The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify textual/visual connections and describe ways in which the relationship between text and illustration can influence comprehension for second grade readers. The six participants were introduced to the basic elements of art – color, shape, line, texture and value – at the beginning of the study. Student participants expressed their textual, visual, and mixed textual/visual understanding of four picture books and four informational picture books.
The analysis focused on participants' textual and visual responses and the blending of textual/visual elements. Textual/visual comprehension including personal life connections, text connections, factual connections, predictive connections, elemental connections and emotional connections. The six categories were also reviewed for the dominant category for each student participant and how the textual/visual responses applied to both picture storybooks and informational picture books.
Data analysis also revealed the second grade teacher's perceptions of the text illustration relationship as part of the reading process. EXPLORING SECOND GRADER'S UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEXT-ILLUSTRATION RELATIONSHIP IN PICTURE STORY BOOKS AND INFORMATION PICTURE BOOKS.
Introduction
Wileman (1993) takes the definition a step further and states that visual literacy is "the ability to convert information of all kinds into pictures, graphics, or forms that help communicate information" (p. 114). Kiefer found in her research that children are aware of the elements of visual art found in picture books. Sipe provides an overview of his theory of text-picture relations that is based on the semiotic concept of "transmission." He describes the relationship between text and pictures with the term "synergy" defined as "the production by two or more agents, substances, etc., of a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects" (Sipe, 1998 , p. 98).
This legislation was implemented with the intention of changing the culture of schools in the United States. The current study attempted to build on Lawrence Sipe's work by adding the introduction of the elements of art and visual literacy to expand the understanding of second grade children through both picture storybooks and informational texts. As a researcher, I analyzed the verbal and pictorial drawings/retellings for trends in repeating their expanded understanding of the text-illustration relationship.
This qualitative case study sought to explore the interaction of art and literature through the study of the text-illustration relationship. The selection of quality storybooks and informative picture books focused on texts that contain illustrations that go beyond words.
Review of the Literature
According to Church (1997), Rosenblatt opposed the limited focus of literature education on literal recall and felt compelled to distinguish between two different ways of experiencing a text - the "efferent" and the "aesthetic". Rosenblatt recognized the importance of what the reader brings to the event and whether the reader takes the text from an efferent or aesthetic stance. In the efferent stance, the reader's focus is primarily on what follows the reading event—the information or knowledge to be obtained and what to do with that information. Students recorded and reflected each day in an individual journal and also in a community literature response log called their "walking journal." The walking journal was a reader's response log that was passed around among the students.
Recent research by Hassett and Curwood (2009) points out that "the definition of 'text' has expanded to include multiple modes of representation, combining elements of print, visual imagery and design" (p.270). Reconstruction refers to the child reflecting on the story and rearranging the pictures of the story into sequence. Gail Gibbons (2009) Dinosaurs and Joanna Cole (1985) The Magic School Bus in the Age of Dinosaurs give informational books a picture book quality in the way the illustrations are produced.
Halliday (1975) on language development to describe the verbal responses of the children in the study. She used four of Halliday's language functions—the informative, heuristic, imaginative, and personal—to describe children's verbal responses to picture books.
Methodology
Through group discussions, verbal and pictorial narrations, students became aware of the relationship between text and illustration. The following statement suggested increased knowledge as a result of incorporating an illustration into student understanding, with one student saying, "If it was just in pencil and not in color, then I wouldn't know it was a map." A student was describing an illustration in Shulevitz's How I Learned Geography (2008). Illustrations are as important as—or more important than—text in conveying a message” (Anderson, 2002, p. 11).
The students helped me create titles for the anchor charts that reflected each of the art elements. Charts were used to record their associations with the art elements and each of the picture story books and informational picture books read during the present study. During the second phase of the study, I presented and read aloud each storybook and informational picture book to the second graders.
The third phase of the study began with a group discussion about the picture storybook or informational picture book from the previous day. Next, students individually illustrated a pictorial rendering of the picture storybook or information book. The questions encouraged students to express how they applied their knowledge of the textual and visual elements while reading the picture storybooks and informational picture books.
Discussions about each picture book book and informational image took place during the reading (phase two) and after the completion of the text. Group discussions were held for each of the picture books and informational picture books introduced in the study. During this study, I found that observational field notes provided an essential reflection of the reading process as students engaged with the picture books and informational picture books.
Each of the students retold the story orally to the researcher in Phase II after the initial read-aloud and partner-reading experience. Each of the story elements was noted in parentheses on the transcripts of the initial verbal retelling of the student participants. I sought to determine how students' understanding of the text-illustration relationship changed over the course of the study.
Data Analysis/Results
The students expressed their textual understanding of narrative story elements through their verbal retellings of the pictorial history books in the research study. At the start of the study, the students needed an overview of the elements of the story. The categories initially provided a tool to review the students' visual reactions to the picture storybooks.
The six student participants provided insightful comments on the use of the art elements in the picture book illustrations. Some of the students declared a general awareness of the importance of the cover of picture story books and informative picture books. The colors used in the endpapers often set the tone or mood of the story.
The categories combine text and visual elements to indicate deeper thinking, using all the elements of the picture book book and informational picture books. Blair's comments on her pictorial narratives helped her clearly understand both the textual and visual elements of the picture books and informational picture books. Although softly spoken, CT has many insights regarding the textual and visual elements of the picture books.
The participating students made insightful comments about the elements of art (color, shape, line, texture, and value) in the picture book illustrations. In analyzing students' textual and visual responses, Sipes (2008) used five major categories of literary understanding: (1) analytical, (2) intertextual, (3) personal, (4). From the blending of the students' textual and visual responses, new categories of understanding emerged.
Discussion
These reader response options allowed the student participants to verbally reveal their textual understanding of the picture books and informational picture books. Each of the six participants in this study was given the opportunity to narrate the picture books and informational picture books with their own picture books. Thoughtful thinking about artistic elements was shown in the drawings created by the participants.
First, both expressed an understanding of picture books and informational picture books; however, the understanding was given in two different formats-- one verbal and the other artistic. With pictorial drawings/restorations, richer and more detailed displays of picture books and informative picture books were created. Student participants created pictorial drawings of four picture books and four informative picture books.
Character elements were used to further describe the main idea, characters, setting and events depicted in the participants' picture drawings of picture books and informative picture books. The results of this study demonstrate that participants perceived a synergistic relationship between textual and visual comprehension of high-quality illustrated picture books. Through these activities, participants were encouraged to expand their understanding of picture books while making textual and visual connections.
All participants expressed a preference for retelling picture books in the visual format of pictorial drawings/retellings. The six student participants each demonstrated his or her own unique understanding of the textual/visual relationship. Participating students shared their thoughts, listened to the thoughts of others within the group, and in some cases shifted their thinking around the textual and visual elements of the picture books and informational picture books.
The picture book discussion allowed participants to collaborate and extend textual and visual connections. The pictorial drawings/narratives allowed the participants to effectively use the blending of textual and visual elements. The picture drawings/narratives revealed textual/visual connections through the student participants' drawings and the words they used to express their expanded thinking and understanding of the picture books and fairy tales.
Guide for Student Picture Book Retelling
Craig’s Pictorial Retelling of How I Learned Geography
Kevin’s Pictorial Retelling of Wind Flyers
