Rebecca Barone

I Never Thought I Would Read This Much: Becoming a Reader.

Abstract The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the reading volume and book choices of fourth-grade students and how they identified as readers. Students were encouraged to read 50 books independently. The results showed that students read throughout the year. Grade-level readers described themselves as being a part of the book, while above- and below-grade-level readers identified by their rate of reading. All students increased in reading achievement as measured through assessments.

Fifth Graders' Interpretations of "The Red Tree".

Fifth graders responded to a video of a picturebook, The Red Tree by Shaun Tan. They had not experienced explicit instruction in visual literacy and their responses served as a foundation for basic understanding of their analysis. We learned that they focused on four major areas: emotional aspects; visual qualities, summaries of the story; and a text focus. They understood the character’s emotions and were able to interpret many of Tan’s images. It’s as if the author is quietly saying to you, “What do you make of this?” and then leaving you to your own devices. (Tan, 2011, n.p.) Tan’s words speak to the importance of interpretation of text, image, video, or the combination of any of these media sources, and he guides readers/viewers to consider the multiple ways into interpretation, particularly text created with visual image. He, further, brings attention to the shifting perspectives surrounding traditional views of literacy (reading and writing) to an incorporation of new literacies (Sanders & Albers, 2010). His work is most often grounded in the visual with limited text support. For instance, The Red Tree (2010) is a visual story of a young girl seeking life’s meaning. It was originally created as a picturebook but it has been reimagined as a video or film. In each of these formats, viewers are expected to create meaning either from viewing the images in the book or in viewing the video with sound and other visual, filmmaking elements added. Current literacy practices embrace knowing, seeing, and feeling because of engagement with textual, visual, or digital experiences. This fundamental reinterpretation of what it means to be literate is being integrated into schools throughout the world, as students engage with multimodal texts (Scheibe & Rogow, 2012). These shifts in understanding literacy show up within the Common Core State Standards. For example, in the majority of U.S. states, fifth graders are expected to: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.5.7Analyze An Online Journal for Teacher Research Networks: Vol. 19, Issue 1 ISSN 2470-6353 Summer 2017 Barone & Barone 2 how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2017). This redefinition of literacy affords equal importance to printed and visual texts. Although the importance of visual interpretation has been recognized (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996), teachers have continued to give preference to printed text (Hassett, 2006), a form with which they are more familiar. We, a teacher and university partner, developed an exploratory inquiry where we wanted to discover the nuances of what students knew about film interpretation without formal instruction (Eisner, 1991). Would they use print-based interpretation, visual analysis, or some combination? Rather than attempting to discover how students interpreted film after extended instruction; we wanted to gain an understanding of their initial interpretations so we could build upon existing knowledge to reframe literacy instruction. Multimodal Opportunities In classrooms, teachers make decisions about what students read, how they read, and ways they are expected to interpret their reading (Galda & Beach, 2001). Teachers can bring in visual representations through picturebooks and media, allowing students to interpret and value both. They too, in concert with their students, learn about the language and visual expectations required to comprehend and understand image. For instance, they learn to use the language of line, value, space, and movement (Martens, Martens, Doyle, Loomis, & Aghalarov, 2012). Several academic associations have written position statements to support and nudge teachers to expand their teaching to include multimodal literacies. For example, the National Council of Teachers of English (2005) created a position statement that included the following statement: “It is the interplay of meaning-making systems (alphabetic, oral, visual, etc.) that teachers and students should strive to study and produce. Multiple ways of knowing also include art, music, movement, and drama, which should not be considered curricular luxuries” (p. 1). Serafini (2010) argues that a shift from traditional text to multimodal opportunities requires a change in how teachers work with students. For students to understand visual components, they must analyze the ways images make meaning. Therefore, students must add to the text-based reading strategies that they have accumulated, as these strategies are ineffective in analyzing images. Serafini suggests that readers and viewers of multimodal texts must understand the perceptual, structural, and ideological perspectives that contribute to image. Including image suggests other classroom changes. For example, Pantaleo (2010; 2012) writes about the need for time for students to slow down perceptions so they can move beyond noticing images to an understanding of the images. Nikolajeva (2013) concurs in that she believes images contribute to emotional understanding. Students identify basic emotions like joy or fear by studying characters’ faces and expressions. Additionally, students engage in embedded mind reading where they interpret complex relationships and emotions such as how a character feels and what other characters think. Image allows for development of emotional intelligence and aesthetic appreciation of image. Networks: Vol. 19, Issue 1 ISSN 2470-6353 Summer 2017 Barone & Barone 3 As a multimodal medium, film is a newer addition to classrooms, whereas picturebooks have been traditionally a part of classrooms (Howells & Negreiros, 2012). Film has not always been treated as a text to be explored by students in serious ways; rather, it was often thought of as something to be enjoyed – a show often a reward (Apkon, 2013). When exploring visual media students consider color, line, texture, perspective, shape, lighting, and composition (Author, 2011; Rose, 2012). For example, students interpret color and how it affects the mood of the characters or they explore how angular lines create tension. In addition to these visual elements, students explore features of film which include: framing; shot distance; focus of shots; angle of shots; point-of-view; light; and panning (Duncum, 2013; Rose, 2012). Beyond these features, there is also music that enhances emotional response within a film. These findings influenced our work with fifth grade students. We were curious as to what students’ might focus on within a video interpretation. We wondered what they might think and how we could build from their initial interpretations to develop more complex understandings.

Are you a reader? 5th graders respond

The author tells the story of a 5th-grade teacher who challenges her class to take on self-identities as readers. Students defined seven characteristics of what it means to be a good reader and considered whether those characteristics applied to them: Good readers read for fun, talk about books, usually finish the book they’re reading, can relate to the characters in the book, often choose a specific genre to read, read with few distractions, and read at least two books each month.