Journal of Language and Literacy Education Vol. 11 Issue 2—Fall 2015 http://jolle.coe.uga.edu Representing Reading: An Analysis of Professional Development Book Covers Frank Serafini Dani Kachorsky Maria Goff ABSTRACT: Multimodal ensembles utilize a variety of modes to communicate meaning potential and mediate understandings. Professional development books covers contain visual representations of literacy practices, particularly the practices of reading comprehension and reading instruction. The multimodal representations of literacy practices have the potential to impact how literacy educators view, approach, and carry out the practice of teaching reading. Using a social semiotic perspective, the authors analyze 150 professional development book covers intended for classroom teachers. This multilevel, qualitative content analysis examines specific types of literacy practices represented on books and leads to the development of the Multimodal Ensemble Analytical Instrument (MEAI) as a way to guide analysis of representative cover images. Findings are examined in two ways: (1) across four specific literacy practices (reading aloud, independent reading, reading instruction, and reading activities), and (2) within each of the individual literacy practices. Authors conclude with a call for the development of analytical frameworks to examine the types of multimodal texts encountered daily. Keywords: multimodal analysis, qualitative content analysis, visual literacy, book covers
isual images andmultimodal ensembles playanever-expandingroleinthecommunicativelandscape of contemporary societies (Elkins,
2008; Sturken & Cartwright, 2001). Inhabiting aworld mediated by visual images and multimodaltexts inbothprintanddigitalenvironments,peopleare constantly involved in a wide range of literacypractices that incorporate socially-embeddeddiscourses (Gee, 1992),multimodal communications(Kress,2010),anddigitaltechnologies(Gee&Hayes,2011).As literacyresearchers,theimplicationsofthecommunicative and representational resources,discourses, and technologies that support ourencounters with visually dominant texts andmultimodal ensembles and the potential effects ofmixing and remixing various modes ofcommunication in our everyday lives should beconsidered (Serafini, 2010). In order to do so, weneedtoconsiderhowvisual imagesandmultimodalensembles mediate ourexperiences in a variety ofsocial contexts andcommunicativeevents.
Teachers, like everyone else,are bombarded with visualimages and multimodalensembles in both theirprofessionalandpersonallives.The resources teachers selectto include in their classroomlibrariesaspartoftheirliteracylessonsandtoshareduring professional development experiencescontain semiotic resources for communicatingmeanings and mediating understandings of theworld they inhabit. These resources includerepresentations of various aspects of teaching andlearningthroughthemodesofwrittenlanguageandvisual images, in particular representations ofliteracypracticessuchasreadingcomprehensionandinstruction. How literacy practices are representedonthecoversofprofessionaldevelopmentbooksandthepotentialforhowtheserepresentationsaffecttheways in which teachers conceptualize readingcomprehension and instruction is the focus of thisarticle.
The design and publication of professionaldevelopment book covers are not disinterestedprocesses.Thecommerciallydesignedandproduced
images on the covers of professional developmentbooks focusing on reading comprehension andinstructionarenotinnocent,neutralrepresentationsof various literacy practices. The visual imagesproduced for these covers have been carefullyselected to represent various aspects of readingcomprehension and instruction, classroomexperiences,andeducationalsettingsbythegraphicdesigners employed by their respective publishingcompanies. The visual images included on thesecovers have different modal affordances than thewritten language included in the title and subtitle,and represent aspects of reading and readingcomprehension through different modalities.Investigating the meaning potential of thesemultimodalrepresentationsmayofferawindowintohow reading comprehension and instruction areconceptualized,withboth intendedandunintended
consequences (Sturken &Cartwright,2001).
Commercially producedprofessional developmentresources are utilized byelementary andmiddle schoolteachers throughout theircareers. For purposes of thisarticle, we define professionaldevelopment books as booksdirectedatpre-serviceand in-service educators intended to
support instructionalpractices, inparticularreadingcomprehensionand instruction.Thecovers selectedfor this study were gathered from a set of ninecommercial educational publishers, including thoseassociated with professional literacy educationorganizationssuchastheNationalCouncilTeachersofEnglish.
Thecoversofprofessionaldevelopmentbooks servea commercial and rhetorical purpose,meaning theyare designed to get teachers and educators toconsider the value of their contents and persuadeteachers to eventually purchase them. Rhetoricalanalysis has been aligned with theoretical andanalytical frameworks including discourse analysis(Oddo, 2013) and advertising (Scott, 1994) in anattempt to provide warranted accounts of howdiscourse functions across modalities, contexts,audiences, and cultures. As with other forms of
advertising, these covers are to get teachers andother educators to consider their value as teachingresourcesandtoincreasethesalesofthesebooks.
In this article, the authors report an analysis of 150selectedprint-based,professionaldevelopmentbookcoversusinganobservational instrumentdevelopedforanalyzingvisually-dominant,multimodaltextsinprint-basedformats.Theauthorsprovidetheresultsof our analysis of selected covers publishedbyninepublishing companies that focus on teacherprofessional development in the areas of readingcomprehension and instruction. The followingresearchquestionsguided the researchpresented inthispaper:
1. How do publishing companies use variousvisual and textual resources to represent theconcepts of reading comprehension andinstruction on professional developmentbookcovers?
2. What does an analysis of the multimodalfeatures of selected contemporaryprofessionaldevelopmentbookcovers revealabout the concepts of readingcomprehensionandinstruction?
The analysis reported here reveals insight into howthese professional development book coversrepresent literacy practices, in particular how theconcepts of reading comprehension and instructionarerepresentedinthesemultimodalensembles.
