Peter Smagorinsky

Reading as Mediated and Mediating Action: Composing Meaning for Literature Through Multimedia Interpretive Texts

Researchers are increasingly attentive to the need for broader conceptions of literacy. Expanded notions of what constitutes a text have led to the recognition of nonverbal acts of composing as having potential for both the development of new ideas during composing and the representation and further mediation of ideas through the production of and reflection on finished texts. Furthermore, studies in both intertextuality and intercontexuality point to the need to view both reading and composing as extended semiotic processes that are mediated, enabled, and constrained by a variety of situational social factors. This research analyzes the effort of a small group of high school seniors to interpret the character of Laertes in Shakespeares Hamlet through a body biography, a lifesized human outline that they filled with images and words that represented their understanding of the character. The research examines their discussion as they composed their text, identifying the contextual constraints that structured their activity, the social processes they engaged in within those constraints, and the intertextual connections they used during their production. The analysis reveals the ways in which the process of collaborative multimedia composing has the potential to (a) enable exploratory discussion that leads to new ideas during the process of composing, (b) provide students with multiple vehicles for developing and representing meaning through the multifaceted tool kit of cultural tools available to them, and (c) provide students with opportunities to produce representations of meaning—both mental and artifactual—that in turn serve as the basis for reflection, mediation of ideas, and subsequent development into new forms of representation. Through this extended process of composition, students evoke images of literary meaning, discuss and produce a shared representation, juxtapose their interpretive text to the interpreted text, and revise their interpretive text to better depict the meaning they find in the interpreted text. n n n nLOS INVESTIGADORES estan cada vez mas atentos a la necesidad de contar con concepciones mas amplias de la alfabetizacion. Nociones expandidas sobre lo que constituye un texto, han llevado al reconocimiento de que actos no verbales de composicion tienen potencial, tanto para el desarrollo de nuevas ideas durante el proceso de composicion, como para la representacion y medicion posterior de las ideas a traves de la produccion de textos y la reflexion sobre los textos terminados. Mas aun, los estudios sobre intertextualidad e intercontextualidad apuntan a la necesidad de concebir la lectura y la composicion como procesos semioticos extensos que son mediados, posibilitados y restringidos por una variedad de factores sociales situacionales. Esta investigacion analiza el esfuerzo de un pequeno grupo de estudiantes secundarios avanzados para interpretar el personaje de Laertes en Hamlet de Shakespeare, a traves de una biografia corporal, un perfil humano que completaron con imagenes y palabras que representaban su comprension del personaje. La investigacion examina las discusiones mientras componian el texto, identificando las restricciones contextuales que estructuraron la actividad, los procesos sociales en los que se involucraron y las conexiones intertextuales que usaron durante la produccion. El analisis revela las formas en las que el proceso de composicion colaborativa multimedia tiene el potencial de (a) permitir la discusion exploratoria que conduce a nuevas ideas durante el proceso de composicion, (b) proveer a los estudiantes con mutiples vehiculos para desarrollar y representar el significado a traves del conjunto multifacetico de herramientas culturales a las que tienen acceso y (c) proveer a los estudiantes con oportunidades de producir representaciones del significado - tanto mentales como materiales - que a su vez sirvan como base para la reflexion, mediacion de ideas y desarrollo posterior de nuevas formas de representacion. A traves de este extenso proceso de composicion, los estudiantes evocan imagenes de significados literarios, discuten y producen una representacion compartida, yuxtaponen su texto interpretativo al texto interpretado y revisan el texto interpretativo para reflejar mejor el significado que encuentran en el texto interpretado. n n n nWISSENSCHAFTLER WIDMEN der Notwendigkeit erweiterter Konzeptionen des Lesens und Schreibens erhohte Aufmerksamkeit. Erweiterte Vorstellungen von dem was ein Text ausmacht, haben zu der Erkenntnis von nicht-verbalen