Beyond Verbocentricity
This study examined how 18 high school students responded to and authored poetry using multimodal approaches. For responding, students identified keywords in poems and found online images to represent tone and negotiate meaning. When authoring, students composed extended metaphor poems using presentation software and Internet images. Data sources included student work, observations, and materials. Thematic analysis identified 3 networks: 1) Meaning-making is an active negotiation process over time and space; 2) Multimodal, non-verbal approaches increased engagement; 3) Technology allows expression of identity and agency in authorship. The study found multimodal approaches supported meaning-making and student agency more than constrained activities. It provides implications for practice incorporating images, design literacy, and avenues for student
![Research Questions: In responding to poetry, what happens to student understandings when they identify key words and use Internet images to represent tone and negotiate meaning? In authoring poetry, what happens when students use multimedia technology and Internet images to compose multimodal extended metaphor poems? Beond Verbocentricity: Multimodal Response and authorship Sue Ringler-Pet & J. Gregory McVerry, University of Connecticut Theoretical Perspective : Transactional Theory- Rosenblatt (1978) stated that no text had just one meaning, instead meaning was made between the interaction between the reader and the text. That is “the ‘poem’ , or literary event, comes to being in the live circuit set up between the ‘reader’ and the ‘text’” (p. 14). New Literacies- A recent review identified four common tenets of new literacies research: a:) the Internet is this generation’s defining technology for literacy and learning; b:) New literacies are central to civic, economic, and personal participation in a globalized community and, as a result, the education of all students; c:)New literacies regularly change as their defining technologies change d:)New Literacies require new skills, strategies, dispositions, and social practices (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, Leu, 2008). Rationale for Study: Methods : Participants : 18 students, 11 male and 7 female, in an 11 th grade honors English class in a public high school in Northeast Activities : Poetry unit consisting of two learning activities: 1) Studentsresponded to poetry by finding images of words in poems and arranging words on a tableau. 2) Students authored an extended metaphor poem using presentation software. Data Sources: In order to reduce the fallibility of any one artifact and increase both the credibility and quality of any findings, the study included triangulation of data sources, observers, and theories (Denzin, 1989). Data sources included: student artifacts, field observations, and teacher planning materials. Data Analysis: We chose thematic networks (Attride-Stirling, 2001) as a data analysis tool, aa six-step journey from data to analysis. Our analysis needed a tool to examine non-hierarchical, non-causal relationships that could best “tell the story” . The first step in thematic network analysis is to reduce the data (Attride-Stirling, 2001) . Each researcher first broke data into text segments and inductivley developed raw codes. A total of 80 raw codes were developed (sample below). We categorized the 80 issued discussed (raw codes) into 18 codes, looking for patterns and drawing on our research questions: Reading strategies, critiquing, responding, effect of activity, images, tone, keyword search, negotiates meanin over time, agency, theme, identiy, connections, poerty, class structure, teacher attuidtude, technolog, authorship, writing process. We reread the data sets and coded using the framework. Step One Step Two Step Three Step Four Step Six Step Five In Step Two of thematic network analysis, the goal is to derive basic themes from your codes (Attride-Stirling, 2001). These initial themes are abstract and basic. As we identified themes we made sure that each was discrete enough but also encapsulated multiple text segments across all of the data. From our initial codes we developed a list of 27 basic themes (see below). In Step Three of thematic network analyses, the basic themes are clustered into organizing themes (Attride-Stirling, 2001). First the themes are arranged and clustered around common principles. Once all of the basic themes were clustered we identified shared issues among basic themes and deduced organized themes Next, we clustered all of the organized themes. Then we deduced global themes from the organized themes by looking for the dominating “claim, proposition, argument, assertion or assumption that the Organizing Themes are about” (p. 393). Next, we constructed thematic networks, with one network for each global theme (Attride-Stirling, 2001). Each global theme served as the central construct in a web, the organized thems are the secondary nodes, and the basic themes are the exterior spokes. Steps Four involves a second level of analysis wherein the researcher describes and explores the networks main patterns and themes (Attride-Stirling, 2001). Network 1: Meaning Making is a Negotiation that Encompasses Time and Space . For example, one organizing theme discussed role of connections: Brown-2 connected the theme of Whitman’s “When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer” to Catcher in the Rye, writing that both texts include “a non-conformist who learns in non-conventional ways.” Network 2: Multimodal, Non-verbocentric Teaching Approaches Affect Student Engagement describes new approaches to teaching and learning poetry. Network 3: Named Technology and Authorship are Identity Toolkits, this network illustrates two organized themes: Avenue for adolescent expression and Technology affects authorship . Step Five involved the composing of succinct summaries of each thematic network (Attride-Stirling, 2001). Summary of thematic network one. the exemplars from data used to describe this network communicate that though meaning making differs among individuals, it is also uniformly characterized as an active negotiation process that pervades both reading and writing . Summary of thematic network two. Overall, we found that the effect of specific learning activities had much to do with the individuality of the meaning makers, whereas multimodal and non-verbocentric teaching methods more consistently influenced student engagement . Summary of thematic network three. The synthesis of data describing this network captures how technology changes how we read and write, and how students can use multimodal composition to express agency. ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],Many studies have examined how multmodal texts affect reading and writing. However these studies often focus on the product of composition. This study, similair to (McVee, Bailey, & Shanahan, 2008) looks at images as a process for meaning making, but it focuses on high scool population rather than teacher candidates. Step One: Reduce data Step Two: Basic Themes Step Three: Make Networks Step Fiour Describe Networks Step Five: Summarize Step Six: Connect Story Initial Code Frequency: Coder 1 Frequency: Coder 2 Summarize 5 8 Process helped 2 2 Identifying Words help 3 3 Critique 15 19 Stuck to questions posed 1 1 Searching for images improved understanding 3 2 Codes Issues Discussed Basic Themes Agency Nature/condition 13. Students use poetry to explore identity Theme Life decisions 14. Students use poetry as a form of expression. Identity Going against norm 15. Students interests cluster around typical adolescent concerns. Control destiny Sexuality Freedom vs. captivity Individual vs. conformity Gender Identity as writer](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/qulaiiposterjgm-091008133322-phpapp01/85/beyond-verbocentricity-1-320.jpg)