ReviewofRelatedResearch
Visual images have been used to represent events,practices, and peoples in both school and out ofschool contexts for centuries. Although we wereunable to locate any research focusing explicitly onthevisualimagesofprofessionaldevelopmentcoversassociated with reading comprehension andinstruction, research has been conducted into therepresentation of same-sex parents on picturebookcovers(Sunderland&McGlashan,2013),howreadingis represented inpicturebooks (Serafini, 2004), howteachers are represented on covers and visualnarrativesinchildren’sliterature(Barone,Meyerson,& Mallette, 1995), and how illustrations inpicturebooks allude to works of fine art (Beckett,2010).Inaddition,researchinvisualandmultimodal
literacies has focused on instructional materials(Newfield, 2011), standardized test materials(Unsworth,2014),andonlinereadingcomprehensionmaterials (Dalton& Proctor, 2008;Unsworth, 2011).These studies demonstrated how various visualimages and written language are used to portrayspecificaspectsofthehumanconditionandwaysofbeingandbecomingliterate.
Paratextual elements (Genette, 1997) are features ofprint-basedanddigitaltextsthatareassociatedwithamultimodaltextbutareperipheraltothenarrativepresentation itself. Peritextual elements are thoseincluded in the physical text itself, for example,dedications, endpapers, author biographies, andbook jackets. Book covers are a peritextual featurethat provides a threshold (Genette, 1997) thatdistinguishes theworld of the book from theworldof the reader. These features serve both centripetaltrajectories, meaning they draw readers in towardsthetextitself,andcentrifugaltrajectoriesthatextendbeyondtheboundariesofthetext(McCracken,2013).Thecoversofprofessionaldevelopmentbooks serveboth trajectories; centripetal trajectories alluding towhat might be included in the book and whattheoretical orientation may be addressed in itscontents, and centrifugal trajectories that areassociated with the author, publisher, and otherprofessional associations. The covers of a bookconstitute an important peritextual elementworthyofanalysis(Baetens,2005;Sheahan,1996).
TheoreticalFramework
Multimodal ensembles communicate using semioticresources across a varietyofmodes including visualimages,designfeatures,andwrittenlanguage(Jewitt,2009). Visual images have modal affordances thatsupport the depiction and communication ofconcepts and ideas in certain ways that differ fromthe affordances associated with written language(Bezemer & Kress, 2008). What a particular mode,such as visual images, can communicate andrepresent has both limitations and semioticpotentials. In other words, written text representsideasindifferentwaysthanvisualimages,andvisualimagesandgraphicdesignfeaturesworkindifferentwaysfromwrittenlanguage(Kress,2010).
Expandingtheanalysisofvariousformsofdiscourse,including written, oral, and visual forms, Halliday(1978) focused on texts as a type of social actionrather than simply a decontextualized object to beanalyzed. In similar fashion, contemporarymultimodalresearchersandtheoristshaveexpandedtheanalysisofmultimodalensemblestoincludethesocial and cultural embeddedness of these texts(Aiello,2006;Alvermann&Hagood,2000;Duncum,2004; Serafini, 2014).Nomatter the semioticmeansof representation, the relationship among visualimages, design features, and written language andtheir associated meaning potentials are sociallyembeddedandworthyofinvestigation.
Representations of various aspects of social lifeutilizing multimodal ensembles that include visualimages and written language are ubiquitous inmodern society (Mirzoeff, 1998). Every instantiationof communication and representation implies areduction and transformation of a considerablenumber of characteristics of represented reality(Kenney, 2005). Consequently, recognition of therepresented elements of a visual image ormultimodal text by no means implies that oneunderstands themeaning potentials andunderlyingideologies of what is experienced (Pauwels, 2008).Kress and van Leeuwen (1996) assert that visualimages or pictorial structures do not simplyreproduce reality, rather they suggest visualrepresentations “… produce [italics in original]imagesofrealitythatareboundupwiththeinterestsof the social institutions within which the picturesare produced, circulated, and read” (p.45). In thesame manner, the visual images included on thecoversof theprofessionaldevelopmentbooksunderinvestigationrepresentaparticularversionofreality,inparticularaversionofreadingcomprehensionandinstructionineducationalsettings.
The use of visual images and multimodal texts ascommunicativeandrepresentativeresourcesoperatewithin a larger sociocultural context that includes aparticular set of literate and social practices (Gee,1996;Gee&Hayes,2011;Lave&Wenger,1991).Thesepractices are mediated by cognitive, technological,semiotic,and linguistic toolsor resources (Werstch,1991).Becauseof thecomplexityof themeditationalmeans associated with multimodal ensembles, it isnecessary to situate these practices within larger
sociocultural and theoretical contexts. Thisgroundingofliteratepracticeswithinasocioculturalcontext allows researchers to analyze the variousresourcesusedinmeaningmakinginrelationtothecultural, social, and historical influences in whichthey reside (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2009; Shanahan,McVee,&Bailey,2014).
Like other concepts, reading comprehension andinstruction are defined by the expectations,experiences, instructional approaches, assessments,andsociocultural,political,andhistoricalcontextsinwhich they are presented and enacted (Barton,Hamilton, & Ivanic, 1999; Bloome, 1985). Over thepast decades, reading comprehension has beendefined as oral comprehension plus decodingabilities (Gough, 1972), a process of building andactivating schema (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983), apsycholinguistic process (Goodman, 1996; Smith,1988), and a form of cultural mediation(Smagorinsky, 2001). Each of these definitions hasspecific implications for how it may beconceptualized,represented,andportrayed.
