Jerome C.

Harste
page
90
The Art of Learning to Be
Critically Literate1

E
very now and then, we really do have This goes for changing school curricula, too. In
breakthroughs in our understanding of lit- order to value new forms of literacy, our social
eracy and literacy learning. Two of the more practices—what we have often called methods—­
recent insights are “multiple literacies” and “liter- need to change.
acy as social practice.” Instead of one literacy, there I find it generative to think of curriculum as a
are multiple literacies (Street, 1995). In addition to set of social practices and then to begin to ask ques-
language, humans have developed a variety of ways tions: What kinds of social practices are in place
to mean (art, music, movement, etc.). This is what and, as a result, what kinds of literacies are valued?
the humanities are all about as well as why mov- Who benefits from the social practices that are cur-
ies have sound tracks, textbooks have pictures, and rently in place? Who is put in jeopardy? How might
why malls select what music they play very care- I better prepare students to become both visually
fully. It is also why Kress (2003) can make the case and critically literate? What social practices would
that the screen is overtaking the page in terms of its I put in place to demonstrate that I value visual lit-
communicative potential. eracy just as much as I value print literacy?
The notion of multiple literacies has several This is not a matter of walking away from what
important implications for how we think about lit- we already know. A good language arts program
eracy. Different cultural groups have different ways for the 21st century continues to be comprised of
of making meaning. Even further, different cultural three components: meaning making, “language”
groups induct their children into literacy in differ- study, and inquiry-­based learning, but (and this is
ent ways. Literacy means different things to differ- a big but) the emphasis is different. In this article,
ent groups depending on their contexts, cultures, I discuss these three components, followed by
and schooling. Closer to home, school literacy may four arguments as to why I believe the arts must
be very different from “everyday literacy,” or even be included in all aspects of a critically informed
literacy as the parents and students in your class literacy curriculum. I also discuss how to create a
may be thinking about it. As James Gee (2007) strong critical language arts program that critically
said, children are learning more literacy outside of positions languages as important to becoming a
school than inside. I tend to agree with him. critically literate being.
Instead of thinking about literacy as a com-
modity (something you either have or don’t have), Three Components of a Good
thinking about literacy as a social practice can be Language Arts Program
revolutionary. When coupled with the notion of Meaning Making
multiple literacies, literacy can be thought of as a
M. A. K. Halliday (1975) taught us that language
particular set of social practices that a particular set
did not develop because of one language user but
of people value. In order to change anyone’s defini-
rather because of two, and they wanted to com-
tion of literacy, the social practices that keep a par-
municate. What is true about language is also true
ticular definition of literacy in place have to change.

Language Arts, Volume 92 Number 2, November 2014

Copyright © 2014 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.

The Art of Learning to Be

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about other sign systems. Sign systems are first and to another. Moving across sign systems (from
foremost social meaning-­making processes. While language to art, video to art, art to language, for
Wells (1986) made this argument in relationship to example) has been shown to generate new ideas
language, I think it is inclusive of all sign systems: and new insights. Many teachers find that trans-
most of what we know we have learned from inter- mediation enlivens their reading program, while
acting with sign systems and being in the presence it also supports students’ comprehension. One of
of others messing around with sign systems in an the strategies that supports transmediation and that
effort to mean. What this means for today’s and I have used with students and teachers is Sketch-­
future classrooms is that students are going to con- to-­Stretch. After reading a story, students are asked
tinue to need lots and lots of opportunities to mean, to sketch what they think a text means (e.g., story,
not only in the form of reading and writing, but also video, poem, image). Sketch does not necessarily
in the form of nonprint-­based literacies. mean pencil to paper drawings; learners can and
One of the ways to talk about this is through should be encouraged to use a range of different
a process called transmediation (see sidebar), media (like tempera, markers, and clay) to sketch
or the movement of meaning in one sign system and stretch their ideas.

T ransmediation
Transmediation (Leland & Harste, 1994; Siegel, 1984, 1995; Suhor, 1984) involves taking something that you know
in language and moving that knowing to another sign system such as art, music, mathematics, dance, or drama.
Moving across sign systems (from language to art, for example) has been shown to generate new ideas and new
insights. Many teachers find that transmediation enlivens their reading program while also supporting students’
comprehension.

