Supporting Literacy Through the Visual Arts 1

Running Head: SUPPORTING LITERACY THROUGH THE VISUAL ARTS

Supporting Literacy through the Visual Arts:Developing New Literacy Skills for the 21st Century Learner

Monica Moyano

Western Oregon University

INTRODUCTIONFor 21st century students, visual images and social media are an integral part of their language and learning medium. Students communicate and share knowledge through images, symbols, video and interactive interpretation using a wide range of media from text messages to snapchat, and video diaries on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to using the World Web as their textbooks. Although we live in an exciting time of information technology, traditional structured literacy programs often stifle students motivation to read and learn in an effort to hold on to the lost art of reading. Visual art has the potential to invigorate and support literacy development for todays students who are acculturated in a society that learns through the universal language of images, symbols and icons. This literature review strives to answer the question how can the imaged based literacy practices of the 21st century learner be integrated into classroom practices to support critical literacy skills. To understand how visual arts support critical literacy skills, the current use of visual images in technology and social media should be analyzed to understand how students today are using the medium for communication and learning. Prensky (2001) describes todays learners as digital natives who process information differently and have new thinking patterns. Cramer (2014) states that an arts-based literacy curriculum that integrates multiple way of knowing helps students develop creative thinking skills and nourish the imagination. Sweet (1997) pointed out the possible handicapping effect that a narrow definition of literacy can have on children with varying competencies. Broadening the definition of literacy to include the representation of visual and communicative arts can make school relevant across cultures and various backgrounds. In researching the topic of using images as a cognitive and aesthetic approach for enhancing literacy skills, four distinctive themes became apparent. These themes include reading images in multimodal text, the relationship between visual arts and literacy, thinking critically about representation and meaning, and implementing arts-based strategies in the classroom. Each theme discussed in this paper reflects a key component in understanding how the visual arts support literacy skills for 21st century learners according to researchers to be of the highest quality. READING IMAGES: MULTIMODAL TEXT Reading is the process of forming a perception based on the imagery, form, and language of the text, translated through the experience of the reader (Cramer, Ortlieb, & Cheek, 2007). However, we read much more than just traditional printed text. We also read images. Students today live in a visually rich multimedia world. They regularly encounter and create meaning and knowledge through images and visual media. However, merely participating in a visual culture does not prepare students to engage critically and effectively with images and visual media in an academic environment. Students across all levels and disciplines are required to use and produce images and visual media in their academic work and they must be prepared to do so (Hattwig, Bussert, Medaille & Burgess, 2013). Visual literacy competencies should be developed in conjunction with textual literacy skills. Cramer (2014) refers to this comprehensive method of multimedia learning as the semiotic approach to learning. Picture books are multimodal texts that have been a stable feature of elementary classrooms for many years (Kress, 2003). By learning to read images in picture books, students develop greater literacy comprehension skills. Picture books tell stories in both words and images. Authors and illustrators frequently exploit the interaction, or synergy (ONeil, 2011), of the two media as a means for relaying a complex and meaningful story to young readers. Shelby Wolf (2014) describes the intent of picture book authors and illustrators as: They want to guide us in how to feel, and they use a number of pictorial elements including size, color, shape and line as well as a varying media and artistic styles to enhance the feeling. From the very first look at a book, you get a message about its content. (p. 234)This means that the image and text are completely fused. The visual elements and printed text work as a singular unit to convey the entire story line. Illustrations are an important method for conveying and developing meaning in picture books whether its the physical appearance of the character and how they relate to the events unfolding in the story, an atmosphere to enhance the story line or a discrepancy between the text and images that leads to an understanding of a larger message. According to Serafini (2011) for several years, various reading educators and researchers have recommended the use contemporary, complex and postmodern picture books with adolescent readers (Sipe & Pantalelo, 2008) to help students develop visual literacy skills. Anstey and Bull (2006) claimed that contemporary or postmodern picture books provide a bridge from the text-based literacies of the traditional middle-high school classroom to the multilieracy skills necessary for the future. Learners today are becoming more reliant on the internet using multimodal texts to learn and communicate. Harry Broudy (1987) suggested that the ability to decode the elements of an image is central to the capacity to think. Broudy claimed that from a phenomenological epistemology, the capacity to generate, analyze, and synthesize concepts requires cultivation of the imagination as an instrument for learning (p. 278). This means that by learning to understand and analyze what you are looking at you are able to extract meaning to form new ideas and perspectives. Educational researchers are in support of the arts as a catalyst for thinking and learning. Eisner (2002) endorsed the arts in education as a means of enhancing imagination and creative thought: We do indeed see in our minds eye (p. 4). Moreover, Eisner claims that the arts help us create our lives by expanding our consciousness, shaping our dispositions, satisfying our quest for meaning, establishing contact with others, and sharing a culture (p. 4). Research shows that for children of all ages, examining and understanding how art and text interact contributes to the readers ability to visualize while they read which is essential to being a proficient reader. RELATIONSIP BETWEEN VISUAL ARTS AND LITERACYBy teaching students knowledgeable perception of artwork, they will learn how to be more skeptical and informed viewers of all visual media. Perkins (1994) has a brilliant explanation of the educationally beneficial relationship between literacy and the arts through his examination of works of arts as a means of learning to think by looking at art. He explained how the visual arts support the development of habits of mind through a sensory or aesthetic connection because works of art call forth our personal involvement Looking at art requires us draw on various types of cognition and encourages us to make connections with other domains of human experience (p. ix). This means that by practicing the visual examination of art, students will learn to think more critically about what they are seeing and that critical thoughtfulness will translate into other cognitive skills for learners. Like literature, visual art is a system of meaning. We need to consider that there are