I'm a big fan of openness and honesty. I don't value small talk, and when I have a problem I like to deal with it. To be this direct and not offend anyone, I've had to adapt the way I communicate over the years, to express myself in multiple ways depending on the person I'm with or situation I'm in. For example, I have a vision impaired (and deaf) half-brother, so I speak loud around him and with big sweeping gestures. Similarly, I meet a lot of foreigners who don't speak English very well, so I talk slow and pantomime. That's why I truly enjoyed reading parts of the book Reading Images by Kress and van Leeuwen.
When I became a sixth grade teacher, I began using symbols in my lessons. It's a lot easier for a student to understand the concept of say, 'Loyalty' by finding pictures of what they feel is loyal, as well as defining the word and using it in sentences. Similarly, it's hard to 'see' the concept of social order in ancient civilizations, but as soon as I drew the 'Social Hierarchy Chart' on the board (a triangle filled with vertical lines: King would be on top, followed by priests or scribes, and slaves at the bottom), they could immediately connect those positions to modern ones.
Given my pre-interest in this subject, I was pleasantly surprised to find out symbols had an even deeper meaning than I had never guessed. In Chapter 2 of Reading Images, I loved learning how the symbols I often use are infused with my own personality. For example I might use circles to depict grand ideas, while someone else might choose rectangles, or flowers. As the authors say, I'm like the "'implied' producer who 'silently instructs us, through the design of the whole.'" (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 48). In this way, I'm not just the 'Interactive Participant' - or the person communicating - but also the 'Represented Participant,' because the forms I use to communicate are really a mirror of myself. Whoa! Equally as amazing was the lore of symbols: how "Circles…we associate with an organic and natural order," (p. 55) and how rectangles and squares can be stacked, like buildings in the modern world. And beyond that, I was even more intrigued to learn symbols and words can connect like Lego pieces to form completely new images and ideas. For example, a clause like, 'the bird is black' without a verb or article becomes 'black bird' and without the space it's 'blackbird,' and each one has a completely different meaning. (p. 53)
The day after I read this chapter, I perceived the world in a new way, and that perspective gave me new ideas to help my students in their own constantly evolving communication skills. For example, I had them define a word they all knew (Love), any way they wanted, and everyone had something different to say (from words to symbols). I then asked them to 'analyze' their classmates, and tell me why they thought Sally used a heart, but Jimmy used sentences about his family, and Toby chose to draw two people hugging. I also became more aware of how my own verbal, written and symbolic language is sculpted by my experiences and interests. It helped me see that from now on, I shouldn't just tell my students to copy down notes or symbolic representations from the board, but to come up with their own expressions, for stronger retention and a more personal connection.
Resources
Kress, Gunther & van Leeuwen, Theo (2006). Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. New York: Routledge.
Hi Josh,
ReplyDeleteI actually referenced you in my own blog. Your examples helped me to better under the semiotic theory. When I first started reading the chapter I felt like I was reading a foreign language, but after defining interactive and represented participants I had a better understanding. I liked how you took what you learned from the reading and applied it to your own classroom. It is amazing individuals view different ideas and concepts like with how you had your classroom define the word love. I also liked how you realized that your students have different ways of processing what they are learning and are encouraging them to come up with their own symbolic representations to what they are learning in class. I believe that adding their own personal representations to what they are learning will help them to retain that information. They are becoming the interactive participants!
Hi Josh - I think it is awesome that you are able to directly apply what you are learning to your lesson plan. You stated that "It helped me see that from now on, I shouldn't just tell my students to copy down notes or symbolic representations from the board, but to come up with their own expressions, for stronger retention and a more personal connection". I find this to be true in the world of corporate learners as well. The benefit is the same with adult learners. It is all about owning the content, and finding ways to retain it. I, too, saw things differently after completing the reading. It made me so much more aware of all the signs used in daily life and the impact they have on what I know and what I remember. This lesson made me think back to leadership training I attended last summer. Each attendee had to take a deck of 30 cards - each card contained an attribute one may possess. We needed to select our top 5 - the attributes most important to each of us personally. Then, we had to "draw" each of those words/attributes and share them with the room. It was interesting to now only see which attributes people found to be most important to them, but also how differently each person depicted them. I agree with you that this was a very interesting subject and one I would like to learn more about.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mandy and Cathy for your very warm replies.
ReplyDeleteMandy - I too was completely befuddled when I opened that book. In fact, my next post is going to be about 'Clarity' because all these people have interesting things to say, but it's always so marred in jargon, and I have to wade through it - like molasses - before I understand the point. It's funny when you think about what they're talking about - how using symbols should help us define the world in new ways - but even some of their symbols (like Green's symbol…), I find esoteric. I feel like I'm back in 4000 BCE trying to understand a bunch of royal scribes, and I'm some lowly farmer learning to read from my mother's educated half-brother/slave.
Hi Josh. You are a goofball...that is an endearing compliment.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your wanting to have your students create their own symbols to signify meaning......At the high school level we encourage the use of visual journals as a differentiated mode of note taking. There is one class that is taught by the Chemistry and Art Dept. collaboratively, "Chemistry for the Artist". The content of the course inherently lends itself to materials exploration,but that aside, students take notes and create journal pages using personally created symbols and signifiers,to record their experiences and learning.They incorporate equations, theories and processes sometimes using traditional means and sometimes by creating images, text and, visual to them "equivalencies".
In my foundations level studio classes we are exploring the juxtaposition of text and image in printmaking.
The artist Johnny Carrera created a piece for an exhibit at Mass MOCA titled "Dueling Dictionary", where images of objects are paired with two opposing descriptive words....each word changing the meaning of the image.
I am trying to expose my students to the idea of visual image/text communication. I'll see how it goes.
I did a similar printmaking project with 5th graders , that I would be happy to share if you're interested.
JoAnna - I would love to see this project, or know more about it if it goes well in your class. Thanks for the offer!
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