools. Background According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2007), 52 percent of students with disabilities spent 80 percent of more of the school day in a general classroom in 2005. With the reauthorization of Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) and No Child Left Behind Law (P.L. 107-110, U.S. Department of Education, 2004), more mephasis is put on ensuring the access and progress in the general education curriculum by students with disabilities.
    [Show full text]
  • The Practice and Principles of Teaching Critical Literacy at the Educational Video Center
    Blackwell Publishing Ltd.Oxford, UK and Malden, USAYSSEThe Yearbooks for the Society of the Study of Education0077-57622004 Blackwell Publishing Ltd20051041 Part Two: Doing Media Literacy in the Schoolsteaching critical literacy at the evcgoodman chapter 11 The Practice and Principles of Teaching Critical Literacy at the Educational Video Center steven goodman We did a documentary about homeless youth . It was an important topic for us to learn and research about because it will change not only the way we think about it, but whoever watches the video will also change their way of thinking about it. And it’s gonna make a difference in people’s lives. —(Vanessa, EVC Documentary Workshop) Overall, what I’ve learned from EVC and what I will take with me, is basically not only working with the camera and things like that and making a documentary, but all in all, how to go out and meet people. And how talk to people. —(Serena, EVC Documentary Workshop) Dialogue is the encounter between men, mediated by the world, in order to name the world. —Paulo Freire (1970, p. 69) Four high school students walk down a mid-Manhattan street as they talk excitedly about who will conduct the first interview. They have generated good questions to ask concerning the problem of homeless youth in New York City, but are not quite sure if anyone will stop to answer them. They pause at a street corner and work awkwardly to disentangle the cables connecting the digital video camera, microphone, and headphones they are holding. Once they sort out their equipment and their crew roles, the book bag and the camera change hands.
    [Show full text]
  • Using Film and Critical Pedagogy in the Standards-Based Classroom
    AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF John D. Divelbiss for the degree of Master of Arts in English presented on April 28, 2014. Title: Re-Viewing the Canon: Using Film and Critical Pedagogy in the Standards-based Classroom Abstract approved: __________________________________________________________________ Jon R. Lewis This thesis analyzes the efficacy of emancipatory (critical) pedagogical practices in an educational climate of standards-based reform. Using two films noir of the blacklist era—Body and Soul and Crossfire—as the core texts of a unit in a secondary school curriculum, I argue that an emphasis on student agency and a de-centering of curriculum and instruction is not only compatible with national reforms like the Common Core State Standards but is essential for English/language arts classrooms in the 21st century. In addition to a scholarly review of critical pedagogy and media literacy, and close readings of the two films themselves, this thesis also ends with an informal case study in which both films-as-texts were taught to 9th grade students. By combining theory and practice, I was able to model the praxis at the heart of critical pedagogy, what Paulo Freire calls in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it.” The films of the blacklist match current national mandates for relevant texts, for media and visual literacy, and for authentic and emancipatory pedagogy. Narrowing down even further on two highly-regarded films released in 1947, the same year the blacklist was initiated, allows for an analysis of the artistic and aesthetic complexities of the texts as well as the high-stakes terms of the political engagements of the blacklist.
    [Show full text]
  • A Qualitative Study of Three Secondary Art Teachers' Conceptualizations of Visual Literacy As Manifested Through Their Teaching with Electronic Technologies
    A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF THREE SECONDARY ART TEACHERS' CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF VISUAL LITERACY AS MANIFESTED THROUGH THEIR TEACHING WITH ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGIES BY CHING-CHIU LIN B. Ed., National Pingtung Teachers College, 1997 M. Ed., National Taipei Teachers College, 2003 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art Education in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Elizabeth M. Delacruz, Chair Professor Bertram C. Bruce Professor Michael Parsons Associate Professor Klaus Witz ABSTRACT This qualitative case study examined and described three technologically competent, secondary-level visual arts teachers' insights into the notion of visual literacy in the information age, and how this notion manifests through these teachers' teaching praxis with art and technology in their classroom and school environments. The study participants included both the three art teachers and selected students who were in these teachers' art and technology courses at the time of the study. The study results indicate that these teachers interpret visual literacy as a collective term that describes what students should learn in contemporary society, but that they do not engage the visual literacy language as it is framed in academic discourse. Rather these teachers derive their idea of visual literacy from their own teaching experiences with students, from their conceptions about the schools and communities in which their students live, and to provide a unified learning experience and prepare students for their future. Hence, these teachers' achievements go beyond developing students' visual competencies to embrace a holistic experience of teaching and learning that involves such themes as student voices, trusting relationships with students, community engagement, lifelong skills, connections with lives, contexts of particular teaching praxis, and richness of teacher knowledge.
