This study analyzes how second, third, and fourth graders in a racially integrated suburban school engaged in multimodal meaning making in the context of a book club discussing Ben Hatke's graphic novel Zita the Spacegirl. Qualitative analysis of field notes and assessments indicated three overall findings: First, students responded to multimodal graphic novel texts with comments and observations that were themselves multimodal. Second, students were capable of engaging in literary analysis and discussion related to the graphic novel they read. And third, students connected multimodally to other texts, graphic novels, and life experiences.
In George O'Connor's graphic novel adaptation of a Dutch translation of Harmen VandenBogaert's Journey into Mohawk Country, the images interact with the text in ironic ways. The text of VandenBogaert's journal presents his interpretation of the events while O'Connor's images depict how the Mohawk Tribe may have viewed the same events. This multimodal reading highlights five kinds of visual irony then considers the implications of this way of reading for teaching students to think critically.
The Harry Potter series is a favorite for out‐of‐school reading and has been used in school, largely as an object of study in language arts. Using a content analysis to highlight the ways in which J.K. Rowling's work could be used to teach higher dimensionality in math, the authors argues that the content is sufficient in such books to engage the interest of students who may be negatively predisposed toward mathematics but are very enthusiastic about Harry Potter books, and vice versa. The article illustrates and explains three‐dimensional objects in two‐dimensional space, pocket dimensions, three‐dimensional movement through two‐dimensional space, and higher dimensional movement through examples and descriptions from scenes in the Harry Potter series and suggests ways in which similar analyses could be performed on other high‐interest texts, helping students forge new insights about mathematics literacy.
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