Contemporarydefinitionsofreadingcomprehensionaddress the processes of generating viableinterpretationsintransactionwithtextsandreaders’abilities to construct understandings from multipleperspectives, including the author’s intentions,textual references, personal experiences, and socio-culturalcontextsinwhichonereads(Serafini,2012a).Meanings constructed during the act of reading aresocially embedded, temporary, partial, and plural(Corcoran, Hayhoe, & Pradl, 1994). There is not anobjective truth about a text, butmany truths, eachwith its own authority and its own warrants forviabilityalignedwithparticular literarytheoriesandperspectives (Rorty, 1979). Because of this, readersare empowered to revise traditional meaningpotentials and challenge existing, hegemonicinterpretations that pervade particular institutions(Luke,1995).Inotherwords,readersandviewersdonothavetoreadilyaccepttraditionalrepresentationsof reading comprehension and instruction, ratherthey can disrupt commonplace interpretations andre-envision how these constructs are interpreted(Lewison,SeelyFlint,&VanSluys,2002).
As literacy researchers, it is important for us torecognizethelensesthroughwhichweapproachourresearch processes and data analysis. Since wecannot remove our personal and professionalexperiences and backgrounds as literacy educators,we need to acknowledge the role these influencesandperspectivesplayintheresearchweconduct.Asclassroom teachers, we came to these images withpreconceptions of what a teacher looked like andhow students engage withclassroomactivities.Wereadilyidentified the adults in theseimages as teachers and thechildren as students. This wasalso made easier by knowingthe intended audience of thebooksunderstudy.
Having performed similarliteracy practices in ourclassrooms, we were positioned to recognize theeventsportrayedon thecoversasparticular literacyevents, whereas other viewerswith less experiencesmay have interpreted them differently. Ourexperiencespositionedustorecognizethesettingsinwhichthe literacypracticeswerecontextualized, forexample, classrooms and libraries, and theparticipants operating in these contexts. As formerclassroom teachers, we have also browsed throughandpurchasedmanyprofessionaldevelopmenttextsand considered ourselves as part of the intendedaudience of these resources. Our analysis wasconducted with these potential biases in mind andweunderstand the influence theseperspectives andexperiencesmayhavehadonouranalyses.
In this study, we determined it was important toanalyze the covers across, as well as within ourconstructed categories to generate understandingsabout what was represented and communicated invisual images and written language across literacypractices. This type of qualitative content analysis(Krippendorff, 2004) is useful for analyzing largesamples of visual images or multimodal texts anddetermining tendencies or frequencies across largenumbers of examples. In addition to frequencycounts and generalizations generated across theentire data corpus, what was equally important to
theresearchers in this studywereutilizingmethodsof multimodal analysis (Jewitt, 2009) for a morenuanced understanding of the representations usedon individual covers to reveal the ways readingcomprehension and instruction was representedacrosstheidentifiedliteracypractices.Thechallengewas developing an analytical method toensureassertionscouldbegeneratedbothacrossandwithin individual covers and categories of literacypractices.
MultimodalResearchDesigns
As part of the data analysisprocedures, the researchersselected severalrepresentational covers fromeach of the four categories ofliteracy practices identifiedduringtheinitialdataanalysisand conducted an in-depth,
multimodal analysis of the selected coversaddressingthecategoriesincludedintheMultimodalEnsemble Analysis Instrument (See Appendix A)developed by the researchers and described in thefollowingsections.
One of the primary goals of multimodal researchdesigns is to expand existing analytical frameworksavailableforanalyzingtextsandimages,forexample,discourse analysis (Coulthard, 1977; Gee, 1999),iconographical analysis (Panofsky, 1955), criticalcontent analysis (Beach et al., 2009), and visualanalysis (Dondis, 1973; Elkins, 2008), to considermultimodal ensembles in sociocultural contextsacross various settings or sites of analysis (Rose,2001). Drawing on a variety of theoreticalframeworks, namely systemic functional linguistics,art criticism, and visual literacies, these analyticalframeworksmustaddressthemultimodalaspectsoftheensembleitself,itsproduction,anditsreception.
Instrument
Over the course of this study, an instrument wasdeveloped to guide theobservations and analysis ofthe individual covers under investigation. TheMultimodal Ensemble Analytical Instrument (MEAI)was designed to help the researchers analyze thevarious visual and verbal grammars used across the
modesofvisualimages,graphicdesignfeatures,andwritten language, and the relationship among thevariousmodalentities.
Theinstrumentdevelopedwasbasedonthesystemicfunctional linguistic framework first presented byHalliday (1975, 1978) and later elaborated andextended to visual modalities by Kress and vanLeeuwen (1996) and architecture (O'Toole, 1994).Hallidayassertedthatallformsofcommunication
required threemetafunctions, namely: 1) ideational,2)interpersonal,and3)textual.Thesemetafunctionshave been renamed and adapted by numerousscholarsofvisualandverbalmodalities,forexample,O’Toole (1994) used the terms representational,modal, and compositional, while Lemke (1998)preferred the terms presentational, orientational,and organizational. The terms representational,interpersonal, and compositional were selected forthis analytical instrument because the researchersfelt these terms best captured the processes theyrepresented.
However, the three metafunctions developed byHalliday and elaborated by others did not directlyaddress the intermodal relationships inmultimodalensembles and how meaning potentials areconstructed across modalities and the sites ofproduction and reception (O'Halloran, 2004). Toaddress theseadditional featuresof theprofessionalbookcovers,theanalyticalinstrumentdevelopedforthis study was organized into three sections: 1)intramodal considerations – focusing on thestructures within particular visual images, 2)intermodal considerations – focusing on theassociations and connections across variousmodes,and 3) ideological considerations – focusing on theinteractions among modes and the largersocioculturalcontext.Theintermodalconsiderationstake into account the associations and meaningsdeveloped across individual modes, while theideological considerations attempt to address thefeatures and contexts associated with the bookscoversassocial,cultural,andhistoricalentities.
