resources for narrative and conceptual meaning

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resources for narrative and conceptualmeaning

• EDBT6122

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Focus

• Link from research on visual literacy
• To Syllabus documents
• To practical in class activity

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Key points

• Images have a semiotic system and grammar - the
  choices construct meanings - versions of
  reality
• Visual grammar (K v L 1996 style) runs parallel
  to verbal grammar
• Words rely on logic of time and sequence and
  images rely on space and simultaneity

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Time and sequence

• The man wobbled on a board while juggling rings
  and keeping a box balanced on a ball on top of
  his head as a bee flew through the rings

Space and simultaneity
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" children actively experiment with the
representational resources of word and image, and
with the ways in which they can be combined.
Their drawings are not just illustrations of a
verbal text, not just 'creative embellishment'
they are part of a 'multimodally' conceived text,
a semiotic interplay in which each mode, the
verbal and the visual, is given a defined and
equal role to play." Kress and van Leeuwen p118
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Theory of semiotic systems( how we make meaning)

• Remember theory from writing lectures three
  metafunctions in communication (ideational,
  interpersonal and textual) which are realised in
  the register variables of field, tenor and mode.
• This theory is behind the English K-6 syllabus
  but the language it is expressed in is
  traditional grammar.

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Meaning for action or classification

• Narrative patterns serve to represent unfolding
  actions and events, processes of change,
  transitory spatial arrangements. They involve
  participants doing something to or for another.

• Conceptual patterns represent participants in
  terms of their class (classificatory), structure
  (analytical) or meaning (symbolical).

The cat is chasing the mouse. My netball team has
nine players in it. Four girls are really tall
and two are short and three are medium height.
Thinking moment - how would you represent these
statements in images?
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What metalanguage do we have?
Interactive
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What metalanguage is in the K-6 English syllabus?
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what is the motivation to use this metalanguage
in the classroom?

• We are working towards building up an explicit
  metasemiotic knowledge base.
• Why? Because children need to move
• from the informal to the
• systematic, from concrete to
• abstract understandings of
• the world, from the spoken
• to the written.

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Using visual literacy in the stage 3 classroom
context - learning to view

• The class is studying early industry in
  Australia. They are to discuss what the working
  conditions for shearers were like based on a
  range of sources.

Half the class is given the image and they are to
represent the information in terms of a graphic
organiser of factual information and then write
it up as an discussion of the pros and cons of
working life.
The other half of the class is given a text
description of the life of a shearer in the
sheds. They are to convert the information using
a graphic organiser into an image that represents
key points.
Shearers in the 1800s
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glossary

• Graphic organisers visual means of representing
  written information in logical patterns

Venn compare and contrast
Topic sentence and facts
Cycle format
fact
fact
topic
topic
fact
fact
fact
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Narrative as action in material events

• Transactional an action carried out on
  something visible (a goal) seen in vector lines
  from actor towards goal

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Conceptual images

• Classification by relationship or taxonomy
• Overt if a superordinate or category label is
  given

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Covert if no category label is given
Netball teams
tigers
pumas
tabbycats
need to have equivalence in size, orientation to
viewer and objectivity
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Analytical images

• Images that show part whole relationships
• If labelled then structured analytical
• The whole is the carrier
• and the parts the
• possessive attributes,
• e.g. maps

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Suggestive

• Symbolism is carried within the image and often
  the detail of the image is de-emphasised to
  create a mood the equivalent of metaphor in
  written text

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Using visual literacy in the stage 3 classroom
context - learning about viewing

• Text analyst role in another lesson using the
  same image students are asked to discuss the
  image in terms of visual grammar resources. How
  has the illustrator chosen to represent our
  history using ...
• classification (write up as overt taxonomy)
• analytical (write up as carrier attributes)
• symbolic (write up as list of suggestive
  attributes)
• transactional processes (write up as list of
  actions)

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Interactive structures

• visual resources construct the nature of
  relationships between viewers and what is viewed.
• contact
• social distance
• attitude
• power
• realism
• coding orientation

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Coding orientation - what counts as real

• Naturalistic
• Schematised
• abstract

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Learning about evaporation
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Using visual literacy in the stage 2 classroom
context - learning to view

• Text analyst role in a science lesson students
  are asked to categorise the images in terms of
  visual grammar resources.
• Attitude frontal angle, closely involved
• Social distance close up, the hand could be
  ours
• Power high angle
• Coding orientation naturalistic

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Using visual literacy in the stage 2 classroom
context - learning about viewing

• How could students transform the text to be more
  scientific and less participatory?
• Students are to discuss what effect the images
  had on their appreciation of the topic in terms
  of engagement, links to their own lives and
  understanding of scientific concepts.
• Students are to redesign the text changing the
  level of coding from naturalistic to schematic or
  abstract.

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Compositional structures

• are concerned with the distribution of the
  information value or relative emphasis among
  elements of the text and image.
• information value
• framing
• Salience

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The reading path

• The way the eye moves around the page
• It starts at the point on the page where the eye
  is drawn to most
• Therefore framing and salience are very
  important when planning text layout

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Using visual literacy in the stage 3 classroom
context - learning to view for information
What is the reading path of this text? Give
students a copy on which they number the 7 images
in order of their importance and reading logic
related to the main topic. They must justify
their reasons.