Rationale
With the goal of creating a course thread, this unit has two components. First, a two- to three- week introductory unit for the year which focuses on how the image and text relationship has developed throughout history. It will highlight the path that the act of “reading” is currently on and establish the importance of the interplay and synergy between text and image. By looking back through history at image and text, we will find similarities with today. Is there a reason we call it “scrolling” on our computers? Does this connect to ancient scrolls that were unwound to continue reading? What are the connections between ancient hieroglyphics and today’s emoji? Furthermore, how have inventions over the years democratized and spread literacy from the printing press to Twitter? These few weeks will also introduce four literary criticism lenses and apply them to image and video.
In the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme unit planning process, I must include a Statement of Inquiry (SOI) with each unit I create. An SOI works to connect the context and concepts of the unit and should be an idea that is transferable outside of the classroom and across the curriculum. I am broadening this requirement to create an SOI for the whole course in addition to the unit specific SOIs. As the course moves through literary history, each unit will have an SOI that is more tailored to the content of that literary period. The course’s SOI is: Investigating the history of the relationship between text and image is vital to varied forms of analysis. This overarching SOI will guide us through all of literary history and be revisited at the beginning of each unit as historical background and the function of the image-text is disseminated.
Within this introductory unit, I will be disseminating some basic skills of visual literacy, addressing the tenets of media literacy, teaching the students to read images independently and with texts, and constructing a historical foundation for the year. It can get very confusing when discussing the relationship between text and image because much of the time they are intertwined as one. Let me make some clarifications--a “text” is not limited to the written word. Comics or graphic novels and poetry paired with images such as Blake or a children’s illustrated book are all texts. Another area of confusion may lie in what it means to read. To read is defined by Oxford as the ability to “look at and comprehend the meaning of (written or printed matter) by interpreting the characters or symbols of which it is composed.”4 I am viewing reading as inclusive of more traditional linguistic literacy, and also the ability to understand an image-text (i.e. a meme, emoji, graphic novel or political campaign advertisement). By beginning the school year examining connections between ancient hieroglyphics and 21st century emoji, and finishing the year with the modern day graphic novel, I will inform students of the importance of text and image relationships and inspire them to look at image-texts more critically.
The second part of the unit is dispersed throughout the school year. Because this unit is being utilized in a survey class, the first week that we study each historical period will be used to introduce historical background and a case-study in the role of the image-text for that literary period. This allows us as a class to return to and link the Statement of Inquiry and essential questions for the school year with the analysis of that specific historical period. It also allows me to introduce the area of analysis we will be focusing on in that unit. For example, if close reading with an emphasis on literary devices is going to be the main skill addressed with the unit’s text, I can first introduce those skills using an image or image-text from that time period. The students immediately perceive the skill as less difficult and rarely assign it academic pressure. The students are deceived because highly academic work can be done with images and image-texts. In the process, the students are utilizing and improving their multiple literacies.
Furthermore, the project for this unit spans the duration of the year, so students can return repeatedly to that project for revisions and additions. As we travel through the history of text and image relationships, I want students to begin to see text creation and analysis as an organic, ever-changing journey.
Comments: