Thursday, July 22nd: Interaction with Multiple Texts

ST: New Literacies in Practice

Today in class we were given a chance to interpret and react to visual images, sound, and finally print text.

I liked the way the texts included several genres within each genre. There were portraits, photographs, symbolic, and realistic visual images. Music ranged from classical to soundtracks and from quiet music to distorted music.

This activity made me feel proud of an activity I use with students. We would listen to a piece of music, and they would have to construct a story around the music (usually from a soundtrack). Students protested quite a bit and at first there are a lot of "dancing" stories. But with time, they get into the activity. They get specific about what certain sounds might represent. They understand that there isn't really one representation. Often we would then look at a clip from Disney's Fantasia like Beethoven's 5th to show mood of music and action

or Rhapsody in Blue (both from Fantasia 2000) to show more of a plot directed story line. This lead to discussions of how music in movies gives us cues as to what might happen next or how themes are created.

It always amazed me how students had a hard time jumping into the assignment. Part of that is that is that they are being asked to visualize. They are not having the visualization done for them as often is the case with video games, movies, and other graphic elements of their life. They have to be patient and creative. It seems rather shocking to see 8th graders who want to be TOLD what the song is about. They want to know what they should be writing about. They want to memorize why the author added this character into the story. For them making meaning is not about interpretation or connecting to the world, text, or themselves. 

But, then again I remember sitting in High School English and having my teacher explain all the symbols hidden in stories we were reading. He told us what all the poems we read meant too. I thought he was a genius because he knew all of these things that I didn't pick out. It wasn't until college when I started to research English papers that I realized experts often differ in opinions when interpreting texts. This recalls a quote I heard from Hemingway "“There isn't any symbolism. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The shark are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is wrong. What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know.” I like this quote because sometimes I think we read too much into everything instead of just enjoying a novel! It must stand for something else, right? It can't just be a great story. I also like it because although Hemingway had no significant symbols for his story, it may be that I interpret his story in a different way, and that too is perfectly ok.

If we consider ourselves educators, then we should be teaching not only curriculum, but skills a student needs-- not only for work or to be considered educated-- but skills that allow them to enjoy life. To listen to music or watch a movie and understand why and how the parts click together to work.

If we consider ourselves reading teachers (which we ALL are!) then our students need to have a chance to not only read and locate information in textbooks, but interpret primary documents, struggle with unfamiliar words and content, decipher artwork as well as charts, understand how to visualize information by creating their own graphic organizers or interpretations, and debating and defending their ideas. 

Because reading is about making meaning from different texts. But if we teach as if there is only one answer to reading, then who will explain our lives to us when we graduate from school?