![]()
1 Contemporary approaches
Multimodality
We communicate through a range of modes, known as semiotic systems. There are five modes:
• Gesture can be organised into intentional movement as in dance, mime or acting. We also communicate spontaneously with body language – a more powerful mode than spoken language. Where body and spoken language conflict, body language predominates.
• Sound includes music and sound effects (which are chosen to achieve a particular effect) and the tone of spoken language, which can be consciously controlled to convey meaning or can unintentionally betray a subtext or subconscious feeling.
• Vision encompasses all that we see and is used as a communication mode through colour, lighting, photographs, drawings, art and film.
• Space can define how objects or people relate to each other or function separately.
• Language, both in spoken and written form, is the dominant mode of adult life.
As adults, we are accomplished in reading these modes fluently and in combination. We are able to read subtext, respond to intent and intellectually use these skills to make meaning from a piece of music or a work of art. We are also able to resolve dissonances created by conflicting communication, for example, if stern words are delivered with a smile, we will interpret gesture as the dominant mode and not respond to the words. But for most adults, the predominant mode is language. Unless we choose to pursue an interest in music, dance, theatre or visual arts, we lose the skill of communicating personally through these media.
Young children see no such distinction, as language (particularly written language) is the last semiotic system that they master. A baby's first response in life is to sound – voices of carers. Visual perception follows and babies are able to combine the modes of sound, vision and gesture to ‘read’ the moods of those around them. As they grow and start to move around, they develop skills in spatial awareness, where they are in relation to objects, the direction they need to crawl or walk in to reach a desired end and how to operate as a separate entity within a space.
So by the time children start to experiment with spoken language, and years before they can read and write, children can empathise, infer, deduce, interpret actions and sounds and so understand layers of meaning. These skills are further developed through the social networking, computer and TV habits of their environment. They can ‘read’ films and TV programmes with growing accuracy, particularly when spoken language is mastered enough to seek clarification through questioning (the relentless ‘Why?’ of the toddler).
When formal education begins, children rely on these skills to navigate around, and interact with, their environment. They will move seamlessly between modes – for example, when composing music, young children will often say they are looking for a ‘purple’ or ‘scratchy’ sound. Gradually a multimodal approach to learning becomes subsumed in the need to become literate and numerate in order to find a meaningful place in society. Multimodal learning approaches become separated into subject disciplines which you are either ‘good at’, i.e. drawing, painting, acting or playing an instrument, or which you abandon with relief at the earliest opportunity.
For learning to be described as multimodal, it must operate within at least two different modes. Complex picture books fulfil these criteria and are widely enjoyed. However, the educational world is slower to engage with other media such as image and film. Often they are used as stimuli to writing, but not as an essential strand of literacy teaching in their own right. But children are media literate long before they are text literate, so the argument to bring this culture into the classroom is becoming increasingly persuasive.
So, in the same way that Charles Dickens used the media of his day to communicate a social message through stories, so children can interpret his stories and messages, and write the stories of their own lives, through the media of their day.
Further reading
Bearne, E. and Wolstencraft, H. (2007) Visual Approaches to Teaching Writing: Multimodal Literacy 5–11, London: Sage.
Cineliteracy
By the time children start school, they are usually skilled in understanding character, plot, setting, dilemma, resolution, beginning, middle and end in the many films that they will have watched. They will know good characters from bad; they can infer meaning and make predictions which are confirmed or contradicted as the plot develops. They can track shifts in time and setting, following the actions of multiple characters. They have become skilled readers of film. There are clear parallels here with the advanced text-reading and text-writing skills that they will be taught during their school life, but film is unique in that it exists in time, rather than text. As such, it should be taught and used as a separate, but linked, strand of the literacy curriculum: sitting in the director's chair is a form of authorship. The following terms can be explicitly taught when analysing film and children enjoy using accurate terminology when they are making their own films. A suggestion for the written-text equivalent follows in italics.
• Long shot: this is used to set the scene, or when one scene changes to another, drawing the viewer in and suggesting forward movement.
• Wide shot: similar intention to a long shot, but the shot is fixed in time, with no suggested movement.Rich, descriptive writing is used to set the scene, possibly based on what the writer can see, hear and smell: words are used to paint a picture for the reader.
• Medium shot: used to show characters interacting, often when significant dialogue is being exchanged.Dialogue is used to move the narrative forward.
• Close-up: used to show emotion, the detail of a character's appearance or reactions. Writing focuses on one aspect of a character e.g. an emotional reaction. The writer remains focused on this for several sentences, inviting reflection from the reader.
• Low angle: the camera is looking upwards at a character, creating an impression of power.
• High angle: the camera looks down on a character, making them seem small, isolated or insignificant. In both low and high angle shots, the viewer feels himself to be behind the camera and so is drawn into the image.Vocabulary needs to be chosen to describe feelings and possibly to explain why the character feels this way. Inferential writing skills can be developed.
