Drawings as an Alternative Way of Understanding Young Children’s Constructions of Literacy
TL;DR: This article used young children's drawings about reading and writing as an innovative way of investigating their perceptions and understandings of literacy across the broad contexts of their lives, and challenged the politics of classroom practices that privilege language-dependent modes of representation over other modes.
Abstract: As teachers seek to reflect children’s diverse experience in the subject matter they present and in the questions they explore, they must also embrace children’s multifaceted ways of knowing. Their major pedagogical challenge is to help children transform what they know into modes of representation that allow for a full range of human experience. In their lives outside of school, children ‘naturally move between art, music, movement, mathematics, drama, and language as ways to think about the world [...]. It is only in schools that students are restricted to using one sign system at a time.’ (Shortet al., 2000: 160). This study uses young children’s drawings about reading and writing as an innovative way of investigating their perceptions and understandings of literacy across the broad contexts of their lives. The study challenges the politics of classroom practices that privilege language-dependent modes of representation over other modes.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the use of video to collect dynamic visual data in education research has been investigated and it has been argued that using visual technologies to collect data can give new insights into classroom interaction.
Abstract: This article reports on the use of video to collect dynamic visual data in education research and proposes that using visual technologies to collect data can give new insights into classroom interaction. Video data unveil how young children use the full range of material and bodily resources available to them to make and express meaning, forcing a reconsideration of Vygotskian accounts of the relationship between thought and language by producing grounded evidence for a pluralistic interpretation of the construction and negotiation of meaning. In addition to challenging language-biased approaches to classroom interaction, using video to collect data also forces a reexamination of established methodological practices. Drawing on data from ESRC-funded ethnographic video case studies of 3-year-old children communicating at home and in a preschool playgroup, this article discusses methodological and ethical dilemmas encountered in the collection and transcription, or representation, of dynamic visual data, arguing that visual data gives insights into aspects of communicative behaviour previously unaccounted for in early years education research.
242 citations
Cites background from "Drawings as an Alternative Way of U..."
...Research in this field has begun to investigate the attributes of forms of meaning-making other than language, including drawing (Anning and Ring, 2001; Ring, 2001; Anning, 2003; Kendrick and McKay, 2004), model making (Pahl, 1999, 2002, 2003), physical actions (Franks and Jewitt, 2001) and combinations of ‘modes’, such as pictures, diagrams, gesture, words (Kress, 1997; Kress et al....
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...…to investigate the attributes of forms of meaning-making other than language, including drawing (Anning and Ring, 2001; Ring, 2001; Anning, 2003; Kendrick and McKay, 2004), model making (Pahl, 1999, 2002, 2003), physical actions (Franks and Jewitt, 2001) and combinations of ‘modes’, such as…...
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TL;DR: The authors argue that it is important to trace the process of sedimenting identities during text production, and they focus on identities as socially situated, focusing on children's ways of being and doing in the home, their habitus.
Abstract: The commentary argues for an understanding of how texts are put together that accounts for multimodality and draws on children's ways of being and doing in the home, their habitus. It focuses on identities as socially situated. It argues that it is important to trace the process of sedimenting identities during text production. This offers a way of viewing text production that can inform research into children's text making. Particular attention is paid to the producer, contexts, and practices used during text production and how the text becomes an artifact that holds important information about the meaning maker. Four case studies describe sedimented identities as a lens through which to see a more nuanced perspective on meaning making. This work offers a lens for research and practice in that it enables researchers to question and interrogate the way texts come into being.
Este comentario apunta a la comprension de un tipo de organizacion textual que de cuenta de la diversidad de modos y considere las formas del ser y del hacer de los ninos en el hogar, su habitus. Se pone el acento en las identidades en cuanto socialmente situadas. Se argumenta que es importante indagar en el proceso de consolidacion de las identidades durante la produccion de textos. Esto ofrece una manera de ver la produccion textual que podria dar informacion acerca de la elaboracion de textos por parte de los ninos. Se presta particular atencion al productor, contextos y practicas usadas durante la produccion textual y a como el texto se convierte en un artefacto que contiene informacion importante acerca del generador de significados. Cuatro estudios de caso describen identidades consolidadas como una lente a traves de la cual puede tenerse una perspectiva mas matizada de la construccion del significado. Este trabajo ofrece una lente para ver la investigacion y la practica de un modo que permita a los investigadores cuestionar e interrogar la forma en que surgen los textos.
