Knowledge and Skills Statement
During a read aloud, point out a variety of print and graphic features. Elicit student responses to questions about the features. Add to student answers as needed.
Possible questions to ask:
- How does the photo/illustration/graph/timeline help the reader understand the text?
- Why is the word ____ italicized?
- How does it support the text and help the reader?
- How does the information in ____ section relate to the main idea?
- Why is the word ______ written in bold?
Further Explanation
This assessment example requires students to examine in detail how authors purposely use print features, such as captions and bold print, as well as graphic features, such as photographs, for a variety of reasons. As students examine these text features, they should be able to determine the effectiveness of their us and reasons they were included.
Research
1. Jennings, K. A., Rule, A. C., & Vander Zanden, S. M. (2014). Fifth graders' enjoyment, interest, and comprehension of graphic novels compared to heavily-illustrated and traditional novels. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 6(2), 257–274. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?q=graphic+novels&ft=on&id=EJ1053749
Summary: Researchers explore the effectiveness of graphic novels as a way to address student interests and include visual media in the curriculum. Graphic novels were identified as one way to successfully bring multimodal texts in the classroom. The study concludes that reading graphic novels increased student discussion and story comprehension. The heavily illustrated novel scored higher in the study assessment than the traditional novel.
2. Monnin, K. (2010). Teaching media literacy with graphic novels. New Horizons in Education. 58(3), 78–84 Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/q=author%27s+use+of+print+and+graphic+features+to+serve+purpose&pr=on&ft=on&id=EJ966661
Summary: This article reviews current media literacy research and its emphasis on defining media literacy texts as texts that rely on both print literacies and image literacies. The conclusion is that novels rely on both print literacies and image literacies, so they qualify as media literacy texts and can be taught as such in K-12 classrooms.