Materials & Procedures

• A piece of literature
• Musical instruments, audiotapes of musical selections
• Scarves or other props to support interpretive dance and drama (optional)
Read the story aloud to everyone or form small groups and give each a copy to read together.

Form four groups. After reviewing the text, students discuss the messages they think the author wanted to convey.
Group 1 expresses these messages through music, Group 2 expresses them through mathematics, Group 3 through
interpretive dance, and Group 4 through drama.

Each group presents their interpretation using as few words as possible. Students in other groups try to explain what
was expressed and how it connected to the book. Once these arguments have been made, members of each group
talk about their interpretation of the story and how it relates to their presentation.

Other Notes
Sketch to Stretch asks students to symbolize what the story means through a sketch. (This is different from drawing a
picture of a favorite scene and entails deeper thinking.) Typically students meet in small groups to talk about what the
story means to them before drawing. Sketches are shared with the entire class using the procedure described above.

It is important to vary the medium to keep an edge on learning. Introducing new forms of expression like clay,
collage, or puppets helps to achieve this goal. In addition, students might choose which sign system they want to use
in subsequent experiences.

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Figure 1 is a Sketch-­ to-­
Stretch by a stu-
dent after we watched a YouTube video titled
The Power of Words (https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=CNhYbJbqg-­Y). In short, the video fea-
tures a blind man sitting and listening to the pass-
ersby. Next to him is a sign, “I’m blind. Please
help,” which elicits a few coins from passersby. A
sighted person comes along and rewrites his sign to
read, “It’s a beautiful day, but I can’t see it,” after
which more and larger donations are given by pass-
ersby. The message of the video ends with “Change
Your Words, Change Your World.” This video sig-
nals to me the importance of languages—written,
visual, gestural—to encourage action. After view-
ing this video, the student in Figure 1 used lan- Figure 2. Students use Jacob Lawrence’s technique to make critical
statements about literacy.
guages to situate his meaning critically, and moved
it into a critical literacy statement about “help” as a
collective and social endeavor. using an artist’s technique to support their meaning
Another arts-­ based strategy that has proven making. Students watch a documentary on Harlem
successful over the years is “Save the Last Word for Renaissance painter Jacob Lawrence, The Glory of
the Artist” (Short, Harste, & Burke, 1995); it pre- Expression (Freeman, 1994), and mimic his tech-
pares learners to talk and act critically through art. niques in painting to create a critical statement of
The visual meanings that get produced are power- their own about literacy. This strategy provides
ful ways to talk about issues and situate learners to space by first having participants hypothesize what
become social actors in the world. Figure 2 repre- they think the artist was trying to say and then hear-
sents an engagement that I designed that invites stu- ing from the artist him-­or herself. More often than
dents to make critical statements about literacy by not, the use of art will generate and often invigo-
rate the discussion and the story by introducing new
meanings. Dramatizing—adding music, movement,
and dialogue—will do the same thing. In essence,
transmediation is a powerful way to think about the
complex meanings that are designed and created
within, between, and among sign systems.

“Language” Study
I have put quotation marks around the word lan-
guage to highlight that I am using the word met-
aphorically. I see all of the various ways we have
to mean (art, music, mathematics, movement, etc.)
as languages. Language study, therefore, not only
includes the study of language as a sign system,
but includes other sign systems as well: art, music,
movement, and others.
Figure 1. A student drew this Sketch-­to-­Stretch after watching a Too often in the past, we have reduced the study
YouTube video titled The Power of Words. of language to phonics in reading and spelling and