Ausdrucksmoglichkeiten der Gestaltung gefuhrt, und zwar als Potential fur beides: der Entwicklung neuer Ideen wahrend der Zusammenstellung und der Darstellung, und der erweiterten Vermittlung von Ideen durch das Erschaffen und reflektive Betrachten der verfertigten Texte. Ferner, Studien in beidem, der Intertextualitat und Interkontextualitat, weisen auf die Notwendigkeit hin, beides - das Lesen und Ausgestalten - als ausgedehnte bzw. erweiterte semiotische Prozesse anzusehen, die vermittelt, ermoglicht, und eingeschrankt werden durch eine Vielfalt situations- und gesellschaftsbedingter Faktoren. Diese Forschung analysiert das Bemuhung einer kleinen Gruppe von Oberstufen-Gymnasiasten den Charakter von Laertes in Shakespeares Hamlet durch eine grafisch-figurliche Biographie zu interpretieren, einen lebensumspannenden menschlichen Umris, den sie mit Bildern und Worten ausstatteten, welche ihr Verstandnis vom Charakter darstellten. Die Forschungsstudie untersucht ihre Diskussionen beim Zusammensetzen ihrer Texte, identifiziert die kontexturalen Zwange welche ihre Aktivitaten bestimmten, die gesellschaftlich-sozialen Prozesse mit denen sie sich innerhalb jener Zwange beschaftigten, und die intertexturalen Verbindungen, die sie wahrend ihrer Produktion benutzten. Die Analyse zeigt Wege auf, in welchen der Prozes von kollaborativer Multimedia-Komposition Moglichkeiten bietet (a) zur Befahigung einer erforschenden Diskussion, die wahrend des Prozesses der Komposition zu neuen Ideen fuhrt, (b) die den Oberschulern eine Vielfalt von Ausdrucksformen zur Entwicklung und sinnvollen Darstellung mit vielseitigen Hilfsmittels der ihnen zur Verfugung stehenden kulturellen Werkzeuge gibt, und (c) die den Oberschulern die Moglichkeit gibt, sinnvolle Darstellungen zu entwickeln - beides mental und kunstlerisch gestaltend - welche umgekehrt wiederum als Grundlage zur Reflexion dienen, als Ideenvermittlung, und folglich sich zu neuen Formen der Darstellung entwickeln. Durch diesen erweiterten Prozes von Komposition rufen die Schuler Spiegelbilder von literarischer Bedeutung hervor, diskutieren und produzieren eine gemeinschaftliche Representation, stellen ihren interpretativen Text dem interpretierten Text gegenuber und revidieren ihren interpretativen Text, um so besser die Bedeutung zu erfassen, die sie im interpretierten Text finden. n n n nDES CHERCHEURS portent une attention croissante au besoin de conceptions plus larges de la lecture-ecriture. Des conceptions plus vastes de ce qui constitue un texte ont conduit a la reconnaissance dactes non verbaux de redaction comme ayant potentiel pour le developpement a la fois didees nouvelles lors de la redaction et de la representation et pour une mediation ulterieure des idees a travers la production et la reflexion sur des textes acheves. Mieux encore, des etudes a la fois sur lintertextualite et lintercontextualite montrent le besoin de considerer aussi bien la lecture que la redaction comme des processus semiotiques medies, rendus possibles, et contraints par tout un ensemble de facteurs sociaux situationnels. Cette recherche analyse les efforts dun petit groupe deleves de college pour interpreter le personnage de Laertes dans le Hamlet de Shakespeare a laide dune biographie corporelle, une silhouette a lechelle dune vie humaine quils ont completee avec des images et des mots representant ce quils avaient compris du personnage. La recherche analyse leur discussion lors de la redaction du texte, identifiant les contraintes contextuelles qui ont structure lactivite, les processus sociaux quils ont investis au sein de ces contraintes, et les liaisons intertextuelles quils ont utilisees pendant la production. Lanalyse revele de quelle facon le processus de redaction multimedia cooperatif a le potentiel de a) rendre possible une discussion exploratoire qui conduit a de nouvelles idees pendant le processus de redaction, b) fournir aux eleves de multiples moyens pour developper et representer une signification a laide de la boite a outils multifacettes doutils culturels dont ils peuvent disposer, et c) fournir aux eleves des occasions de produire des representations de signification- aussi bien mentales que techniques- qui a leur tour servent de base a la reflexion, la mediation des idees, et le developpement ulterieur de nouvelles formes de redaction. Au travers de ce processus de redaction elargie, les eleves evoquent des images de signification litteraire, discutent et produisent une representation partagee, juxtaposent leur interpretation du texte au texte interprete, et revisent leur interpretation du texte pour mieux depeindre la signification quils trouvent dans le texte interprete.