DataCorpus
The purpose of the study presented here was toanalyze the covers of selected professionaldevelopmentbooks included in thecatalogsofnine
publishers that contained thewords reading and/orcomprehension to better understand how theseconceptswererepresentedvisuallyandtextuallyandtoconsidertheimplicationsoftheserepresentations.Thedatacorpusofthisstudyincludedatotalof 150professional development book covers that includethewordsreadingand/orcomprehension inthetitleorsubtitlefromthefollowingpublishersintheirfall2010 catalogues: Christopher-Gordon; Corwin;Guilford; Heinemann; IRA; Jossey-Bass; NCTE;Scholastic; Stenhouse.The books selected for thisanalysis were published prior to 2010 and spannedover a decade in their publication dates. Althoughnewcoversappearinpublishers’catalogseveryyear,the covers of the books offered by these nineprominentliteracyeducationpublishersrepresentsasampleofconvenience(Merriam, 1998) thatmaybeused as a representation of the phenomenon understudy.
DataAnalysisProcedures
Data analysis beganwith 150book covers thatwereidentified and collected to form the original datacorpus.Thebook coversweredigitally scannedandreviewed as digital files rather than as print-basedbooks. The covers were initially divided into twocategories: those that contained visual images andthosethatweresimplyasingle-coloredcoverorhadan abstract design element but not an identifiablevisualimage.Therewere21coversthatdisplayednodiscernible visual images.Thesebook covers simplyincluded a title and a single or multi-coloredbackground. Although color may be a semioticsystem in andof itself (vanLeeuwen, 2011), and thetypographicaldesignof the titlemayofferpotentialmeanings (van Leeuwen, 2006), the covers that didnot include an identifiable visual image were notanalyzedfurther.
Ofthe129coversremaining,24includedonlyobjectsassociated with reading or literacy instruction, notpeople. The most prominent objects displayed onthese covers were images of print-based books, forexample,novels,textbooks,andpicturebooks.Ofthe17coversthatcontainedbooks,somewereabstractedillustrations and somewerephotographic imagesofactual books placed in a variety of settings: onshelves,outdoors,ontables,andonclassroomdesks.In addition, seven covers featured notebooks,
pencils, worksheets, or other potential artifacts ofclassroom-basedliteracypractices.
The objects prominently displayed on 24 of thecoverswereprint-basedreadingmaterials, includingpencils, notebooks, and worksheets. Viewing thesevisual objects as possible metaphors of readingcomprehensionand instruction, it iseasytosuggestthepotentialmeaningsassociatedwiththeseobjectswould allude to a print-based variation of readingcomprehension and instruction, although this maybe an overgeneralization. The dominance ofworksheets,pencils,andprint-basedbooksasobjectson these covers, though a ubiquitous aspect ofcontemporaryreadingeducation,failstocapturethemultimodal anddigital environments and resourcesthat are an important part of reading education inthe21stcentury(Serafini,2012b).
Theremaining105coverswereidentifiedasnarrativeimages (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996) because theyincluded people or represented participants doingsomething and not just colored backgrounds orisolated objects. Kress and van Leeuwen (1996)suggest particular visual images are considerednarrativeimageswhentheyincludeparticipants,andmay be of one of two types: interactive orrepresented. Interactive participants are involved inthe image doing something to someone orsomething,whilerepresentedparticipantsaresimplydisplayed, often in portrait-like poses. Narrativerepresentations include participants that carry acertainweightandposition,andprocessesorvectorsthat create tension or force (van Leeuwen, 2008).Each of these aspects of narrative representationshelps viewers considerwho is doingwhat towhomor to what object. Our analysis focused on the 105covers we identified as containing narrative imagesto understand what patterns might be constructedfrom these representations associated with readingcomprehensionandinstruction.
These 105coversweremoreextensivelyanalyzedbyfocusing on who was represented, what they wererepresented as doing or being, and the setting inwhich the participants were depicted or displayed.Aswiththepreviousiterationsofourdataanalysis,avariety of literacy practiceswere represented acrossvarious settings and representedparticipants.Theseresults required the researchers to consider further
analysis focusing on the types of literacy practicesrepresented in the visual images in addition toanalyzing who was depicted and where they werepositioned(seeTable1inAppendixB.
Further analysis of the 105 covers generated fourcategoriesofliteracypracticesthatwerethenusedasa starting point for cross-case and individual coveranalyses. The categories of literacy practicesgenerated were: 1) reading aloud, 2) independentreading, 3) reading instruction, and 4) readingactivities. Each of the three researchers involved inthe study categorized the 105 covers individuallyaccording to the four identified categories.Subsequently,theresearchersmetanddiscussedtheinclusion or exclusion of individual texts for eachcategory.Thesediscussionsresultedinthefinalfourcategories for further analysis and are subsequentlydefinedanddelineatedhere(seeTable2inAppendixB).
Covers identified as reading aloud were those inwhichateacherwasdepictedasreadingasingletextto a group of students. In our data analysis, adultswhoweredepictedinclassroomsettings(duetotheobjects displayed, for example, desks, books, andother objects typical of contemporary classrooms)were identifiedas teachers.Teachersweregenerallydepicted holding up a single text in front of thechildren,whilethechildrenwereseatedinacircleorsmall groupon the floor to allow them to seewhatwas being read. Covers identified as independentreadingfeaturedindividualstudentsreadingatextbythemselves,whereeachstudenthadtheirownbookor reading material. Covers identified as readinginstructioncontainedimagesinwhichstudentsweredepictedinteractingwithtexts,otherstudents,andateacher. It was the inclusion of an adult thatdistinguished the covers assigned to readinginstruction from those identified as independentreading. The covers initially identified as readinginstructionwerefurtherorganizedintotwoseparatecategories: images containing groups of childrenreading together without an adult and imagesfeaturing adults and children together. Weeventually determined that images where childrenwere reading together without an adult would bemoreappropriatelycategorizedundertheheadingofindependent reading because children were notbeing instructed by adults. The images containing
both children and adults interacting with texts notclassified as reading aloud were re-categorized asreading instruction. The remaining images weredesignatedasreadingactivitiesbecausetheyfeatured
a range of alternative literacy practices associatedwith reading and reading instruction, for example,writing,drawing,orcarryingbooks.
