Frank Serafini

Expanding Perspectives for Comprehending Visual Images in Multimodal Texts

The texts that adolescents encounter today are often multimodal, meaning they incorporate a variety of modes, including visual images, hypertext, and graphic design elements along with written text. Expanding the perspectives readers use to make sense of the multimodal texts is an important aspect of comprehension instruction. Moving beyond the traditional cognitive strategies often incorporated in instruction frameworks for comprehending written texts, this article presents three additional perspectives for comprehending visual images. Examples from each perspective are included to help middle and high school teachers expand the strategies students draw from to interpret and understand visual images and multimodal texts.

Expanding the four resources model: Reading visual and multi-modal texts

Freebody and Luke proffered an expanded conceptualization of the resources readers utilize when reading and the roles readers adopt during the act of reading. The four resources model, and its associated four roles of the reader, expanded the definition of reading from a simple model of decoding printed texts to a model of constructing meaning and analysing texts in sociocultural contexts. This article continues the reconceptualization of the four resources model to four resources or social practices for reading–viewing multi-modal texts. Drawing on research and theories from visual culture, semiotics, critical media studies, grammars of visual design and multi-modal analysis, the expanded four resources or social practices are reader-viewer as (1) navigator, (2) interpreter, (3) designer and (4) interrogator. Each resource-practice is described in detail and the interpretive repertoires required of reader-viewers transacting with multi-modal texts from each perspective are considered.

Comprehension Strategies for Reading Historical Fiction Picturebooks.

As the texts readers encounter in and out of school grow in complexity, the strategies that teachers demonstrate and encourage students to employ need to expand to accommodate the changing nature of these texts. In this article, the authors present a three-part framework for utilizing historical fiction picturebooks as instructional resources. First they share various strategies for previewing a text, and calling students’ attention to the visual, textual and design elements of historical fiction picturebooks. Second, various strategies are presented for moving beyond noticing to strategies for interpreting what has been presented in the visual and verbal text. Third, they suggest several strategies for moving beyond interpretation to develop readers’ ability to critically analyze the historical perspectives and contexts of these texts. In this article, the authors guide readers through the reading of two historical fiction picturebooks while modeling how to employ strategies for reading multimodal texts.

Typography as Semiotic Resource

Abstract >The typography of written language not only serves as a conduit of verbal narrative, it serves as a visual element and semiotic resource with its own meaning potentials. In conjunction with an analysis of selected contemporary picturebooks, a framework for considering how typography adds to the meaning potential in contemporary picturebooks is presented. Beginning with a brief discussion of the concept of multimodality, picturebooks as multimodal texts, and an overview of the use of typography in picturebooks, this article presents a framework for analyzing and interpreting typographical elements in contemporary picturebooks.

The Changing Face of The Novel

This article uses Dresangs dimensions of radical change to call attention to the evolving structures and features of novels for young readers being published today. The controversial topics and elaborate design features contained in contemporary novels, for example, the expansion of dystopic fiction, the disruption of traditional narrative structures, and the utilization of meta-fictive devices, present challenges for young readers. Due to these challenges, teachers need to become more sophisticated readers of contemporary novels if they are to expand their pedagogical approaches and classroom resources.

Reading workshop 2.0: Children's literature in the digital age

As readers encounter childrens literature in new formats and modes of delivery, the basic processes of reading, sharing, discussing and analyzing texts will change. Because of these changes, new instructional approaches and resources will be required to support the development of young readers in a Reading Workshop 2.0 environment. In a Reading Workshop 2.0 environment, readers might read childrens picturebooks and novels on e-readers, share their ideas on web-based discussion boards and analyze texts using digital tools and resources.

Meaning Making With Picturebooks: Young Children’s Use of Semiotic Resources

ABSTRACT As part of a year-long, classroom-based research study examining literacy instruction and development, the research team observed emerging decoders draw from a range of semiotic resources while reading picturebooks. Utilizing a case study approach, the researchers selected eight first graders to act as a representative case, and examined their interactions with multimodal picturebooks. Analysis of students’ interactions led to the development of a typology of semiotic resources that students used to make meaning with picturebooks including typographical features, paralinguistic features, design features, illustrations, and background knowledge. Analysis also revealed that students articulated meaning in three distinct ways: explicitly, inferentially, and performatively. Findings suggests that traditional ways of assessing emerging decoders may not fully represent their meaning making practices.

Looking at Children's Literature from Two Perspectives.

Although the worlds of professors and author-illustrators of childrens and young adult literature are closely related, they rarely intersect in practice. In this column, readers are provided with a new perspective that crosses this divide. The authors are both professor of childrens and young adult literature, as well as accomplished authors and illustrators or trade books. Their unique vantage point allows the authors to share insights gained from working in these related but separated worlds. Teachers will enjoy the suggestions for classroom instruction and the look “behind the scenes” that emerges from this intersection.

Expanding Analytical Perspectives on Children’s Picturebook Apps

Research on the nature and impact of book apps or e-reading in general is still limited and informed by diverse assumptions about the nature of these new “texts,” the varied forms of engagement and meaning-making associated with them, and their implications for understanding literacy and learning in the digital age. The purpose of this article is to explore the affordances and constraints inherent in an examination of children’s picturebook apps through multiple analytical frameworks—in this case drawn from social semiotics, film analysis, and game studies. After outlining these frameworks in the context of our evolving new media landscape, we move on to more detailed analyses of the children’s picturebook app The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from each of these perspectives. We conclude with lessons that might be learned from juxtaposing these analytical frameworks and suggest implications for literacy education, research, and practice.

Looking Closely at Informational Texts: Considering the Role(s) of Mentor Texts for Kindergarten Children

ABSTRACT To fully consider the potential of informational texts to serve as mentor texts in the elementary classroom, the authors propose an inquiry about the intersections among the author’s intentions, instructional contexts, a teacher’s approaches, and students’ responses to informational texts when contemplating the roles these texts might serve. In this article, the authors investigate how the intentions of the author-illustrator, classroom teacher, and students relate and differ when introducing an informational picture book in the context of an inquiry-based kindergarten classroom. The analysis involves the perspectives of a children’s author-illustrator, a classroom teacher, and kindergarten students as they self-selected an informational picture book to use as a mentor text.