The Reliability and Validity of Protocol Analysis.

Rhetoricians and researchers have vigorously debated the reliability and validity of protocol analysis findings. Social science scholars have contended the value of verbal data since their original use in the 1920s. This article reviews the history of verbal data in a variety of fields, places protocol analysis in its historical context, and examines more recent claims and criticisms regarding protocol analysis, concluding that protocol analysis, when conducted according to certain principles, can be an important addition to the repertoire of tools for researching the composing process.

Constructing Meaning in the Disciplines: Reconceptualizing Writing across the Curriculum as Composing across the Curriculum.

Writing has often been characterized as having special powers as a tool for promoting learning, as evidenced by the belief that writing across the curriculum should be established as a means of promoting thinking in all disciplines, even those in which a written product is not historically valued or useful. Theory and research in semiotics and multiple intelligences provide the foundation for an alternative view supporting the notion of composing across the curriculum, with a composition referring to any text that is culturally appropriate to the discipline and participants. Research on artistic response to literature, furthermore, questions the extent to which writing ought to be privileged even in language arts classes in which writing has traditionally been the primary means of mediation and assessment. This article ultimately argues that educators ought to question the privileged status of the textual forms that they allow students to produce and consider the potential of other acts of composing for enabling students to develop thought.

Cultural Tools and the Classroom Context: An Exploration of an Artistic Response to Literature.

That writing has unique powers for promoting learning has become a given among many composition teachers and researchers. Peircean semiotics suggest that writing is one of many forms of composing available for mediating thought and activity, and that the value of any form of mediation depends on the context in which it takes place. The present study used stimulated recall to elicit a retrospective account from an alternative school student following his production of an artistic text representing his view of the relationship between the two central characters in a short story. The students account indicates that in composing his text he (a) initiated his interpretation by empathizing with one of the characters, (b) produced a graphic representation and transformation of the relationship between the two central characters, (c) situated his text in an intertext, and (d) produced a text that both shaped and was shaped by his thinking. Furthermore, the “text” he produced through the stimulated recall interview likely involved a reconsideration as well as re-representation of the graphic text he had drawn, thus enmeshing the investigative method itself with the students growing realization of the meaning of his work. His account suggests that nonlinguistic texts—when part of an environment that broadens the range of communication genres available to students—can help students construct meanings that are appropriate to school activities and learning.

The Social Environment of the Classroom: A Vygotskian Perspective on Small Group Process.

Many Language Arts educators have argued that teacher‐led discussions of literature limit students participation and focus their attention on the teachers agenda rather than enabling them to construct meaning for themselves. Alternative classroom structures, such as small group discussions, have been proposed to empower students in literary analysis and to invest them in classroom discourse. However, researchers have conducted little systematic study of small group process to substantiate them as an alternative. Vygotskys theory of the social influences on learning provides the framework for an exploratory study of the relationship between patterns of discourse in teacher‐led discussions of literature and in the small group discussions that follow them in an instructional sequence. The data suggest that small groups, when enacted in classrooms in which the teachers discourse (a) enables students to provide their own broader social and conceptual context for the literature, and (b) explicates analytic ...

The Reader, the Text, the Context: An Exploration of a Choreographed Response to Literature.