    [Show full text]
  • Visual Literacy and Library Instruction: a Critical Analysis By
    Visual Literacy and Library Instruction: A Critical Analysis By Nerissa Nelson University Library Abstract This paper discusses the concept of visual literacy and its implications for librarians teaching information literacy components. The author concludes that, while visual teaching methods should be incorporated in library instruction, teaching visual literacy competencies is most effectively done in connection with disci- pline-specific content and thus falls outside librarians’ role. Introduction In our fast-paced era of media blips and Visual literacy is not necessarily a “new” con- bytes, visual images and symbols have now cept, but it has transformed into a more for- more than ever an immediate and frequent malized area of study in both the K-12 envi- presence in our culture. Technological ad- ronment and higher education. From a theo- vances resulting in new media types have retical perspective, visual images and sym- dynamically altered traditional modes of bols have become so integrated and impor- communication. Choices for producing and tant in our social structure and identity that consuming information are vast, and formats understanding the effects of our image-rich from standard text to graphical interfaces, world has resulted in a new field of study in digitized images, streaming video and hyper- academe: Visual Culture Studies (Walker & media have created a complex and layered Chaplin, 1997). On a more practical level, vis- system of information flow. ual literacy has become part of the curriculum by virtue of technology-enhanced resources, Information is no longer bound by text or sim- thus expanding the range of visual teaching ple illustrations since technological innova- tools with graphics, videos or web sites being tions have created a rich visual culture, im- incorporated into classroom lectures and li- pacting business, education and social envi- brary instruction (Wiley & Hemmerich, 2003).
    [Show full text]
  • Guidelines for the Preparation of Teachers of English Language Arts
    NCTE Standing Committee on Teacher Preparation and Certification Chair: Lois T. Stover, St. Mary’s College of Maryland Dispositions Subcommittee Chair: Lois T. Stover, St. Mary’s College of Maryland Harold M. Foster, The University of Akron, Ohio Stephen Koziol Jr., University of Maryland, College Park David LeNoir, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green Content Knowledge Subcommittee Chair: Charles J. Thomas, Ed.D., Columbia University Harold M. Foster, The University of Akron, Ohio Karen Herrington, The University of Akron, Ohio Stephen Koziol Jr., University of Maryland, College Park Pedagogical and Pedagogical Content Knowledge Subcommittee Co-Chair: Carol P. Harrell, Kennesaw State University, Georgia Co-Chair: Amy Smith, Western Oregon University, Monmouth Jim Charles, University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg Bonnie Ericson, California State University, Northridge Harold M. Foster, The University of Akron, Ohio Katherine McFarland, Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania Building Excellent Programs Subcommittee Co-Chair: Charles Duke, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina Co-Chair: Joseph Milner, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina Kevin Morrison, Hazelwood East High School, St. Louis, Missouri Anna J. Roseboro, The Bishop’s School (retired), La Jolla, California Lisa Scherff, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa Executive Committee Liaison: Randy Bomer, University of Texas at Austin NCTE Administrative Liaison: Linda Walters Guidelines for the Preparation of Teachers of English Language Arts 2006 Edition Prepared by Lois T. Stover, Chair, and Members of NCTE’s Standing Committee on Teacher Preparation and Certification National Council of Teachers of English 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096 Manuscript Editor: Jane Curran Staff Editor: Kurt Austin Cover Design: Joellen Bryant and Tom Jaczak © 2006 by the National Council of Teachers of English.
    [Show full text]
  • Media Literacy Resources
    Contents Introduction to Media Arts/Media Literacy Standards ..... 2 Visual Literacy (Images and Photographs) ................... 4 Advertising/Commercials .......................................... 13 Motion Pictures: Understanding The Language of Film .. 20 Introduction to Media Arts/Media Literacy Standards by Frank W. Baker (consultant, member of SCDE VPA curriculum writing team) Today’s students are the visual generation: they’re learning more through the visual medium than from print, so it is important for educators to know how to teach both with and about the media. Even though our young people are media savvy, they are not necessarily media-literate: they tend to believe everything they see, read and hear. We know that many of them do not have the critical thinking (and viewing) skills they need to be competent communicators in the 21st century. Our students know how to upload and download photos, music, video and movies seamlessly using mobile devices which have not yet been allowed into the classroom, but that is slowly starting to change. The new 21st century skills movement (www.21stcenturyskills.org) specifically references media literacy as one of the skills all students need to be attractive to employers in this new century. Several of its recommended activities are included in this document. Media literacy is defined simply as the ability to both analyze and create media messages. Visual literacy has been defined as "the ability to construct meaning from visual images." (Source: The Visual Literacy White Paper) So, in this document you will find activities which are designed to engage students in analyzing and deconstructing media messages, as well as creating and producing them.