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grammar in the area of writing. I would argue that parsing pictures into quadrants for purposes of
that approach has never been good enough, but it identifying what is new information as opposed to
is even less effective when it comes to preparing what is given, assumed, or taken-­for-­granted. Stu-
21st-­century literate beings. Rather than think in dents become aware of focal points and how artists
terms of phonics, spelling, and grammar, I believe it get pictures to do the work they want by directing
is helpful to think about what kinds of literacy one the eye using vectors and color. We have found that
needs in order to read things critically. Bill Green while students learn much by studying commer-
(in Comber & Green, 1998) calls this “instrumental cial ads, they learn even more about the grammar
literacy.” Instrumental literacy is made up of all of of visual design by creating counter ads for the ads
those proficiencies one needs in order to be able to they have studied.
access a text and understand what it is doing to you By providing space for students to explore
as a reader. and create through a number of engagements, we
I think most of what is exciting about language emphasize the use of languages and the study of lan-
falls well above the phoneme and grapheme level guages to encourage deeper and critical understand-
of text, and yet we do very little to help students ings of how languages work on us to act, believe,
understand how “language” works. Students need and reproduce culture. These influences, of course,
to be invited to become linguistic and visual detec- have the potential to serve some more than others.
tives as well as encouraged to create texts that do
different kinds of work. It is especially important Inquiry-­Based Learning
that “everyday texts” be an integral part of our We can be sure that there continue to be critical
language arts program, as this is where literacy is issues of concern that we’re attempting to address—
occurring in the lives of our students. Gee (2007), poverty, homelessness, pollution, over-­utilization of
in fact, argues that today’s youth learn more about our natural resources . . . the list goes on. However,
literacy and what it means to be literate outside of there are no magic answers to these problems, nor
school than they do in school. In school, students is it likely that such prob-
can learn to examine the literacies that operate on lems will be solved sim- Most of what is exciting about
them outside of school and how they might position ply or single-­ handedly; language falls well above the
and reposition themselves differently in the outside we need to study these
world. Critical literacy, Hilary Janks says (2000, complex issues, and sup- phoneme and grapheme level of
2008, 2013), is about sign systems and power, port learning that is col- text, and yet we do very little to
including dominance, access, diversity, and rede- laborative and generative.
sign. No matter how it is said, literacy in the 21st Given this “reading” of help students understand how
century is not a spectator sport. our times, it should sur- “language” works.
To support language learners, we (Lewison, prise no one that I am an
Leland, & Harste, 2007, 2014) have developed advocate of inquiry-­ based collaborative learning
strategies that acquaint them with Fairclough’s dis- (Harste, 1990, 1993).
course analysis strategies (1989), Gee’s notion of What I want to see in curriculum is lots and lots
“cultural models” (1989), and Luke and Freebody’s of opportunities for students to explore their own
(1997) “Four Resources Model” (see Strategy Les- inquiry questions using reading, writing, and other
sons sidebar). We begin by using such things as sign systems as tools and toys for learning. For
birthday cards and newspaper headlines before today’s students and those in the future, I want to
moving on to more complex texts. produce learners who know how to use art, music,
We also introduce students to Kress and van drama, etc., to reposition themselves, gather infor-
Leeuwen’s (2006) grammar of visual design. Stu- mation, change perspectives, re-­theorize issues, and
dents learn how to deconstruct visual images by take thoughtful new social action.

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S trategy L essons

Language at Work What attributions are given agents?: (Gaddafi Is

Norman Fairclough’s discourse analysis strategies (1989) Dangerous)
are a way for students to begin to pay attention to Is agency unclear?: (War Erupts)—no agent; it just
language, the work it does in the world, and how it happened
can shape our perceptions. This is best done a few Is the agent an inanimate object?: (War, Peace)
times as a whole class and then students can break up What is the authority of one character in relation
in partners and small groups to do this analysis. to other?: (Gaddafi is singled out as a leader; the
Materials and Procedures Rebels as a mass of nonconformists)

Newspaper headlines on a common issue (“Gaddafi

Discourse Analysis for Kids
Strikes at Rebels,” “Rebels Are Attacked,” “Gaddafi
Jim Gee’s discourse analysis strategies (1999) can
Is Dangerous,” “War Erupts in the Middle East,”
be simplified and used with all students. It’s a way
“May Peace Reign,” “Peace Might Come after Talks,”
for students to begin to pay attention to language,
“Followers Bowed as Gaddafi Passed”)
the work it does in the world, and how it can shape
Examining words: perception. This is best done a few times as a whole
What formal or polite language is used? (May Peace class and then students can work in small groups to
Reign) do an analysis. We start with a greeting card because

How is respect for status or position shown? it has brief text; we then move to picturebooks and

(Gaddafi as opposed to Rebels; Followers Bowed poems.

