As literacy researchers continue to investigate how young students make sense of texts, specifically picture books, attention has expanded beyond the role that written language plays in reading comprehension to the various ways that visual images, typography, design elements, and digital devices support and challenge young readers during the act…

Explicit pedagogy that focuses on visual design and composition principles can affect students' responses to and understanding, interpretation and analysis of images, as well as the creation of their own visual representations. This article considers the why, the what, and the how of teaching various visual elements of art and design to students…

In our essay we discuss Louise Rosenblatt's transactional theory of a reading event. Second, we summarize Carole Cox and Joyce Many who applied the transactional theory and designed a 1-5 point continuum to stories and films. Third, we summarize film theorists David Bordwell's constructivism; Richard Wollheim's central imagining and…

Contemporary transformations in digital technologies have prompted a reassessment of what literacy means and what is determined a "text." Traditionally, text has been perceived as written messages and symbols in the forms of books, magazines, and newspapers. Today, text is recognized as much more than written words or images. As teachers consider…

Those who focus on the study of visual information continue to search for effective ways to conceptualize that inquiry. However, many visual examples are better categorized as visual/verbal collaboration, complicating analysis. When analysis is based on the assumption that visual and verbal modalities perform in similar ways, important…

Visual images within social studies textbooks need to be actively "read" by students. Drawing on literature from cultural studies, this article suggests three instructional conditions for teaching students to read visual texts. Agency implies that readers have the (1) authority, (2) opportunity and capacity, and (3) community for engaging in the…