    [Show full text]
  • Media Literacy Approach 15
    distribute or post,2 Getty/David Malan MEDIAcopy, LITERACY APPROACH Key Idea: Media literacy is a set of perspectives that we actively use to expose ourselves to the media and interpret the meaning of the messages we encounter. not It is multidimensional and a continuum. Do Media literacy is the ability to access and process information from any kind of transmission. 13 Copyright ©2020 by SAGE Publications, Inc. This work may not be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without express written permission of the publisher. 14 Part I ■ Introduction What Is Media Literacy? Advantages of Developing a Higher Degree The Three Building Blocks of of Media Literacy Media Literacy Appetite for a Wider Variety of Media Skills Messages Knowledge Structures More Self-Programming of Personal Locus Mental Codes The Definition of Media Literacy More Control Over Media The Development of Media Literacy Summary Further Reading Exercise s you learned in the first chapter, we are constantly flooded with a huge number of Amessages from the mass media. We must screen out all but a tiny percentage. To help us do this screening with the least amount of mental effort, we defaultdistribute to automaticity, where our minds quickly screen out messages without any conscious awareness of this process. This automatic filtering process is governed by a set of procedures—much like a computer program—that runs unconsciously until somethingor in a media message trig- gers our attention. While this filtering process is largely automatic, it is possible for us to gain greater control over it if we increase our media literacy.
    [Show full text]
  • UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Visual Literacy and Education: Seeing the World Meets Critical Thinking Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2r01b51g Author Lehman, Barbara Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Visual Literacy and Education: Seeing the World Meets Critical Thinking A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Education by Barbara Lehman 2015 © Copyright by Barbara Lehman 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS Visual Literacy and Education: Seeing the World Meets Critical Thinking by Barbara Lehman Master of Arts in Education University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Douglas Kellner, Chair The abundance and complexity of information now being delivered visually demands that we become visually literate, as well as verbally literate. We need to understand better a process we have taken for granted. In an age increasingly dominated by images – a media culture, it becomes imperative to develop an understanding of how our visual processing system works; how visual cognition is shaped by social, political, and cultural conditioning; and how visual messages are created to elicit specific responses. One of the chief goals of visual literacy education is to encourage critical analysis of visual communication by developing tools that help us understand and manage this complex activity. “Seeing” needs to become an actively conscious, not a passive activity for us. This thesis illustrates the importance of critical visual literacy, provides an historical overview of the visual literacy movement and suggests a foundational approach to teaching the basics of visual literacy.
    [Show full text]
  • Visualization in the Writing Process
    VISUALIZATION IN THE WRITING PROCESS: A CASE STUDY OF STRUGGLING K-4 LEARNERS IN A SUMMER WRITING CAMP by ERIN K. JURAND B.J., University of Texas at Austin, 1999 M.S., Kansas State University, 2005 AN ABSTRACT OF A DISSERTATION submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Curriculum and Instruction College of Education KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 2008 Abstract The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (PL 107-110) drives today’s teaching environment. With the pressure not to leave any student behind, classroom teachers often request struggling students to attend summer school. This qualitative case study sought to gain a deeper understanding of how visualization embedded in the writing process may influence struggling learners in a kindergarten through fourth grade summer writing camp. The 3 ½ week summer writing camp was based on Donald Graves’ (1983/2003) writer’s workshop and writing process. The selected 19 students (K - 4) and 5 teachers in a Midwestern school district participated in the visual, learning, and literacy-rich environment. During the writing workshop, teachers gave Lucy Calkin’s (1994) inspired mini-lessons to teach struggling students how to use visualization embedded in the writing process. Students participated in 4 community-based field experiences, which served as inspiration for drawing and writing. Mental imagery has powerful effects on reading comprehension (Sadoski, 1983, 1985) and students recalled information and images from the field experiences by observing digital photographs, and then drawing and writing. Thirty-nine student art/writing samples were analyzed using Lowenfeld and Brittain’s (1975) stages of artistic development, Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (2004) writing levels, and Piaget and Inhelder’s (1969/2000) stages of cognitive development.
    [Show full text]