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Research on Visual and Media Literacy:

Visual Literacy and Reading Comprehension in the Elementary Classroom
Carman Jelks
University of West Georgia

Introduction
As an elementary teacher with a high population of English language learner students (ELLS),
I am often searching for ways to support my students levels of reading comprehension. In third
grade, students are expected to be able to read to learn instead of still learning to basics of how to
read. However, almost half of the third grade population at my school is a level or two below the
beginning of the year expectation, which can place them at a first grade level.
It is often touted to use pictures or images when working with young and ELLs to help them
make connections. While I believe that this is a good practice to start with, helping students
learn how to decode images should help them achieve a deeper level of understanding of
academic content and the world around them. It was my hope that by reviewing the following
articles that I would learn how, or if teaching visual literacy really supports comprehension.

Article #1:
Arif, M. (2008). Reading from the wordless: A case study on the use of wordless picture books.
Journal of English Language Teaching, 1(1), 121-126.

Summary
This article indicates how important wordless picture books are to the instruction of visual
literacy. It describes how children of the 21st century are the most likely to have a richer
understanding of visual literacy than any other generation as their world is filled with images.
However, the article also supports that learners must be shown how to read the signs for
meaning to be derived.
Analysis of Methodology

The study conducted was of a qualitative nature. One 7-year old non-reader was the focus of
the sole participant of the study. Data was collected during four one-on-one sessions with the
researcher and the child. Each session lasted 30 minutes. The child was presented with 6
wordless picture books and given the opportunity to select the ones that he wanted to read.
During each session, the child was given one of the books that he selected, told to preview it,
read it aloud and explain his understanding. The sessions included questions from the researcher
in response to the childs statements and were videotaped.
Summary of the Results
The results indicate that the child was able to make sense of the stories by connecting a
meaning to the images through prior knowledge and past experiences. As the boy tried to be the
character in a story, he made sense through the perspective of someone else or changing from
third person to first. The student was also observed engaging in playful behaviors as he told the
story which supports the articles stance that play is what children do and in their innocence, they
are perpetually learning.
My Opinion and What I learned
I would say that the article made a strong argument for the use of wordless picture books,
even with older students. Without words, students may be less intimidated and more likely to
use their imagination. Creativity definitely has a place in learning, and sometimes it is a concept
that is missing. Although a study of a single student can be powerful, I feel that it would have
been interesting to see the results of at least 3-4 additional students for comparison purposes. I
was particularly happy to see that the student was provided with choice as that definitely plays a
part in engagement and learning.

Article #2:
Hasty, M. (2014). Emergent understandings: Multilingual fourth grade students generating close
readings and multimodal responses to global and informational texts. Perspectives on
Urban Education Journal, 11(2), 11-20.
Summary
This article focuses on an ethnographic study examining how elementary age second language
learners learn how to read critically, write and create multimodal perspectives through
informational texts. The article asserts that childrens responses to literature show connections
between literature, linguistic diversity, and identity issues, particularly those related to how
children read and respond critically to the word and the world (Freire, 1970).
Analysis of Methodology
There were 46 participants in the study from two fourth grade classes of a diversely populated
school located in Tennessee. All of the participants were ELLs. They spoke Arabic, Spanish,
French, Italian and English. The study was conducted as an ethnographic research project over
the school year. Professional development was provided monthly for the classroom teachers in
regards to the use of the global and informational texts to be utilized in the study. The
professional development sessions offered examples and discussion of the specific strategies to
be used in the study. This ethnographic study included working with the families of the students.
After the teachers introduced and read a text or showed a wordless picture book, they would
work with students to make connections. Students would then be invited to create a visual that
would showcase their family and culture or understanding/interest of a new culture to express
how they were able to make meaning of the images presented with and without text.

