NCTE and IRA's Standards for the English Language Arts (page 5) says this:
"Being literate in contemporary society means being active, critical, and creative users not only of print and spoken language but also of the visual language of film and television, commercial and political advertising, photography, and more. Teaching students how to interpret and create visual texts such as illustrations, charts, graphs, electronic displays, photographs, film, and video is another essential component of the English language arts curriculum. Visual communication is part of the fabric of contemporary life." I found the above paragraph in an article in a recent Language Arts magazine devoted to accounts of students working with multimedia. This particular article is called "Exploring Freedom and Leaving a Legacy: Encacting New Literacies With Digital Texts in the Elementary Classroom" which I started reading thinking it might lead me into a direction in my new (little) job. Speaking as an American woman with two children in their late 20s, I certainly agree that we are living in an increasingly visual culture. There have been many discussions here about "creating readers" and worrying about just right books, and getting kids to like reading, wanting students to read longer books for longer amounts of time, reading a variety of genres, etc. etc. and all this is good but the fact is that much of what people intake today is visual, and I expect that will increase as time goes on so attention to visuals and the reading of all kinds of visuals seems like an important piece of the pie. In Kindergarten we celebrate readers who know what they need to do when they see a stop sign or who can distinguish between McDonald's and Wendy's and Taco Bell, so with older students it makes sense to steer them toward making sense of visuals of all kind. I like the idea of having parents learn the reading strategies by applying them to television. :-) Renee On Nov 29, 2006, at 3:55 AM, Joy wrote: > Reading this reminds me of when my now grown children started watching > MTV. I decided I could ban it, or sit with them and help them navigate > through the parts I considered objectionable. I taught them critical > thinking skills through a context they could identify with, and > instilled social values at the same time. I remember many discussions > we had about certain inappropriate clothing, lack of clothing, and > objectionalbe themes. I later appreciated the time we spent together > when my daughter expressed disdain for a certain female popstar's > choice of material, costume, actions, and overall appearance. > > While personally I'd rather have my students and their parents > reading books, I think viewing television and other media with a > critical eye is important in the world we live in today. > > > > Joy/NC/4 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and > content go hand in hand. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org > > > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------- > Access over 1 million songs - Yahoo! Music Unlimited. > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/ > mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > "Learning isn't a means to an end; it is an end in itself." ~ Robert A. Heinlein _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