as Gaddafi Passed) Materials and Procedures

Do words express positive or negative values to Greeting cards for a particular holiday (Valentine’s
readers? (Gaddafi is dangerous; Rebels signals Day, Halloween, Birthdays). Cards that are designed
nonconformists) specifically for boys, for girls, or that respond to a topic
Examining grammatical features: of interest like Barbie, NASCAR, etc. work especially
well.
How are grammatical forms used to express certain
messages? Examine the situated meanings of the card:
Active voice (taking responsibility): (Gaddafi Strikes What words are key?
at Rebels) What message do these words convey?
Passive voice (concealing responsibility): (War Erupts) How does the font impact the meaning?
How are conditionals used—may, might, should,
Examine the social languages of the card:
could, can, can’t, ought? (Peace Might Come after
Talk—the key agents needed to create the state Whose language is this?

of peace are not named or being considered) Where do people speak in this way?

What types of agency predominate? Examine the cultural models of the card:
What story world is set up by this card?
Direct Action: (Gaddafi Strikes at Rebels)—an agent
acts on something What would you have to believe for this card to
make sense?
Non-­directed Action: (Rebels Are Attacked)—they
just happened to be there with no part in this What symbols are important to the meaning of the
action card?

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Examine the card’s discourses by looking at the situated For characters and perspectives:
meanings, social languages, and cultural models Whose voices are represented and whose are
together: missing in this text?
What is this card trying to make you think? Why is _____ (character) so prominent in this text?
How does this thinking match with your own What would _____ (missing character) say if he/she
thinking? had a voice in this text?
Other Notes For plot and meanings:
Once students have become proficient in analyzing Which stories are privileged and which are
greeting cards, we move on to examining the marginalized in this text?
discourses in children’s literature. Picturebooks are a How would this story be different if it were told
good place to start because of their length and the from the perspective of ____ rather than _____?
careful use of language.
What views are represented in this text? Not
Becoming a Text Analyst represented?

Allan Luke and Peter Freebody (1997) believe that For positioning:
readers need to go beyond being proficient code
In what ways am I positioned within this text?
breakers, meaning makers, and text users and also
What did the author want me to believe after
become text analysts. Text analysts not only gain
reading the text?
personal and social meanings from texts but also
examine how the text is trying to position them. What are the ways this text could be rewritten to
reposition the reader?
Materials and Procedures
Any work of children’s or adult literature can be used.
(There are a number of questions that can be asked of
any text being read.)

Curriculum has historically been organized Don’t get me wrong. I think the disciplines are
around the disciplines. Students move through the important. But they are only important in relation-
school day by going from English to social studies to ship to the inquiry questions of learners. It is for this
science to any number of other disciplinary studies. reason that I want curriculum to begin with what is
Donald Graves (1994) called this “the cha-­cha-­cha on students’ minds; with what makes them itch; with
curriculum.” Students tick off subjects like they are what questions they have. Disciplines can and should
on a checklist: “I’ve taken science; done with that.” be introduced as perspectives that students can take
Even in college, they say, “I’ve taken women’s stud- in unpacking and understanding issues. The same is
ies; done with that.” Rather than invite students to true of the arts. Curricular invitations to explore what
use earth science or gender as a lens to examine their something looks like in art or music (say “Indianapo-
world, we have inadvertently reinforced the notion lis,” for example) can be absolutely illuminating.
that they are “done with that.” This is why, in part, As part of a summer institute that I teach,
the redesign of curriculum begins with reflexivity—­ inservice teachers study how to make content area
the self-­reflective interrogation and critique of what studies critical. This past summer, we invited Ryan
it is we have been doing. Rest assured, we all have Kerr to talk about his book, On Growin’ Up (2010).
had our hand in the cookie jar. After reading the book and listening to the author,