Findings
Thedataanalysissubsequentlygeneratedfindingsintwoareas:1)analysisacrossthefourliteracypracticesand 2) analysis of each of the individual literacypractices. By analyzing visual structures andrepresentations within and across the fourcategories, the assertions constructed focusing onhow reading comprehension and instruction wererepresented are more viable than individual caseanalysis would reveal. First, data will be presentedusing elements of visual grammar focusing on thedepiction of represented participants in the coverimages. Second, the analysis of the language of thetitles and subtitles will be presented and discussedfocusing on how language represents readingcomprehension and instruction. Finally, a detailedanalysis of covers representing the identified fourliteracypracticeswillbeshared.AnalysesAcrossFourLiteracyPractices
Depiction of participants. Van Leeuwen(2008)describeshowparticipantsarerepresentedinimages and how these representations constructpotential relationships between representedparticipants and viewers. Based on their analysis ofhow participants are depicted, van Leeuwen (2008)offered three dimensions for consideration andanalysis: 1)socialdistance,2)socialrelations,and3)social interactions. All of these dimensions are,“coloredby thespecificcontext” inwhichthevisualimages are produced and received (van Leeuwen,2008, p. 139). Sunderland and McGlashan (2013)further suggest these dimensions be considered aspossibilities rather than definitive categories,allowing for, “wider, contextually-informedunderstandingsandalternativereadings”(p.483).
In addition, van Leeuwen (2008) posited that therepresentation of social participants must alsoconsider who is depicted, who is not depicted, and
what are the participants doing or not doing. Ouranalysisofthe105coverscontainingnarrativeimagesrevealed that two covers contained only adults, 62contained only children, while 41 had a mixture ofadults andchildren. In addition,64 coversdepictedparticipantsinanidentifiableschoolsetting,12weredepictedinavarietyofoutofschoolsettings,and29images were categorized as abstracted settings,meaning the use of white space or an abstractedbackgrounddidnotspecifyanidentifiableorrealisticsetting(SeeTables3&4inAppendixB).
TheadultsdepictedwereoverwhelminglyCaucasianfemales.Of the43covers thatdepictedadultsaloneor with children, 29 were identifiable as Caucasianfemales depicted in the role of teacher, while onlythree African-American females were depicted asteachers.TenwhitemalesweredepictedwhileonlyoneadultAfrican-Americanmalewasrepresentedinthe role of teacher. The children depicted weregenerally more diverse as far as identifiable visibleattributes as compared to the teachers depicted.African American and Latino students were thedepicted in smaller numbers, while Caucasianstudentsrepresentedasmallmajorityofstudents.
Socialdistance.Social distance refers to theperceived levelof intimacy createdbetweenviewersoftheimageandtheparticipantsportrayedinvisualimages.Whenparticipantsarerepresentedascloser,the viewer is invited into a more intimaterelationship, while participants being depicted asfarther away create a less intimate relationship.Many of the visual images on the covers containedstudentsinwhatwouldbeconsideredintimatesocialdistances revealing only faces or upper bodies. Therelativelyintimatepositioningoftheparticipantsonthecoversinvitestheviewertocloselyparticipateinthe world of the classrooms and other settingsdepicted. Itwouldbedifficult tooffer long-distancerepresentations given the fact that most of theimages were illustrated or photographed inclassroom settings and the relative size of mostclassrooms.
Social relations. Social relations have twoaspects, namely involvement and power.Involvementisrepresentedalongthehorizontalaxis,generally whether the participants are depictedfrontallyorfromtheside.Mostoftheimagesinour
study depicted participants from a side view. Thistype of depiction signals to the viewer theparticipant’s involvement with the given activity inthe image, rather than being directly involvedwiththeviewer.Asmallnumberofimagespositionedtheparticipants frontally, inviting the viewer toparticipate directly in the represented activity. Thevisualimageswereusedtoinvitetheviewerintothereading comprehension and instruction activitydepictedandtofeelapartoftheeventsportrayed.
Power is depicted along the vertical axis, generallywhethertheviewerispositionedabove,below,orateye-level with the represented participants. Severalof the images position the viewer at eye-levelsuggesting a shared power relationship with theviewer.However,amajorityoftheimagespositionedthe viewer in a position of power above theparticipants, looking down on the events takingplace, similar to how a teacher may view youngerstudents in an elementary classroom setting. Thedepictions of events in the images across all fourliteracy practices were predominantly from abovemuch like an adult would be positioned whenvisitingaclassroom.Theserepresentations,althoughsubtle, suggest thepower in theclassroom lieswiththeadultandstudentsaresubservienttotheteacherinreadingcomprehensionandinstructionalevents.
Social interactions. Social interactionsmayinvolve a direct or indirect address betweenparticipants in an image and the viewer. In adirectaddress ordemand, participants lookdirectly out atthe viewer, whereas in an indirect address or offerparticipantslookawayfromthe
viewersuggestingtheviewerconsiderwhattheyareattending to (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996). The 105covers analyzed revealed that a majority of images(87covers) featuredindirectlyaddressesratherthandirectly addresses (18 covers). In other words, themajority of images featured teachers and studentsnot looking directly out at the viewer. Instead, theteachers and students looked at each other or attexts and other objects in classrooms or othersettings.
The indirectaddresspositions thevieweroutsideofthe classroom or other spaces represented in animage, looking in on the events depicted. These
indirect addresses turn the participants into whatKressandvanLeeuwen(2006)callthe“objectoftheviewer’s dispassionate scrutiny” (p. 119). It may besuggestedthat theviewer isbeingaskedtoevaluatewhether the depictions of the literacy events andprocessesbeingrepresentedonthesecoversarehowthey want similar literacy events and processes toappearintheirownclassrooms.Theindirectaddresspositions the viewer of the image as voyeur whowatchingastheeventsintheimageunfolds.
