1. Copy and paste a quote from each of the chapters that causes you to have a strong reaction (agreement, disagreement, confusion...) and explain your reaction.
Chapter 3
"Culture, experiences, and ideology always influence our ways of interpreting and representing the world" (Serafini, 2014, p. 34).
This statement in chapter three caught my attention because it is so true and has such power for each person. I completely agree with the statement because people have their own experiences, cultures, and ideals that influence the ways that they see their lives and impacts how a person runs their life. For instance, the image of butchering a chicken for food. If a child is from a very rural area and they must butcher their own chickens for food then seeing this image/video will garner a different reaction from a city child who has never seen butchering of any animal done before and has an appalled reaction to the image. Because of the two different experiences these two geographically different students, the ways that the view certain images will be reflected in their learning. The rural student would most likely interpret that image as a life necessity and the city child would think it was some form of animal cruelty.
Chapter 4
"Traditional theories and associated instructional practices of literacy education focusing on written language delivered through print-based texts have become inadequate as the sole systems of representation in today's culture" (Serafini, 2014, p. 53).
This remark made by Serafini is one that I believe is true. The ways in which technology has influenced education is dramatic and the old ways of completely print-based learning is outdated and ineffective. I am not a reading teacher but I do teach science, and there are so many skills that overlap between reading and science such as main ideas, observations, cause and effects, etc. I think that with the incorporation of images such as picture books or even labs the student creates a better understanding of the concept than if they just read about it in a book. There is more engagement with pictures/other modes and learning is better suited for the students. I think in the future print-based textbooks will become something of the past and used as a secondary resource on an e-reader or ipad application. With the changes in education and more focus on developing deeper understandings, I see more activity based learning activities and less reading from a book.
Chapter 5
"Many of the most prominent symbols in today's culture are invisible to certain students due to their lack of experience or prior knowledge" (Serafini, 2014, p. 62).
This quote caught my attention because I've seen this instance happen in my classroom. I had a student telling me about studying September 11th and how they read it was an attack but didn't understand why it was the World Trade Centers or why it happened in New York. He also showed me the picture of the firefighters raising the American flag amongst the rubble and asked me why is this in the book. I immediately had to take a moment because I was shocked that he had no clue. These students were born in 2004 and have no clue about recent history and the implications that came from that event. I think the question about the image was just as shocking. He realized it was the flag and that it represented something but he couldn't express what that something was. I tried my hardest to describe and make that even clear to him but without his prior knowledge, he was lost. I think many of our symbols can't be understood by students because they were not there due to lack of experience or because of lack of knowledge. The same can be said for my generation about the Vietnam War because we were not there to experience it and thus we can't fully understand all they symbols that go with that period of time. In addition, the hippie movement made a huge impact on that generation and I believe my generation cannot fully understand it's meanings with it's peace symbols and words of love because our frame of reference and/or experience is inadequate.
2. Find an image, symbol or motif and upload it to your blog.
Used with permission http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%97%D0%B2%D1%91%D0%B7%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%87%D1%8C#mediaviewer/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:Van_Gogh_-_Starry_Night_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
3. Conduct a content analysis:
- What do you see? A landscape, buildings, the sun, some stars, and a dark object/brush on the left.
- What is the image about? This image is about the night sky and a calm effect.
- Are there people in the image? What are they doing? How are they presented? There are no people in the image. The people are represented by the houses at the bottom of the hills.
- Can the image be looked at different ways? Explain how the image might be interpreted from two different socio-cultural perspectives. Which perspective is dominate? This image can most certainly be looked at in different ways. One way to interpret the image is to believe the image is of a calm, happy setting where there are no worries and the world is a peaceful place. This interpretation could be viewed by someone whose socio-cultural perspective is more optimistic, and less negative because they have not had to struggle with life. On the other hand, a person who has had a hard life, or has not been educated socially could say this was a negative image with the black object in the foreground acting as an ominous element that is about to destroy the calm of the town. Because this work of art is so dynamic, it is hard to say which is the most dominate, but I would have to do with the optimistic side where the town is calm and protected.
