Using picturebooks to teach visual literacy in history classrooms

Siobhan Glanvill-Miller Wits School of Education

SASHT Limpopo 2015

What are picturebooks?

Haynes and Murris (2012). Pp. 22-23

• Originally for the early reader…sentimental animals and the perfect family

• “An increasing number of picturebooks that offer complex frameworks demanding sophisticated interpretations through life experiences.”

• “We have found that adolescents respond enthusiastically to the visual and ambiguous nature… The quality of the verbal and the visual, and the interaction between the two, compel the reader to explore the complex relationship of the whole work, to look at the detail, to think about the whole again…”

Haynes and Murris (2012) p.23

“Nikolajeva and Scott argue that: adults have lost the ability to read picturebooks in this way, because they ignore the whole and regard the illustrations as merely decorative. This most probably has to do with the dominant position of the verbal, especially written communication in our society…”

Bruce Lesh 2011

“I am always amazed at how visual images, be they photographic, hand drawn, painted or sculpted, stimulate conversation among my students…the visual generation…It places on the shoulders of the history teacher the responsibility to ensure that they use a variety of sources.”

Having fun with multiple perspectives

Traditional story of the three little pigs

The “true story?” as told by A. Wolf

Traditional view of Cinderella

The story as told by the wicked stepmother?

The story as told by the frog

How can they be useful in history lessons?

• Visual literacy is a key component of historical literacy. Photographs, cartoons, maps, posters videos etc.

• Matric papers include questions that require learners to be visually literate.

• EG. Prelim Paper (GDE): We do need to take visual literacy more seriously- respect the quality of the visual! And use them as sources not just illustrations.

Cartoon used in GDE Prelim 2015

Some picturebooks are about dark times in history

The Holocaust: Erika’s Story

Colonization in Australia: Shaun Tan The Rabbits

The Rabbits

Colonial Conquest

Stolen Generation

Cry for help

Xenophobia, “othering”, refugees: Armin Greder :The Island

The dangerous stranger- the foreigner

Children learn from adults?

Historical Reading of Texts

• Texts do not have to be written • Posters and cartoons rely on a dialogue

between the written text and the visual (similar to picturebooks)

• Common mistake to assume that photographs are “telling it like it is”

• Apply historical thinking to reading visual texts Sourcing; Contextualization; corroboration and close-reading (Wineburg, Seixas, Lesh)

Challenges?

• Cultural capital… • Can exclude learners… E.g. Cartoonists often

use references to Eurocentric fairy tales. • Do we all know how to read emotions and

facial expressions? Do we “see” and read the same messages from body language; gestures etc.?

References: Philosophy for Children and Historical Literacy

• Haynes,J and Murris, K (2012). Picturebooks, Pedagogy and Philosophy. New York. London. Routledge

• Lesh,B. (2011). Why won’t you just tell us the

answer? Teaching Historical Thinking In Grades 7-12. Portland, Maine. Stenhouse Publishers.

References: Picturebooks in order used in presentation

• Goodnight Moon published in 1947. Written by Margaret Wise Brown. Illustrated by Clement Hurd. (American bedtime story)

• The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Published in 1989. Written by John Scieszka. Illustrated by Lane Smith. Viking Press.

• My Hiroshima. Published in 1987. Written and illustrated by survivor Junko Morimoto.

References: Picturebooks ctd

• Erika’s Story. Published in 2004. Written by Ruth Vander Zee. Illustrated by Roberto Innocenti. London. Random House Children’s Books. (Holocaust)

• The Rabbits. Published in 2000.Written by John Marsden. Illustrated by Shaun Tan. (Colonization of Australia)

• The Island. Published in 2007. Written and illustrated by Armin Greder. (Refugees, xenophobia, bullying, othering, tolerance)