How do you read a wordless book? Why…slowly is a good start!

In a radio interview we will be listening to in a few days, Shaun Tan spoke about his logic behind making The Arrival a wordless graphic novel.  One of the reasons he ultimately decided to stray away from word-text is that when we read a book, we tend to want to hurry through the words to get through the story faster, and when pictures are combined with words, the words overpower the illustrations.

When there are only illustrations involved, the reader is invited to read more slowly and carefully in order to understand what is happening in the story.

Today, we shared our letters that we wrote about the single page that was chosen.  There were many ideas as to what was occurring in the picture itself, as well as how the picture fit into a larger story that is still unknown to you, the reader.  You’ve now seen more illustrations from The Arrival, since each group shared their picture along with their letters.

We also discussed the term “visual literacy”.   Then, we had a class discussion prompted by the “Crutch It” online slide show about visual literacy that you can download and review at http://www.rapides.k12.la.us/nitro/PowerPoints/Crutch%20It!%20(2).ppt.  Even when there are words available, learning to recognize the power of available images is an invaluable skill.

Tomorrow,  we will read The Arrival in its entirety.  For tonight’s homework, though, comment on this blog posting with an answer to the following question:

“How would you define a visually literate person?”

Until next time,

–Silver Lisa