facts, principles, rules, and ways of making and understanding art that are learned through an educational system and/or a social structure that determines how a culture sees and experiences the world (Chanda, 2004). At a fundamental level, examining an image for clues to nature of character or for a deeper notion of setting is no different from the daily observations students make throughout their minutia of life. However, artists use illustrations to carry deeper and more subtle connotations portrayed through choices of style, media and the formal language of art known as Elements of Art and Principals of Design. This visual language stems from the culture in which the artist lives and works and communicates meaning to members within the culture. In a similar way that authors use language to create texture and mood, artists also employ a set of techniques a visual languagewith which they can evoke emotions and conjure up specific settings. When students become more adept at decoding the implications of works of art and illustrations through shared readings and discussions with educators, they can derive increased levels of nuanced complexity in the literature. In addition to the technical process used to render various elements in a picture, the way the elements are composed can also affect the overall impression. For instance, an object or character depicted in a highly intense hue against a dark background will become the focal point of the composition. Moreover, the size and placement of the character in the setting can imply tone and predict narrative elements; whether a character is represented large and in the foreground of the setting or smaller and overlapped by these same setting elements can affect how well the viewer relates to the character (ONeil, 2011). The setting itself can play a role in establishing the tone of the story. Schwartz (1982) wrote, So, too natural landscapes in the illustrations in childrens books are an important symbolic means of expression. They offer depth to childrens imaginary experience; they strengthen their sense of beauty, belonging, and identification with their small intimate world; beckon them in the shape of landscapes presented as ideal or open for the liberating vistas of faraway sceneries where elemental forces range. They may serve as symbols for abstractions such as tension and direction (flowing water), rhythms of change (the sea, the seasons), and for the seemingly eternal (mountain ranges, the desert). (p. 55) Schwartz is referring to the fact that pictures provide students with the necessary tool to help them develop the setting and storyline in their minds which is particularly important since the child may not have the life experience to understand abstractions or relate to the setting. By learning to identify the visual elements and understand compositional techniques used to illustrate a visual message to communicate thoughts and emotions in addition to objects and actions, students can develop visual literacy skills and thus generate a greater comprehension of the text in picture books. Whether building vocabulary or developing an appreciation for irony, readers can benefit from a greater sense of the meaning derived from illustrations. Reading comprehension increases when students become aware of the culturally connected meanings of visual elements and level of interaction pictures have with the text. Evidence of this is documented in The Champions of Change: The impact of the Art on Learning (Fiske, 1999) which is a compilation of research that involves seven major studies including research teams led by Shirley Brice Heath of Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Steve Seidel with Harvard Universitys Project Zero, and James Catterall with the Imagination Project at the University of California. Catterall worked with over 25,000 students to provide evidence of how learning is enhanced through involvement in the visual arts. His study specially referred to the potential of the arts to offer different ways of thinking and representing knowledge (Catterall, Chapleau, & Iwanaga, 2009). Findings indicate that a discourse of literacy is created as students think through, share, and discuss their interpretations of images for communicating in role as an artist using common language and a disposition for thinking, creating and interpreting. Evidence shows that students have stronger personal connection to the learning experience when new text and concepts are introduced with with visual images followed by a negotiation of meaning through discussion. Symbols and images are a universal language therefore; the visual arts provide a means for multiple cultures to find common ground for understanding each other and the world. According to the National Visual Arts Standards, the visual arts provide an aesthetic environment of learning, seeing and creating where individual emotions, intuitions and feelings matter which allows students the opportunity to learn with their whole being through their body, voice, mind and imagination (National Art Education Association, 2008). The visual arts can teach students to think by using multiple literacies to express themselves and communicate with others in a meaningful way through a common language -the image which is particularly important for todays 21st century visual learners. THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT REPRESENTATION AND MEANINGStudents today are exposed and interact with texts that contain elaborate visual images, unusual narrative structures, complex design elements and unique formats. Moreover, websites, expository texts, magazines, textbooks, advertisements, and graphic novels require that students simultaneously process written text, visual images and graphic design elements to construct meaning. The visual art can provide a platform for developing thinking dispositions for 21st century learners by providing a canvas of thinking routines that teach students to think through the use of visuals and multiple forms of communicating and representing meaning. Cramer (2014) claims that incorporating the visual arts in literacy education elevates art in education from a past time or interest to a meaningful method of learning and provides multiple ways of knowing and understanding across the various disciplines. Research shows that particular cognitive strategies such as visualizing, summarizing, questioning and predicting are successful tools in supporting readers comprehension of written text. Pedagogical frame works for teaching cognitive strategies have been proposed in conjunction with this collection of research. Nevertheless, the complex messages contained in visual art require readers to use different strategies for constructing meaning than the aforementioned cognitive strategies. Students today need to use visual literacy skills simultaneously with text. Distinct logics govern written text and visual images. Written text is governed by the logic of time or temporal sequence. Visual images are governed by the logic of spatiality, composition and simultaneity (Kress, 2003). Due to these differences, the cognitive strategies that focus on comprehending written text will not be sufficient to help learners comprehend the various modes of representation and meaning incorporated in multimodal text. Therefore, educating students to the various components of multimodal texts is an essential aspect of contemporary literacy instruction. According to Anstey and Bull (2006), as students begin to work more frequently with these multimodal texts in school, educators will need new instructional strategies, vocabularies and knowledge to support critical thinking about visual representation and meaning.