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students working in groups were asked to have a study, students created an art gallery featuring their
written conversation about the book on a big piece work, celebrating what they had learned about
of paper (see Fig. 3). Students began by jotting “group think” and minority targeting and inviting
down their first reactions. To bring closure to the the viewing public to keep vigil.
first part of this lesson,
Art renders back to us not students were also asked Four Arguments for Inclusion
to use the “big pages” we of Art in Curriculum
simply what we see, but
had placed on their tables As an artist and a literacy scholar (including study-
how we react to what we to record themes, pas- ing my own artistic process), I want to make four
sages, and questions they arguments for the inclusion of art in every aspect of
see and what we know as a
had about the book. One the school curriculum. First, art encourages learn-
consequence of that seeing. group was so motivated, ers to see more differently, more aesthetically, more
they conducted their own emotionally, more parsimoniously. White (2011)
Internet search of groups being targeted worldwide argues that “artists assimilate a whole range of psy-
and shared this information with the group. After- chological, aesthetic, political, and emotional data
wards, students created a gallery of their big pages points, and they then make forms to organize and
and then returned to discuss how other groups had give meaning to them” (p. 2). Art renders back to
responded in comparison to how their own group us not simply what we see, but how we react to
had responded. what we see and what we know as a consequence
Next, students were invited to think about times of that seeing.
when they had been marginalized and to respond by As an artist, I firmly believe in the value of
creating their own 4-­to 6-­page “growing up” book close observation, in slowing down to take note of
in the style that Ryan Kerr had used. An appealing our world. Drawing, sculpting, or putting together a
alternative, although it never occurred to us at the collage are more than tools for rendering and cap-
time, would have been to have students respond in turing likenesses. These processes transform per-
art on top of or using the very pages of the touch- ception and thought into images and teach us how
stone text itself (Simon, 2014). To culminate our both to see and to think with our eyes. While art is

Figure 3. Ryan Kerr presents his book On Growin’ Up (2010); afterward, participants engage in written conversation on a
big page.

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interested in elaborating, art invites, if not demands, deduction, the focus is on the logical conclusion of
the removal of excess. Art, like poetry, has the facts, data, and information.
power to sum up, to capture what is new long after Fourth, art affords agency—the ability to
the event itself (Fredrich, 1996). impose a different order on experience. Halliday
Second, art affords critical expression, the (1975) tells us that it is person-­to-­person interac-
questioning of taken-­for-­granted values. While art tions that allow us to develop a personality. Alone
is often associated with aesthetics, the advancement we are just a person. Through interaction with oth-
of art as a discipline accents talking back. I have ers, we come to see how we are alike as well as
found that my best works of art are transgressive; how we are different. Art
that is, they speak back to what has simply been allows us to explore who Art allows us to explore who
assumed or taken for granted. In “Casting a Long we are, how we are dif-
we are, how we are different,
Shadow,” for example (see Fig. 4), graffiti is posi- ferent, what makes us
tioned as a beautiful form of expression, reminding unique, what contribu- what makes us unique, what
me of a message I saw painted on a brick wall in tions we might make to
contributions we might make to
Toronto that read: “Billboards for the Rich; Spray the ongoing conversation,
Cans for the Poor.” even if our contribution the ongoing conversation.
Third, art affords abduction—the exploration differs drastically from
of possibility, creativity, and imagination. Accord- current thought. It is this difference that endows us
ing to Deely (2004), there are three forms of logic: with personality and imprints the art we produce
Induction, which is reaching conclusions based on a with a unique signature.
series of individual observations; Deduction, which
is hypothesizing a conclusion based on a theory; What is Critical about the Arts
and Abduction, which is the jumping to conclusions in Curriculum?
intuitively without an explicit set of arguments to Across this writing, I have emphasized what
follow. Art highlights abduction—the jumping to a comprises a strong language arts program, and
new conclusion without any clear path as to how the importance of art as a way to communicate. I
the abductor got there. Because abduction supports now turn to what is critical about the arts in cur-
intuition, it is the only form of logic that allows riculum, an intentional play on words. At once, this
newness into the system. Abduction means the subheading signals that the arts position curricu-
focus of art is on insight, whereas in induction and lum as a way to learn to read texts and the world
critically through our understanding of
languages, and it also identifies the criti-
cal importance of the arts in curriculum.
I have always said, “In order to be liter-
ate, you have to see yourself in literacy,”
not just in reading and writing, but in all
meaning-­ making experiences. I believe
that languages should be a part of a criti-
cal curriculum, and just as we ask our
students to learn to read and write, so
too should we ask them to understand
how other languages work when design-
ing, creating, and interpreting texts. We
need to open up what constitutes writing
and reading and begin to reimagine these
Figure 4. “Casting a Long Shadow” (mixed watermedia, Harste, 2012)