Eighteencoversdepictedparticipants,bothstudentsand teachers, looking directly at the camera orillustratedfacingtheaudience.Thesedemandimagescreated a more direct connection between theparticipants and the viewers. This form ofrepresentation invited the viewer to not onlyparticipate in thedepicted activities, but to directlytransactwiththeparticipantsrepresented.Thefacialexpressionsofthestudentsandteachersportrayedinthese images also impact the connection createdbythe direct address. In some instances, studentslooked directly at the viewer with expressions ofconfusionorconcernastheystruggledwithreadingactivities, suggesting the viewer is expected toempathize with the student. In other images,students smiled at the viewer thus conveying apositive, inviting, friendly relationship betweenparticipantsandviewers.
AnalysisofFourLiteracyPractices
The analysis of the covers containing narrativeimages revealed a wide range of depictedparticipants, activities, objects, settings, and socialinterrelationships. At this point, the researchersbelieved a more nuanced analysis of the identifiedfourliteracypracticeswasnecessary.Afteranalyzingthe data corpus across the four literacy practicesusing the visual grammar features and languagerepresentations described previously, our analysisproceeded by looking at each of the four literacypracticesindividually.
Three book covers were selected as representativesamples from each of the four identified literacypractices. The dimensions included as part of theMEAI(listedintheappendix)wereusedtoorganizeand deepen the analyses of these selected bookcovers. These dimensions include: 1) intramodal
considerations (compositional, design, ideational,and interpersonal inventories within a particularmode, in this instance the visual image), 2)intermodal considerations (how visual image andwritten text interact), and 3) ideologicalconsiderations (critical, socio-cultural associations).Results of this analysis are presented according toeachidentifiedliteracypractice.
Representing reading aloud. The categoryconstructed as reading aloud was defined as oneadultperson,identifiedasateacher,maleorfemale,holding a single book and appearing to read orpresent it to a group of children, identified asstudents. In these visual images, the students werepositioned either in a semi-circle or small groupfacing the book and the teacher. The single textbeing held up was the focus of the children’sengagement. In general, the teacherwas positionedabove the students and held the text so studentscouldseeitandappearedtobereadingfromit.Thebooks depicted on the covers were primarilypicturebooksorbookswithtextandimages.Inthesecover images the text became an object used tomediate the interactions between the teacher andchildren.Itwasthetextasvisualobjectthatwasthefocusofthestudents’attention.
On these covers, children are positioned below thelevel of the teacher and face the teacher and thebook. A teacher always held the book and childrenwere represented facing the text engaged in the actof listening to the story being read. Students werenever depicted in chairs or at their desks on thesecovers. In the readingaloud images, themajorityofteacherswereidentifiableasCaucasian,includingsixfemales and three males. In general, the childrendepictedon the coversweremulticulturallydiverse.African American, Latino, Asian American, andCaucasianstudentsweredepicted inequalnumbersofbothboysandgirls.
The visual images on the covers depicted readingaloud as a communal activity that takes place inschool with both teachers and students engaged intheactivityenactingdifferentroles.Thesettingofallthereadingaloudcoverswasaclassroom,suggestingthat reading aloud occurs in school settingsregularly. Whether in an abstracted image orphotograph, students were depicted as facing the
Representing independent reading.Covers categorized as independent reading weredefinedas any timea childhadhisorherown textandwasdepicted readingor looking at the text.Ofthe105coverscontainingnarrativeimages,53coversfit in the category of independent reading. Withinthe category of independent reading, two sub-categories were constructed: 1)multiple children inan image, each with his or her own book, or 2) asinglechildwithhisorherownbook.Imagesintheindependent reading category depicted a variety ofsettings: school buildings, classrooms, outdoors, orabstracted representations containingunidentifiablesettings, most commonly depicted on white spacesorsinglecoloredbackgrounds.
Amajority of images portray a child with an openbook, looking directly into or at the book. Fewerimages depict either a child looking at his or herbookwith the book closed or some combination ofthese actions. The majority of texts represented inthe images are chapterbooks,with a lesser amountof picturebooks, textbooks, and combinations ofnewspapers,comicbooks,orunidentified texts.Theprominenceofchapterbooksidentifiesthesespecifictexts as the preferred reading material forindependent reading. The less frequent inclusion ofpicturebooks, textbooks, and other texts signalsapproval to the inclusion of other texts but as analternativetochapterbooks.
Of the children depicted in the visual images, 21featuredonlymales, 22hadacombinationofmalesand females,and tencovers featuredonlygirls.Thedifferences in gender representations may suggestthat boys need more guidance with theirindependent reading practices than girls. The fewimages featuringgirlson theirownor inagroupofgirlssuggeststheymaynotrequirethesamelevelofassistance as young male readers. Twenty imagesfeaturedCaucasianchildren,while23featuredamixofraces.Justtencoversdepictonlyminoritychildrenonthecovers.Furtheranalysisoftherepresentationsof thegender and racial aspectsof the independentreading covers revealed two predominate groups:Caucasian boys and mixed-gender, mixed-racegroups.
Coverscategorizedasdepictingindependentreadingfeature children looking away from the viewer, at aclose personal distance, at an eye level angle ofinteraction,andare realistic in termsof the image’smodality. Images in the independent readingcategorydidnotdepictmultiplestudentsreadingingroups, interacting with one another as they read.The covers represent independent reading as asolitary activity and may suggest reading issomethingbestdonealone.