IMPLEMENTING ARTS-BASED LITERCY STRATEGIES IN THE CLASSROOM In order to maximize on the benefits of integrating visual arts into literacy instruction, educators need to create a learning environment conducive to interactive meaning construction where critical thinking is visible. Critical thinking should be developed as a disposition which defines the character of the student as learner, reader and scholar (Ritchhart, 2002). The cognitive act of critical thinking involves developing a perspective, questioning an assumption, casting doubt, seeing something through the eyes of another, reflection, wondering, inquiring, creating and visualizing. Research shows that literacy skills increase when educators implement an effective arts-based literacy model. Data indicates that Beth Olshanskys (2008) art-base literacy model proved to increase literacy achievement and standardized test scores especially for at risk readers. Her extensive studies with over 12,000 students indicated that the language of pictures and the language of words are equally important languages for learning (p. 11). This means that when images and words are used simultaneously, students develop more comprehensive communication skills. The understanding of the visual images begins with the perception of the visuals that artists, illustrators and graphic designers use to communicate to a reader. If readers cant understand particular elements, they cant draw from them during interpretive processes. Once particular elements have been identified and named, teachers should ask students to consider and discuss what these elements mean within the sociocultural and compositional context of the image. Kess and van Leeuwen (1996) created an extensive taxonomy of the grammar and structures of visual design. This provides educators with various lenses for attending to and interpreting visual images. The National Art Education Association (2013) identifies three components of visual grammar that are essential for comprehending visual images and multimodal text these include composition, perspective and visual symbols. By teaching student how to identify and understand each of these components and communicate them using visual grammar, students can develop the skills needed when navigating or interrogating the complex visually dominated multimodal text of today internet. Figure 1 illustrates a question guide for educators to use to when teaching the three components of visual grammar; composition, perspective and visual symbols (Serafini, 2011).

Figure 1 Guide for Analyzing Visual Structures What is foregrounded, and what is included in the background? What catches your eye first? What are the dominant colors? What effect do they have on you as reader? How is white, or negative, space used? Are the illustrations framed or full bleed? How does this position you as a viewer? Is the image symmetrical or does one section (top-bottom, left-right) dominate the image? How does this add to the meaning of the image? What is the artist trying to get you to look at through leading lines, colors, contrast, gestures, and lighting? How are size and scale used? What is large? Why are certain elements larger than others? How does this add to the meaning of the image?

CONCLUSIONAs literacy educators move from the traditional text of novels and standardized testing passages used in the classroom to the visually dominated text of the internet today, they will need to be more intentional in their instruction to address new strategies and theories that will be useful for making sense of multimodal texts (Gillenwater, 2014). Readers need to draw from a new set of strategies, vocabularies and processes for interpreting the visually dominated texts used to communicate and make sense of their world. Using the perspectives of visual art theory, criticism, and language and media literacies provides educators with an alternative set of strategies and interpretive processes for expanding their students literacy development. In order to teach literacy skills necessary for 21st century learners, educators need to use a progressive literacy model. The function of a contemporary literacy model is to open up the interpretive spaces educator provide through the expectations they set, the responses they endorse, the texts they select, and the strategies they demonstrate in order to expand students multimodal literacy skills (Walsh, 2010). In todays classroom, teachers need to extend their own understanding of a variety of perspectives, theories, and practices used to comprehend visual images, graphic design, and multimodal texts. In addition, its essential to understand that each visual medium has a language, structure and syntax which needs to be understood in order to effectively communicate (Harste,2014). Visual art theory and criticism, the language of visual design, and media literacies direct the readers attention on various aspects of multimodal texts. These perspectives also provide a variety of analytical tools necessary for interpreting and interrogating multimodal texts. Integrating new visual literacy theories and practices in the classroom can expand readers perspectives and support multimodal literacy skills necessary for the 21st century learner.

References

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Monica Moyano - 2015