Der Kommentar argumentiert fur ein Verstehen wie Texte zusammengestellt werden, die fur die Multimodalitat bestimmend sind und bezieht sich auf die Art und Weise wie sich Kinder im Hause, ihrem Habitus, geben und was sie unternehmen. Man konzentriert sich auf gesellschaftlich festgesetzte Identitaten. Es wird argumentiert, dass es wesentlich ist, den Verlauf des Sedimentierens von Identitaten wahrend der Texterstellung zuruckzuverfolgen. Dies bietet eine Moglichkeit die Texterstellung zu beurteilen, welche die Erforschung bei der Erstellung von Kindertexten informativ beeinflussen kann. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit wird dem Verfasser, den Inhalten und den wahrend der Texterstellung angewandten Praktiken geschenkt, und wie der Text zu einem kreativen Schrifterzeugnis wird, das ebenfalls wichtige Informationen uber dessen Sinnkonstrukteur beinhaltet. Vier Fallstudien beschreiben sedimentierte Identitaten als eine Art Optik, durch die man eine wesentlich nuanziertere Perspektive zur Sinnkonstruktion erkennt. Dieses Werk bietet eine solche Optik zum Betrachten von Forschung und Praxis, wobei es die Forscher in die Lage versetzt, die Art und Weise wie Texte entstehen, in Frage zu stellen und zu untersuchen.
Ce texte essaie de comprendre comment les textes sont mis ensemble pour rendre compte de la multimodalite, et esquisse les manieres d'etre et de faire des enfants a la maison, leur habitus. Il se centre sur les identitees en tant qu'elles sont socialement situees. Il soutient qu'il est important de suivre le processus de sedimentation des identites au cours de la production de texte. Ceci ouvre une perspective sur la production de texte qui peut informer la recherche sur la facon dont les enfants font un texte. Une attention particuliere est apportee au producteur, aux contextes, et aux pratiques mises en œuvre pendant la production du texte et a la facon dont un texte devient un objet construit comportant une information importante sur celui qui fabrique le sens. Dans quatre etudes de cas on presente les identites sedimentees comme une loupe qui permet d'avoir une perspective plus nuancee sur la fabrication du sens. Ce travail apporte une loupe considerant la recherche et la pratique comme permettant aux chercheurs de mettre en question et d'interroger la facon dont les textes arrivent a l'existence.
В настоящем комментарии дается толкование механизмов создания текста, которые основаны на полимодальности и связаны с ежедневным существованием ребенка в родном доме, то есть с его средой обитания. Личность в этом контексте – явление социально обусловленное. И важно проследить отражение личности в созданном тексте – как некий постепенный процесс. Благодаря такому подходу можно рассматривать не просто текст как продукт, но исследовать механизм его создания, ответить на вопрос: как именно это делают дети? Особое внимание уделяется создателю текста, контексту, в котором создается текст, способам его создания и тому, каким образом текст становится артефактом, содержащим важную информацию о создателе нового смысла. В статье проанализированы четыре отдельных случая отражения личности в созданном тексте. В этих примерах, как в увеличительном стекле, видны все нюансы и особенности создания новых смыслов. Данная работа предлагает рассматривать исследования и практику под определенным углом, дающим исследователям возможность разобраться, как именно возникают тексты.
202 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the ways in which young emergent bilingual children begin to develop literacy in two languages, Spanish and English, from a qualitative socio-psycholinguistic perspective, using case studies of four-year-old Mexican-background children and their families living in southern Arizona.
Abstract: This article explores the ways in which young emergent bilingual children begin to develop literacy in two languages, Spanish and English.Three case studies of four-year-old Mexican-background children and their families living in southern Arizona are presented from a qualitative socio-psycholinguistic perspective. The children’s home and classroom interactions were observed and analyzed for patterns of language and literacy in their two languages. The findings show that these emergent bilinguals learn and develop their own ‘theories’ and ‘concepts’ about language and literacy from an early age. The conversational participants and interlocutors were among the factors that directly influenced children’s development of language and literacy in Spanish and English. In addition, context was another important factor that contributed positively to the development of their emergent bilingualism and biliteracy. Finally, I discuss the language-literacy strategies that these Mexican-background children use as they ...
138 citations
Cites background from "Drawings as an Alternative Way of U..."
...For example, Kendrick and McKay (2004) interpret drawings as a representation of the knowledge that children are constructing and developing within their everyday interactions in their communities, with their families, and in school....
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TL;DR: In this article, a semiotic analysis of children's practices and designs with video game conventions is presented, which considers how children use play and drawing as spatializing literacies that make room to import im...
Abstract: In this article, semiotic analysis of children's practices and designs with video game conventions considers how children use play and drawing as spatializing literacies that make room to import im...
112 citations
Cites background from "Drawings as an Alternative Way of U..."
...Knowledge about genres and conventions of multimedia texts integrates into schooled literacy in writing classrooms when children are encouraged to write about their interests (Dyson, 2003; Kendrick and McKay, 2004; Leland and Harste, 1994)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe a multifaceted, complex experience where thought, body and emotion unite in children's mean-making-making, where rich and intricate creations are brought to life through children's formation, communic...
Abstract: YOUNG CHILDREN'S MEANING-MAKING is a multifaceted, complex experience, where thought, body and emotion unite. Rich and intricate creations are brought to life through children's formation, communic...