- How effective is the image as a visual message.
- I believe this image sends a strong visual message, but it would not be good for a specified reaction that a marketing firm for a car company would use.
4. Conduct a visual analysis: Use the Chapter on Elements of Art, Design and Visual composition to assist your visual analysis.
- How is the image composed? What is in the background, and what is in the foreground?
- The image is composed with an object on the left, a town in the middle ground and the night sky in the background.
- What are the most important visual elements in the image? How can you tell?
- The most important visual elements in the image are the black object, the sun/moon, and the night sky. I can tell these are the most important because they elicit the most attention from my eye. They are also the biggest elements in the image.
- How is color used?
- Color is used in creative ways. The blues and yellows are used to represent calm and the black is used as a contrast.
- Can the image be looked at different ways?
- The image can be looked at in different ways based upon the viewer's experiences, cultural influences, and preferences.
- What meanings are conveyed by design choices?
- The meanings displayed by the design choices of color, line, size and scale, orientation, and shapes describes various meanings.
- color - blues mean serenity, calming
- line - the boldness and style of the lines used suggests movement and flow to the entire piece.
- size and scale - the size of the buildings is de-emphasized because they are smaller and the black object is emphasized because it is larger and more prominent in the painting.
- orientation - the painting is in a landscape orientation which suggests calming and a soothing and comfortable experience.
- shape - circles are evident in the painting as well as curves that elicit a reaction of comfort and protection.
References:Serafini, F. (2014). Reading the visual. New York: Teachers College Press.
You make a very good point in the Chapter 3 quote. We do view the world from our own experiences. I think this is a very good point to note. And as teachers we need to remember this. I know that we are referring to multimodal texts but just in written text I've interpreted a story differently than the teacher in the classroom. I know they have a guide to direct them in their teacher handbook on how to interpret a text and I know that it is not an interpretation from the author. It's alway by some "guru" of literature. But it has always upset me. Sometimes swimming in a pool is just swimming in a pool not a need to return to the mother's womb. I think that story from college regarding "The Swimmer" will always upset me. There is another one that really got me too in college. It is not that i'm not open to interpretation but sometimes it is hard to view something that abstractly and be forced to.
ReplyDeleteAs a science teacher myself - LOVE your ideas on the quote from Chapter 4. And if I'm not mistaken, just due to the fact that science texts are so expensive they are being phased out. As they should. Science evolves too fast to capture it in a textbook and keep it there for 4 or 5 years (or even more). iPads are much more effective and the multimodal approach that can be added to it would b so much better. I like to see what I'm learning. So using the visual would very much satisfy visual learners.
I love the image you chose, it is one of my favorite paintings-- I have a copy of it hanging above my bed :) I agree with your response to your quote from chapter 5. I think it is important to teach students about the history of America and the world, but sometimes we need to focus on more of the things that have happened recently rather then 100s of years ago (don't get me wrong, history is very important), but students don't even understand things that happened even 20 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI too said that my image could be viewed in different ways. I feel that anytime you look at a painting it can be viewed and interpreted in different ways, even if the artist wanted to convey something, there are still many ways to view an image. Some people look at paintings and it doesn't appeal to them at all, other look at it and see or feel a whole different way.
Gina-I really liked your quote that you chose from Chapter 3. I liked the thought that every one walks a different life and that what works for one may not work for others! I think this holds extremely true for teachers and students. Not every student learns the same or has the same experiences so it is important to learn what works for them! Great post!
ReplyDeleteI really think we can use images to help student understand events that happened 100 year ago. Images can evoke emotional responses in different ways the alphabetic print text. The boy that was curious about the 9/11 photo because the image is powerful and emotional. An analysis of that image could have provided him with a better understanding of the mindset of Americans at the time who were determined to rise up from the tragedy.
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