• Pan: a fixed camera moves around slowly, allowing the viewer to take in the whole scene.The pace of writing is slowed by using complex sentences, inviting the reader to reflect on what is being described.
• Tracking shot: often used to follow a character during action.Writing is pacy, using short sentences and action vocabulary suggests speed.
• Cut: when the action suddenly cuts from one scene to another, or one camera angle to another. Changes of paragraph are signalled where a cut leads to a scene change.
• Zoom: the director wants the viewer to focus on an emotion, reaction or scene.Writing moves from general to specific, detailed description.
Sound is also fundamental to film. Music can communicate emotion, build or relieve tension or signal changes in pace or action. The atmosphere created by sound effects can be analysed by playing children key sections of a soundtrack alone (such as the opening) and asking them to predict what is happening. Dialogue, which moves the narrative forward in both film and text, is supported by gesture in film – this has to be described in written text. Silence has its place only in film. Children live in an image-dominated world, so focusing analytical attention on sound can yield powerful results in writing.
Colour can be used to convey character (reds and blacks for villains and bright colours or whites for heroes, or vice versa), mood, season or passing of time (sunrise and sunset, mid-day). Light also conveys meaning: spotlighting one character focuses the viewer's attention; shadow suggests concealment; darkness can engender fear.
All of these components of film need to be analysed in order for children to understand both how they have learnt to infer and deduce, and how they can communicate meaning in their own films.
Further reading
Bazalgette, C. (ed.) (2010) Teaching Media in Primary Schools, London: Sage.
BFI Education Look Again! Free download available from http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/teaching/lookagain
Visual grammar
Complex picture books are now a standard part of most classrooms and their value is understood. What is less well understood is why images are so powerful. Being able to read and understand images will help children to think more carefully about their own creative communication through image. These are some aspects of visual grammar to consider:
• Salience: the importance or dominance of objects or people are communicated by use of relative size, how well they are in focus, foregrounding, colour and contrast with surrounding parts of the image.
• Vectors: an invisible line created by the direction in which a character is looking. A demand vector is a direct gaze from the character to the reader, inviting the reader into the action. An offer vector is an indirect gaze at another character or an object, directing the reader's attention towards the same object. It can communicate information about relationships.
• Framing: directs the reader's attention to a chosen focus. It can be used to imply being trapped or separated. Sequential images can also be framed on one page to suggest pace in the narrative.
• Perspective: linked with salience or dominance, the use of perspective will force the reader to look up to characters with power and look down on small, powerless or insignificant characters.
• Positioning: each area of an image can create a different zone of information. The upper half of the image suggests the ideal, while the lower half suggests realism. The left half (because of our left/right dominance in reading and writing) suggests known ground whilst the right-hand side suggests new ground. Movement from left to right suggests ‘going’ (known to unknown) whilst movement from right to left suggests ‘return’ (unknown to known ground). The central or peripheral placing of characters will also communicate information to the reader.
• Symbolism: symbols are rich, cultural forms of communication. Colour can be used – red couldsuggest blood and therefore death, or a rose-coloured red would suggest love. Shape can give information, such as a cross to suggest a religious connotation. Horizontal lines between characters suggest communication whilst vertical lines symbolise separation or division.
Further reading
Evans, J. (2009) Talking Beyond the Page, London: Routledge.
Kress, G. (2003) Literacy in the New Media Age, London: Routledge.
Kress, G. and Leeuwen, T. van (2006) Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, London: Routledge.
Web 2.0 technologies
‘Web 2.0 technologies’ is a term used to describe the category of internet tools that require collaborative contribution, such as social networking sites (MSN, Facebook, Bebo, Twitter), blogs, wikis and video-sharing sites such as YouTube. Today's children are an online generation – many young people use these technologies daily and this cultural phenomenon cannot be ignored. A wide range of open source software is also available.
Consistent use of these technologies is not widespread in schools for a range of reasons. Some local authorities block social networking and all image sites for safeguarding reasons. Many parents are also apprehensive about both online activity and the validity of such media in high quality educational provision. Some schools are concerned about those children who have no computer access at home. To access some sites, children need individual email accounts, which not all schools are willing to facilitate. However, many schools are successfully using video-sharing sites, regularly Tweet about their work (this is particularly powerful for children with extended families spread around the world) and make thoughtful use of collaborative, public sites. These schools have made informed judgements about what to use rather than just ignoring all possibilities. They have discussed the issues, dealt with the practicalities, trained their children in online safety protocols and they monitor use carefully. If this is not an option, or too many sites are blocked for meaningful online use, virtual learning environments (VLEs) are safe and can emulate Web 2.0 technologies. The limitation of a VLE is that work cannot be shared outside of the learning community.
The following sites are a few that schools have found useful in social media presentations:
• http://www.wordle.net text...
