Struggling Readers’ “Noticings” to Make Meaning of Picture Books

ABSTRACT

For today’s elementary teacher, comprehension instruction must include strategies that include viewing to make sense of information in multimodal texts. Using case study methodology, this research describes the extent of how struggling readers notice images in picture books in order to make meaning. Data sources include written transcriptions of 13 video-taped reading sessions, the participants’ criterion-based fluency measures and word identification proficiencies per book, and the researcher’s field notes. Results reveal the participants most often noticed visual information in interpreting and then used the visual memory of these “noticings” to decode and increase oral reading accuracy. The results further reveal the ways in which the second graders’ processed nonverbal information by (1) transacting with images/text via socio-cultural references, (2) interpreting images via representational aspects of the world, interactions of social relations, and compositions of integrated texts, and (3) questioning images/text. While “noticings” of visual information exceed “noticings” of verbal/written information, the students’ meaning-making transactions are apparent with both images and text. Frequently, the participants’ processing of information includes noticing the composition of an image. Yet, interpretations reference representations from their experiential worlds, such that “gaps” between what is represented/noticed and what the students’ knew from prior experiences generated questions.

Keywords:

Children’s literature, comprehension strategies, elementary education, meta-cognition, struggling readers, visual literacy.