Representing Reading Instruction. Thecategory of reading instruction was defined as anytime teachers and children came together around asingle text in a literacy practice identified assomethingotherthanreadingaloud.Theinclusionofadults in the imagedistinguished these covers fromthe category of independent reading. Twenty-ninecovers out of 105 were categorized as readinginstruction.
Within the category of reading instruction, themostlycommonlyrepresentedliteracypracticeswereone-on-one reading instruction, which appeared on14 covers, and small group instruction, whichappeared on 12. Classrooms and libraries were themostcommonsettingsforreadinginstructioninthiscategory. Sixteen of the 29 reading instructionimagesweresetinclassrooms,andsevenweresetinlibraries. The frequencywithwhich classrooms andlibrarieswererepresentedinthecoverssuggeststhatreading instruction tends to occur in an academicenvironment or classroom setting. Readinginstructionwasdepictedasnotoccurringoutsideorinlessformal,sociallyorientedspaces.Studentsweredepicted in circular group arrangements commonlyassociatedwithsmallgroupinstructionandthecloseproximity of the students and teachers implies aninteractivequalitytoreadinginstruction.In all the images, students and teachers arepositionedwithincloseproximitytotexts.Inone-on-one instruction, students are represented holdingtheir own texts, while in small group instructionstudentseitherholdtextsordirecttheirattentiontoatexttheteacherpresentstothem.Thetypeoftextrepresented varied greatly with seven cover imagescontaining picturebooks, seven containing chapterbooks, six containing paper handouts, three
containing presentations and/or presentationmaterials, twocontaining textbooks,one containinga computer, and one containing an abstracted text.Such a variety of texts suggested that readinginstruction,whileprint-basedandtext-centric,isnotspecifictoaparticulartypeoftext. Instead,all textscanbeutilizedtoteachstudentshowtoread.
Representing Reading Activities. Thecategory of reading activities initially served as amiscellaneouscategoryforimagesthatdidnoteasilyfit into the other three categories. However, itbecame clear after further analysis that certainactivities associated with reading and readinginstructionweredepictedmore frequentlyandwereworthyoffurtherinvestigation.Forexample,writingwasdepictedinamajorityofthesevisualimages.
Seven of the fourteen images included identifiableeducational settings (ie. classrooms), threewere setoutdoors, and four were abstracted images with noidentifiable settings. There were adults depicted inonlytwoofthe14 imagessuggestingtheseactivitieswere done independently and could be completedboth in and out of school. One cover depicted astudent lying in the grass with a magnifying glass,and one looking through the lens of a digital videorecorder. Students participating in some form oftheater or acting, having a discussion, carryingnotebooks, and holding a small flower were alsoincludedonindividualcovers.
Inaddition,drawingandotherartprojectswerealsodepicted. Students were engaged in some form ofwriting and drawing activity or conducting someform of artistic project. This relates to manycontemporary classroomswhere teachershavebeenusingwritinganddrawingaswaysof responding totextsandassessingstudents readingcomprehensionabilities.
Discussion
The literacy practice of reading aloud is usedprimarilytosharestories,buildcommunity,presentexamplesoffluentreading,introducereaderstonewtitles, and teaches children about narrative stories(Fox,2001;Trelease,1989).Inalloftheimagesinthereading aloud category, viewers (of the book coverimages)arepositionedtolookdownonthestudents.
Acrosstheseimages,thestudentssatpassively,manyof them cross-legged on the floor listening to thestorybeingread.Noparticipantsdirectlyaddresstheviewer,meaning theydidnot lookat thecameraorwere not illustrated from a frontal position,positioning the viewer as voyeur of the literacyevents in the classroom. In these images, we aregivenawindowintothetypesofliteracyeventsthatare recommended in elementary reading programs.However,theseimagessuggestreadingissomethingthat isdone to students,not something theydo forthemselves. Our analysis of these images furthersuggests that teachers direct the reading aloudactivity and that students have less control overtheseclassroomevents.Considering the dimension of social interactiondiscussedearlier, the teachersdepicted in the coverimages in the reading aloud categoryweredepictedin positions of power, represented above andseparated from the students. There was a sense ofintimacy represented by the close proximity of theteacher and the students. These depictionspositioned teachers above the children portraying asenseofpowerandcontrol,withtheteachersservingas the conduit between the students and thenarrativebeingread.
Most of the images in the independent readingcategory position children at a close personaldistance to the viewer and at an eye level angle ofinteraction. This social distance and angle ofinteraction portrays independent reading as anintimateactivityfortheparticipantwhileplacingtheviewer in a voyeuristic position as observer, not asparticipant. During independent reading, teachersandstudentsareoftennotincloseproximitytoeachother,andideally,childrenarelookingattheirbooksduring the entire independent readingpractice, notinteractingwithotherstudentsortheteacher.
Thevarietyof settings included in thecover imagessuggests that independent reading as apractice canoccuranywhereandisnotlimitedtoschoolsettings.One cover categorized as independent reading,Reading to Live, How to Teach Reading for Today’sWorld (Wilson, 2002), features a single Caucasianboy,sittingaloneonapier,readingabook.Thetitlesuggests reading in “today’sworld” isdifferent fromreadinginthepast;however,thedepictionoftheact
the boy engages in does not suggest anythingmodern or new about reading. The viewerpositioningateye-levelandatafarpersonaldistancecombined with a side-view of the boy lookingdirectly into the book, together suggests the boy is“lost”inhisbook.Theviewerissimplyobservingthechild reading and not invited to interact with him.Theviewerpositioningandoutdoorsettingdepictedon this cover present independent reading as asolitary act not reliant on a school or a classroomsetting.