106 citations
Cites background from "Drawings as an Alternative Way of U..."
...The affordances of the medium of drawing, combined with the medium of telling, allow each of these symbolic domains to enrich and inform the other (Kendrick & McKay, 2004; Thompson, 1995; Wright, 2003a, 2005)....
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...In other words, they choose the system which is most effective for a particular form of communication at a particular time (Kendrick & McKay, 2004; Short, Kauffman & Kahn, 2000)....
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References
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TL;DR: In this paper, Cole and Scribner discuss the role of play in children's development and play as a tool and symbol in the development of perception and attention in a prehistory of written language.
Abstract: Introduction Michael Cole and Sylvia Scribner Biographical Note on L S Vygotsky Basic Theory and Data 1 Tool and Symbol in Child Development 2 The Development of Perception and Attention 3 Mastery of Memory and Thinking 4 Internalization of Higher Psychological Functions 5 Problems of Method Educational Implications 6 Interaction between Learning and Development 7 The Role of Play in Development 8 The Prehistory of Written Language Afterword Vera John-Steiner and Ellen Souberman Notes Vygotsky's Works Index
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02 May 1996TL;DR: This chapter discusses representation and interaction, morality, and the materiality of meaning in the Semiotic Landscape - Surface and Inscription.
Abstract: Introduction 1. The Semiotic Landscape 2. Narrative Representations: Designing Social Action 3. Conceptual Representations: Designing Social Constructs 4. Representation and Interaction: Designing the Position of the Viewer 5. Morality: Designing Models of Reality 6. The Meaning of Composition 7. The Materiality of Meaning - Surface and Inscription 8. The Third Dimension
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01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: The authors argue that the multiplicity of communications channels and increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in the world today call for a much broader view of literacy than portrayed by traditional language-based approaches.
Abstract: THE NEW LONDON GROUP 1 In this article, the New London Group presents a theoretical overoiew of the connec tions between the changing social environment facing students and teachers and a new approach to literacy pedagogy that they call "multiliteracies. " The authors argue that the multiplicity of communications channels and increasing cultural and lin guistic diversity in the world today call for a much broader view of literacy than portrayed by traditional language-based approaches. Multiliteracies, according to the authors, overcomes the limitations of traditional approaches by emphasizing how ne gotiating the multiple lingustic and cultural differences in our society is central to the pragmatics of the working, civic, and private lives of students. The authors maintain that the use of multiliteracies approaches to pedagogy will enable students to achieve the authors' twin goals for literacy learning: creating access to the evolving language of work, power, and community, and fostering the critical engagement necessary for them to design their social futures and achieve success through fulfilling employment. If it were possible to define generally the mission of education, one could say that its fundamental purpose is to ensure that all students benefit from learning in ways that allow them to participate fully in public, community, and economic life. Literacy pedagogy is expected to play a particularly important role in ful filling this mission. Pedagogy is a teaching and learning relationship that creates the potential for building learning conditions leading to full and equitable social participation. Literacy pedagogy has traditionally meant teaching and learning
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Book•
18 Aug 2005TL;DR: The authors provides a coherent and accessible overview of the work of the New London Group, with well-known international contributors bringing together their varying national experiences and differences of theoretical and political emphasis, dealing with issues such as: * the fundamental premises of literacy pedagogy * the effects of technological change * multilingualism and cultual diversity * social futures and their implications on language teaching.
Abstract: Multiliteracies considers the future of literacy teaching in the context of the rapidly changing English language. Questions are raised about what constitutes appropriate literacy teaching in today's world: a world that is both a global village yet one which local diversity is increasingly important. This is a coherent and accessible overview of the work of the New London Group, with well-known international contributors bringing together their varying national experiences and differences of theoretical and political emphasis. The essays deal with issues such as: * the fundamental premises of literacy pedagogy * the effects of technological change * multilingualism and cultual diversity * social futures and their implications on language teaching. The book concludes with case studies of attempts to put the theories into practice and thereby provides a basis for dialogue with fellow educators around the world.
2,601 citations
"Drawings as an Alternative Way of U..." refers background in this paper
...Kress (2000) provides a strong argument for taking a completely fresh look at multimodality in theories of communication, and re-evaluating how we use different symbol systems to communicate and represent meaning....
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...However, as Kress argues, the two modes – art and language – are ‘embedded in distinct ways of conceptualising, thinking, and communicating’ (Kress, 2000: 195)....
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...(Kress, 2000: 194) Despite recent rhetoric about the importance of sociocultural context and semiotics in language and literacy policy debates, policy continues to focus almost exclusively on language with little or no reference to other modes of representation....
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...Kress points out that ‘the general assumption is that language is a communicational and representational medium which is fully adequate to the expression of anything that we might want to express: that anything that we think, feel, sense, can be said (or written) in language’ (Kress, 2000: 193)....
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