Abstract Summary
In this paper I analyze a group of first graders' multimodal texts about spring. In their learning to read they use the STL+ program where writing on iPads is the starting point for reading. My main interest is to analyze the students’ verbal and visual texts – what does the verbal text communicate and what does the visual text portray?
Abstract :
In a multilingual classroom in an Oslo suburb, I have been doing fieldwork over a period of two years. In this group of 17 students, many different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are represented: There are two students with German as their first language, two with English, one with Serbian and one with Albanian. The school has introduced the learning to read program STL+ which use writing on iPad as a gateway to learning to read. Students write their texts on the iPad, then these are printed out and clued into a workbook. Finally, they visualize this verbal text.
My main interest is to analyze the students’ verbal and visual texts – what does the verbal text communicate and what does the visual text portray? For this presentation I focus on the student texts about spring written in April in their first year of school. I look at how the visual text may be understood as aesthetic reading (Rosenblatt, 1994, 1995) and which empty gaps students fill inn (Iser, 1974). Ideas of transformation in learning communities is another perspective (Mezirow, J. 2000; Paul, L. A. 2014; Scoffham, S. and Barnes, J. 2009; Østern, 2008, 2013). Furthermore, notions of «foregrounding» is an important tool (Stockwells, 2002; Kress 2003, 2006). Finally analyzing the use of color to understand the visual texts are embedded in the discussion (Albers, 2006; Feisner, 2000). My data seem to suggest that the visual and the verbal text communicate different aspects of spring than the written text.