Summary of the Results

The data showed that all of the students were able to make meaning from texts through visual
literacy. One of the main ways students expresses their ideas was through intertextuality. They
gathered meaning by making connections to other texts that they had either read or heard.
Students also were able to refer back to the images and support their reasoning when questioned
in regards to internal characteristics. One of the teachers advised that using overt instruction
and intentionally scaffolding helped students learn to think in a critical manner. As an
ethnographic study, one of the goals was to attend to cultural features or issues in a sensitive way,
highlighting cultural differences as a resource rather than something odd or unattractive.
My Opinion and What I learned
This study really made me thing about ways to have my students share my culture as an
ongoing thing and not just a beginning of the year exercise. I like that the books that were
selected for the study purposely included many different cultures. Students can learn so much
through images. They can help students determine similarities and differences and then discuss
them. Although an ethnographic study sounds interesting, I think that the research paper left out
a bit of information that would have better described what exactly made this an ethnographic
study. The professional development provided for the teachers was a nice touch. It served to
standardize things a bit so that both teachers knew exactly what to do in their classrooms.

Article #3:

Oliveira, Rivera, Glass & Wizner. (2013). Teaching science through pictorial models during
read-alouds. The Association for Science Teacher Education, 11(2), 367-389.
Summary
This article works from the evidence that science can be effectively taught to students through
the use of pictorial models. Visual representations from science and trade books have been
shown to promote student understanding of science content. Conversely, ineffective employment
Analysis of Methodology
This study utilized a qualitative research approach with a micro-ethnographic design. To
select participants, there was a survey sent to several elementary teachers in upstate New York.
From the pool of respondents, three 4th grade teachers were chosen to participate in the study as
they researchers wanted to be able to compare students with similar abilities within a small age
range.
The study examined how the three elementary teachers referred to pictorial models during
science read-alouds. The research question was: How do elementary teachers teach science
through pictorial models while reading childrens science books aloud? For this study, one
teacher used realistic photographs, the second used diagrams and drawings, while the third used
cartoons. Throughout the 2009-2010 school year, data was drawn from the video recordings of
classroom observations, pre-observation teacher surveys, and post-observation semi-structured
teacher interviews that included open-ended questions.
Summary of the Results

The results were for this study were reported as trends from included student work samples
and the interviews of the three participating teachers. The research determined that there is a
need for elementary teachers to become more aware of how pictorial models in childrens
science books can be important instructional tools in the context of read-aloud lessons. While
the research revealed that the teachers performed several oral practices that supported the
development of the students visual literacy, they did not often address the specific pedagogical
strategies designed for supporting the challenges presented by each of the three pictorial models.
My Opinion and What I Learned
After reading this article, I feel that even though students have a basic knowledge of how
images support content, explicit modeling of visual literacy must still done. Although I found it
interesting that each teacher used a different type of pictorial model, I wonder how the
researchers were able to compare the data across the classrooms. That part is quite unclear to me
as I see comparing data derived using different methods as comparing apples, oranges, and
bananas. The findings could have gone into more detail in this regard.
I found that many studies with regards to literacy, including visual literacy, are of a
qualitative nature. While I understand that these studies can be quite insightful, I would
appreciate an increase of quantitative information. Perhaps that is just my personal preference,
but qualitative data often leaves me with more questions than answers.
Reflection
After reading these articles, I have a greater understanding of some strategies used to support
reading comprehension with elementary learners. These articles have provided insight on how I
can be intentional in when using varied resources to teach about visual literacy. Students that are

in third grade often have more background knowledge than we tap into. While students are
taught how to look for clues from images during kindergarten and first grade, I believe that in the
intermediate grades we often shy away from discussion on how the visuals around us help us
understand how to navigate through our daily lives. Going forward, I plan to incorporate a solid
plan to ensure that visual literacy has a place in our learning and is not an afterthought.

References:
Arif, M. (2008). Reading from the wordless: A case study on the use of wordless picture books.
Journal of English Language Teaching, 1(1), 121-126.
Hasty, M. (2014). Emergent understandings: Multilingual fourth grade students generating close
readings and multimodal responses to global and informational texts. Perspectives on
Urban Education Journal, 11(2), 11-20.
Oliveira, Rivera, Glass & Wizner. (2013). Teaching science through pictorial models during
read-alouds. The Association for Science Teacher Education, 11(2), 367-389.