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experiences as ways to change the social practices by answering these questions: What significance
around language arts curriculum and learning. does this object have to you? How does this object
relate to your identity as a person and as a cul-
Writing ture? How does possession of this object position
As I see it, art should be seen as an integral part you in relationship to other groups, historically as
of the writing process. Writing, like art, is about well as in the present? Teachers wrote in response
a search for voice. I maintain that if you can get to these questions as well as used dramatic play to
students to write “what is on their minds,” the rest share their conclusions and insights. The owner of
may not take care of itself, but you will have come the fine writing pen, for example, began to see her
a long way toward creating a potentially great lit- artifact as coinciding with the values of the culture
eracy program. It starts, of course, with students in which she found herself, and with it, access to
being free to say or illustrate what is on their mind privileges that other immigrant groups did not have.
after reading a text, and to say it in different ways.
My experience says that if you have a restrictive Reading
reading environment, you In reading, we must continue to have “grand conver-
Discussions around texts have a restrictive writ- sations” (Peterson & Eeds, 1990) across all sorts of
ing environment. There is texts including literature, image, music, drama, and
are cultural practices that
not a separate part of the so on. Discussions around texts, for example, are
an important segment of our brain that handles writing, cultural practices that an important segment of our
another that handles read- society values and that we, as English language arts
society values and that we,
ing, and a third that han- educators, are mandated to pass on to future genera-
as English language arts dles art. Together the sign tions. Most likely, these are literature discussions,
systems create a commu- as literature is valued in our society. Yet, these same
educators, are mandated to
nication potential that lan- discussions are left unsaid in many classrooms
pass on to future generations. guage learners must freely when children bring objects and music, or produce
move within and across art and dramas in response to a topic. Nonetheless,
in an effort to mean in writing, reading, and in all it is now obvious that we need to expand the canon
communicative events and practices that occur in so that all participants can see themselves in litera-
the classroom. The figures in this article show the ture, not as “other” but as the main character, and to
significance of meaning making when it is reimag- see how image, music, drama, and so on also pres-
ined, extended, and written visually. ent characters and traits through which readers and
To make our writing programs critical, we first viewers see themselves.
need to free children up to write, and then we need This is why the use of literature, art, music,
to follow through by inviting them to unpack what drama, and so on must be centered on multicul-
they have written in terms of the social, historical, tural artists; we can then use these texts to raise
and cultural factors that have been at play to posi- important social issues, the key to making read-
tion their voices in certain ways. While no one can ing relevant (Leland, Lewison, & Harste, 2013).
write from nowhere, similarly no writing is inno- I think it is important that students understand that
cent. We grow by interrogating and understanding they have not read a book or a text until they have
our own positionality. had a conversation about it with someone else,
In our work with teachers in Toronto, we asked emphasizing Halliday’s (1975) point about the
them to bring in a cultural artifact that was impor- development of language and the desire to com-
tant to them. Regardless of what teachers brought municate. I also think it is important that students
in—a teapot, a fine writing pen, a beaded coin walk away feeling some social obligation to share
purse—we asked teachers to explore the histori- their growing insights with the rest of the world.
cal, political, and cultural significance of the object For this to become a regular part of curriculum,

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I am obligated as a teacher to set certain social about gender, literacy, picturebooks, illustrations,
practices in place. and so on.
To exemplify grand conversations across texts, This allows us to extend the conversation to
let me describe our classroom approach to pic- visual texts. Advertisements, commercials, and
turebooks. When we discuss picturebooks, we pay public service announcements (among others) need
special attention to the images that the illustra- to be “read” as well as interrogated. By having
tor has created. Although this is not a novel idea, students collect advertisements from teen maga-
discussing in depth both the art and the written zines as well as from the magazines their parents
text as languages is. A favorite of mine (which typically read, larger systems of meaning are often
really gets the conversation going) is I’m Glad exposed. Teachers in Toronto found that McDon-
I’m a Boy! I’m Glad I’m a Girl! by Whitney Dar- alds advertised their green salads in parent maga-
row (1970). Students read the written text along- zines, but in teen magazines, their Big Mac sand-
side the illustrations, carefully noting the juxta- wiches have the slogan, “Have you had your hands
position of image/words to engage in discussions on any buns lately?”

Grammar o f Visu al D esi gn

Visual Literacy2
Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) grammar of visual design is intended to assist viewers in understanding ways to
analyze art, photography, and advertisements. Viewers learn to identify the ideal and the real, the now and the new,
the use of color, and the work that vectors and gaze can do in a graphic image.

Materials & Procedures

Use any two pieces of art including text book images, posters, or professional photography.

1. Ask students to look at the photo and mentally divide it into quadrants. Tell them:
a. The top half of the picture is called the “ideal.”
b. The bottom half of the picture is called the “real.”
c. The left hand two quadrants are called the “here & now.”
d. The right hand two quadrants are called the “new.”
2. With this framework in mind, ask students to analyze the art and to share what they think is being said.
3. Ask students to identify:
a. The “center,” or the place where the eye falls when someone first looks at the picture.
b. The “vectors” (often called lines or alignments) that carry the eye up, down, or sideways across the picture.
Typically “vectors” go from “the real” to “the ideal” or from “the here & now” to “the new.”
c. The “colors” being used. Colors are often used to set moods.
d. The “gaze.” In pictures or photographs containing characters, the direction of the gaze often creates a vector
that moves the eye from one point to another. A gaze upward and off the page may suggest the future (an
idealized perfect state); a gaze downwards anchors the picture in “the real” or “the here & now.”
e. Any “exaggerations”—items drawn out of proportion to the rest of the items in the picture.
4. With this additional information in mind, ask student to revise as well as share their new interpretation of the
piece of art being analyzed.
5. To support students in further gaining confidence in analyzing visual texts, have them select a second piece of art
to first “read” and then share with the class what they think the art is trying to say.
6. As a culminating activity, students can be asked to make suggestions as to how the text they have been studying
might be redesigned to be more effective as a visual text.

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Social Practices authors and artists position readers. To be literate is
While what materials we read is an issue, even to be able to elect what identity one wants to take
more of an issue is what social practices we insti- on. Our goal needs to be to create agents rather than
tute around our discussion of texts. I like to think consumers of text.
of these social practices in terms of opening up new
Conclusion
spaces in the classroom for having some critical
conversations as well as much-­needed new conver- If asked to critique education, I would argue that
sations. We need to teach in such a way that students too often in the past, our English language arts cur-
enjoy a range of texts, but at the same time come to ricula have focused on meaning making with a half
see that languages are never innocent. Whose story hour of phonics thrown in for good measure. For the
is this? What would this story be like if it had been most part, studying language and other sign systems
written by someone very different from the current in terms of the work they do and how they do it has
author? What is this image showing us? How are been left out, as has providing daily opportunities
we implicated in these images? What is being taken to inquire into problems of personal and social rel-
for granted? What other ways are there to think evance to learners. No wonder, then, that students
about what is being discussed? learn more about literacy on the streets than they do
Discussions of this sort represent a new set in the classroom. This has to change. The real ques-
of practices around what it means to be a reader, tion that each of us has to ask is, “What kind of lit-
writer, and producer of text. Today’s students and erate being should inhabit the 21st century?” Asked
those in the future are going to have to be able to differently, “What kinds of lives do we want to live
interrogate texts for purposes of understanding how and what kind of people do we want to be?” For my

INT O T HE CL A S S ROO M W IT H RE A D W R I TETH I N K

Embedding Multiple “Languages” into Your Teaching
This article encourages us to think of languages in other ways, including art, music, movement and more. The
following resources from ReadWriteThink.org share ways to include those languages in your lesson plans and teaching
ideas.

“America the Beautiful”: Using Music and Art to Develop Vocabulary

This lesson uses music and art in a vocabulary study of unfamiliar words from the song “America the Beautiful,”
increasing students’ vocabulary while also increasing their knowledge of US geography. A discussion to activate
students’ prior knowledge about sights and scenery throughout the United States is followed by a read-­aloud
and an introduction to the song “America the Beautiful,” which is then sung in each session of the lesson.
Students learn the meanings of the song’s words through shared reading and the use of context clues and
images. Students then use photographs, illustrations, and descriptive language to create a mural shaped like
the United States. Finally, through pictures and words, students reflect on what they have learned. This lesson
is appropriate and adaptable for any patriotic event or holiday, and many of the vocabulary strategies are
adaptable for other texts or word lists, as well.