The images identified as reading instruction wouldsuggest effective reading instruction is notsomething accomplished in a whole class setting.Instead, reading instruction is best accomplishedthrough small group or individualized instructionwhere thestudentsandteachercangetclose to thetext. Students and teachers were representedthroughout these images within close socialdistances from one another. In one-on-oneinstruction, teachers are primarily positioned abovestudents,leaningoverstudentsastheyengagewithasingle,print-basedtext.The images featuring small group instruction arearrangedsimilarlytothecoversidentifiedasreadingaloud with the teacher in the center of a circlecommanding students’ attention. In these images,students’ gazes are eitherdirected at the teacher orat the place where the teacher is pointing, inmostcases a print-based text. Such positioning impliesthat effective reading instruction is not somethingstudents can accomplish individually; teacherguidance, in one form or another, is consideredessentialtoreadinginstruction.Manyoftheimagesincludedinthereadingactivitiescategoryfocusedontheactofwriting.Theinclusionof these activities in the cover images focusing onreadingcomprehensionandinstructionsuggeststhatreading andwriting are closely associated activities.Students were depicted with pencils and othertraditional writing implements. No students weredepicted with computers or digital reading devices.These representations of print-based reading andwriting aligns with traditional schooling practicesandmaybeused to connectwithanolder teachingforce that may not be as well-versed in digitaltechnologies.
Students were depicted as actively engaged withobjects like pencils, notebooks, magnifying glassesand other texts. Although these activities may beconsideredtangentialtoreadingcomprehensionandinstruction, it is interesting that these activities areincluded on the covers of books that focus onreading instruction. Itsuggestsreading isassociatedwith other forms of literate behaviors, in particularwriting, acting, anddrawing.Thismay relate to theunderlyingconnectionamongthedifferent formsofliteracies, or itmay suggest teachers require lots ofactivitiestosupportorassessreadingbehaviors.
Oneofthecovers,CatchingReadersBeforeTheyFall:Supporting Readers Who Struggle, K-4 (Johnson &Keier,2010)featurestwoyounggirlswiththeirarmsaround one another holding small yellow flowers.Thegirlsarestaringdirectly into thecamera in thisphotograph and are smiling. The concept of“catching readers before they fall,” included in thetitle, suggests that some children will have troublelearning to read andwill fall behind in school. Thepremiseofthisbooktitleisthattherearestrugglingreaders inour schoolsand teachershave to supportthembeforetheyfail.
Thetwogirlsdepictedonthisparticularcoverseemoblivious to their plight as struggling readers. Theyaredepictedashappyandsmiling,unawarethattheyare struggling and continue to fall further andfurther behind as readers. The two girls areminorities, one possibly Latin@, the other possiblyAfrican-American. Whether any meanings wereintended by the selection of these particularparticipants ispotentiallycircumspect;however, thecover suggestsminority studentsmay strugglewithlearningtoreadandwillneedhelpbeforetheyfail.
An analysis of the language used in the titles andsubtitles of the selected professional developmentbookcoversrevealsinterestingpatternsacrossvisualrepresentations,depictedparticipants, and thewaysin which reading and reading instruction isdescribed.Sometitlesandsubtitlescontainedtermsthat suggest readingasapositive, enjoyableactivitythat all children should be interested in doing.Words likeawakening, wonder, deepening, strategic,growing, joyful,enhancing,andpassionwereusedtodescribe the reading process or reading instructionon these covers. The titles and subtitles of some
books contained words like struggle, struggling,improving, closing the achievement gap, misguided,tutoringand reaching.Thesewords seemto suggestthatreadingisastruggleanddifficulttodoforsomechildren. Further analysis, possibly using systemicfunctional linguistic approaches, to investigate howthe concepts of reading comprehension andinstructionarerepresentedinlanguageiswarrantedbutwasnotpartofourstudyatthistime.
ConcludingRemarks
This article focuses on how reading comprehensionand instruction are represented on the covers ofprofessional development books, and the meaningpotentials of these multimodal ensembles. Asteachers look to purchaseprofessional developmentresources, it is important to understand how theymaybepositionedasteachersofreadinginthevisualimages and written language of the covers of theresourcestheyareconsidering.
The quest for the identification of stable, universal,objectivemeanings associatedwith particular visualimages and text has been investigated throughoutthe past few decades (Jewitt, 2009). To complicatethis endeavor concepts of multimodality havemuddied the theoretical waters suggesting therelationshipsamongvariousmodes inamultimodaltextproducemoreelaborateanddifferentmeaningsthan those suggested by eithermode alone (Hull &Nelson, 2005). Because of these theoreticalassertions, suggesting these covers have anidentifiable, objective meaning that is universallyinterpretedbyalleducatorswouldbenegligent.Wehave attempted in this study to suggest potentialmeanings and interpretation of the selectedprofessional development book cover images andsupported our interpretations with theoretical andanalyticalfoundations.
Asliteracyresearchers,weneedtodevelopanalyticalframeworksforexpandingourunderstandingsofthemultimodaltextsweencounterandselectforliteracyinstructional approaches for our students andourselves (Serafini, 2010). This study demonstratestheneedtoreconsiderthevisualimagesthatportrayvariousaspectsof literacyinstructionandclassroomteaching.These images, aspartofmultimodalbookcovers, have underlying assumptions and messages
• Title:Howisthetitle/subtitlepresented?(color,size,position)• Linguistics:WhatVerbs/Nounsareusedinthetitle?Whatdothesesuggest?• Fonts: What are the characteristics of the fonts used? (weight, coherence, color, serif / sans serif,
• Gaze:Dothecharacterslookatviewer(demand)oraway(offer)?Whatdoesthissuggest?• InterpersonalDistance:(closepersonal,farpersonal,public):• AngleofInteraction:Istheviewerpositionedfromabove,beloworeyelevel?• Modality: Is the image realistic or abstract?How is this created? Is the image posed or naturalistic?
• IdeationalComplementarity–jointcontributionstomeaningpotential(synergistic)• Ideational Counterpoint – meanings potential in image and text and in opposition, offering