Much current theory about response to literature stresses the readers active role in constructing meaning, with reader, text, and context affecting the responses of individual readers (Beach, 1993). Response to literature, like most classroom interaction, tends to take a linguistic form. In a supportive classroom environment, however, a range of response media can potentially mediate students transactions with literature. The present exploratory study used stimulated recall to elicit a retrospective account from two alternative school students who choreographed a dance to depict their understanding of the relationship between the two central characters in a short story. In their account they indicate that in composing their text they (a) initiated their interpretation by empathizing with the characters, (b) represented the characters relationship through spatial images and configurations, and (c) used the psychological tool of dance to both represent and develop their thinking about the story. Their thought and activity were further mediated by the social context of learning, including the communication genres of the classroom, their own interaction, their teachers intervention, and the stimulated recall interview itself. Their account illustrates the way in which reader, text, and context participate in a complex transaction when readers construct meaning for literature. Their experience also illustrates the ways in which the values of an instructional setting influence the extent to which learners may take advantage of the psychological tools available to them for growth.

The Depth and Dynamics of Context: Tracing the Sources and Channels of Engagement and Disengagement in Students' Response to Literature

In this article, we analyze one coauthors 12th-grade English class, focusing on a small group of students who interpreted the character of Gertrude in Hamlet through a body biography, a life-sized human outline that students filled with words and images that represented their understanding of the character. We analyze the body biography production as a function of the social context of activity and then analyze the processes of composition involved in their production. Analysis of the data reveals that (a) the students exhibited different degrees of commitment to and involvement in the group task, (b) the degree of equity in productivity and social relations varied within the group in accordance with these different degrees of engagement, and (c) the inequity in social relations and contributions to the group product belied the degree to which the final interpretive product met the teachers assessment criteria. We conclude with a reconsideration of the notion of engagement that includes attention to both the immediate social relations within the classroom and the histories of engagement that students bring to class.

Personal Growth in Social Context: A High School Senior's Search for Meaning in and through Writing.

The different emphases that theorists and teachers place on the product and process of writing in their accounts of how writers construct meaning have been influenced by different traditions of Western thought that have historically been at odds: Whereas the designative tradition focuses on the ways in which artifacts of speech mediate peoples thinking, the expressive tradition focuses on the transformation of inner speech to public speech, thus emphasizing the ways in which the activities of speaking and writing promote changes in consciousness. In this article, through the analysis of the writing of a high school senior, it is argued that these two positions are not mutually exclusive, but rather are complementary aspects of a semiotic view on writing. The primary data set is a “situated protocol”—that is, a think-aloud protocol, including both concurrent and retrospective accounts of writing process, conducted over a 4-month period. Through the protocol analysis and analysis of related data, I examine the ways in which this students writing experiences reveal the interrelated roles of both designative and expressive functions of writing. The analysis also reveals that the writer found the situated protocol itself to be an enduring means of development and reflection and a tool for meditation.

READING THROUGH THE LINES: AN EXPLORATION OF DRAMA AS A RESPONSE TO LITERATURE

After the Anglo‐American Seminar on the Teaching of English at Dartmouth College in 1966, the American representatives at the conference emphatically supported a resolution to adopt the British practice of allowing drama a greater role in the language arts curriculum, citing its potential for promoting human growth. Yet whereas other aspects of language arts instruction, such as writing and response to literature, have strengthened their roles in the curriculum through their increased emphasis on personal development as an instructional goal, drama has remained on the periphery of language arts instruction and English education scholarship. Current theories of semiotics suggest that in using nonwritten text media, learners engage in important communicative, developmental, and reflective processes. In an exploratory study, we used stimulated recall to elicit a retrospective account from 4 students of their dramatization of a short story. All of the students were enrolled in an alternative school for recove...

Graves Revisited: A Look at the Methods and Conclusions of the New Hampshire Study.

Donald Graves has achieved wide recognition for propounding a method for teaching elementary students how to write that stresses unstructured expression of personal experiences. He uses his case study of sixteen New Hampshire children as a research base providing proof of the efficacy of this method. However, his observations from this study qualify as reportage more than research. The work of the Graves team in New Hampshire represents a demonstration of teaching ideas that work well under favorable circumstances. Because he never considers negative evidence for the hypotheses he is testing, his work does not constitute research.