Comprehension through TRANSMEDIATION READERS ENGAGE IN MUTIMODAL RESPONSE

Understanding TRANSMEDIATION Transmediation: the process of bringing meaning from one sign (semiotic) system to another.   Literacy depends on one’s ability to read a central concept (the macrostructure) identify separate ideas, and recognize how they form the whole….With transmediation students must consider how the supporting details of a concept are inherently connected in one sign system in order to create the structural equivalent in the second system (McCormick, 2011, p. 580)

Transmediation is everywhere! Book into movie Movie into videogame Pop song into music video News story into comedy/satire

Resisiting Verbocentrism Verbocentrism: privileging language over images, movement, music ( Siegel, 1995;2006). Reduction of teaching to telling - positions students as passive learners ( Goodlad, 1984) Weaving together sign systems of all kinds affords students the ability to orchestrate literacy events long before language alone can serve them.

Semiotic Content Transfer Text B Transformation Text A

Trying out Transmediation We will be reading a short story. As you read it, sketch what you are “seeing” in your mind. The story is 3 paragraphs long – create a sketch for each paragraph. Remember – this is not “art class” the idea is to portray meaning.

Salvador Late and Early by Sandra Cisneros Salvador with eyes the color of caterpillar, Salvador of the crooked hair and crooked teeth, Salvador whose name the teacher cannot remember, is a boy who is no one’s friend, runs along somewhere in that vague direction where homes are the color of bad weather, lives behind a raw wood doorway, shakes the sleepy brothers awake, ties their shoes, combs their hair with water, feeds them milk and cornflakes from a tin cup in the dim dark of the morning.

Salvador, late or early, sooner or later arrives with the string of younger brothers ready. Helps his mama, who is busy with the business of the baby. Tugs the arms of Cecilio, Arturito, makes them hurry, because today, like yesterday, Arturito has dropped the cigar box of crayons, has let go the hundred little fingers of red, green, yellow, blue, and nub of black sticks that tumble and spill over and beyond the asphalt puddles until the crossing-guard lady holds back the blur of traffic for Salvador to collect them again.

Salvador inside that wrinkled shirt, inside the throat that must clear itself and apologize each time it speaks, inside that forty-pound body of boy with its geography of scars, its history of hurt, limbs stuffed with feathers and rags, in what part of the eyes, in what part of the heart, in that cage of the chest where something throbs with both fists and knows only what Salvador knows, inside that body too small to contain the hundred balloons of happiness, the single guitar of grief, is a boy like any other disappearing out the door, beside the schoolyard gate, where he has told his brothers they must wait. Collects the hands of Cecilio and Arturito, scuttles off dodging the many schoolyard colors, the elbows and wrists crisscrossing, the several shoes running. Grows small and smaller to the eye, dissolves into the bright horizon, flutters in the air before disappearing like a memory of kites.

Discussion & Cooperation Reread the poem and discuss the imagery with your partner. Share your drawing with each other. Compare your drawings and create a final illustration on a new sheet of paper that combines all or some of the pictures into an image that best represents the meaning of the whole story.

“Gallery” Walk 1. With a partner, take a gallery walk of the posted images. 2. Discuss what the final drawings suggest about the story. What images are common across the gallery? 3. In 10 minutes, please be ready to discuss your ideas with the whole group.

VSOL/CC Standards Craft and Structure Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text. Integration of Knowledge and Ideas Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.1 Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take. Key Ideas and Details 2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

What does this mean for students? The existence of multimedia calls for multiple forms of literacy, forms that can represent the world of ideas, emotions, and events with multiple symbols. Educational equity is provided not merely by opening the doors of the school to the child but by providing opportunities to the child to succeed once he or she arrives ( Semali & Fueyo,2001)