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-­resources/lesson-­plans/america-­beautiful-­using-­music-­1147.html

Introducing Basic Media Literacy Skills with Greeting Cards

This lesson is a starting point for introducing younger writers to media literacy. In this lesson, students examine
elements of holidays/events, invent their own original holiday, and examine and create holiday/event cards
based on those chosen. Through reflection, students realize that good communication doesn’t just “happen”;

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part, I want critically literate beings who know how Deely, J. (2004). Basics of seimotics. South Bend, IN: St.
language and other sign systems work and can use Augustine’s Press.
them to make meaning and reposition themselves in Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. Toronto, ONT:
Pearson.
the world in a more democratically thoughtful and
Fredrich, P. (1996). The culture of poetry and the poetry of
equitable manner. Infusing the curriculum with art
culture. In E. V. Daniel & J. M. Peck (Eds.), Culture/
as seamlessly as possible, I believe, is a first, but contexture: Explorations in anthropology and literary
critical, step. studies (pp. 37–­57). Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press.
Notes Freeman, L. (Producer). (1994). Jacob Lawrence: The glory
1. An earlier version of this article was published in 2013 of expression [DVD]. Available from http://landsvideo
[Voices from the Middle, 10(3), 8–­13]. .com/vf-­lawrence.shtml.
2. More elaborated versions of these strategy lessons are Gee, J. P. (1999). An introduction to discourse analysis:
available in Leland, Lewison, & Harste (2013) and in Theory and method. New York, NY: Routledge.
Lewison, Leland, & Harste, 2007, 2014. Gee, J. P. (2007). What videogames have to teach us
about learning and literacy (2nd ed.). New York, NY:
Macmillan.
References
Graves, D. (1994, July). Inviting diversity through writing.
Comber, B., & Green, B. (1998). Information technology, Keynote address given at the 4th annual meeting of the
literacy, and educational disadvantage. Adelaide: Whole Language Umbrella [audiotapes], San Diego,
South Australia Department of Education, Training, & CA.
Employment.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1975). Learning to mean: Explorations
Darrow, W. (1970). I’m glad I’m a boy! I’m glad I’m a girl! in the development of language. London, England:
New York, NY: Windmill Books. Edward Arnold.

it is purposely constructed to achieve a particular effect. This lesson is most appropriate for younger writers, and
can give a boost to students who lack confidence in their writing. It could also be easily adapted for use with
English language learners by focusing on holidays in their own cultures.

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-­resources/lesson-­plans/introducing-­basic-­media-­literacy-­30781.html
Let the Show Begin! Literary Talent Show

Children love to put on skits for friends and family. They also enjoy sharing their favorite songs, poems, and stories.
In this activity, children incorporate these loves into a talent show, complete with costumes, props, and programs
for the audience.

http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-­afterschool-­resources/activities-­projects/show-­begin-­literary-­talent-­30609.html

On a Musical Note: Exploring Reading Strategies by Creating a Soundtrack

No matter where you teach, students are likely to listen to music. Their tastes may vary widely—pop, rap, country,
classic, jazz, R & B. Regardless of their preferences, they each bring a rich knowledge of musical tunes and
lyrics to the classroom. This lesson takes advantage of that interest by asking students to create a soundtrack
for a novel that they have read. Students begin by analyzing how specific songs might fit with a familiar story.
Students then create their own soundtracks for the movie version of their chosen novel. They select songs that
match the text and fit specific events in the story. Finally, students share their projects with the class and assess
their work using a rubric.

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-­resources/lesson-­plans/musical-­note-­exploring-­reading-­861.html

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Harste, J. C. (1990). Inquiry-­based instruction. Primary Lewison, M., Leland, C., & Harste, J. C. (2014). Creating
Voices, K–­6, 1(1), 3–­8. critical classrooms: K-­8 reading and writing with an
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Leland, C., Lewison, M., & Harste, J. C. (2013). Teaching Suhor, C. (1984). Towards a semiotics-­based curriculum.
children’s literature: It’s critical! New York, NY: Journal of Curriculum Studies, 16, 247–­257.
Routledge. Wells, G. (1986). The meaning makers: Children learning
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Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Jerome C. Harste is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Indiana University

and can be reached at [email protected].

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