"Text" to Theatre Class

There was a lot of stuff in this section that I had already known. Most of it I’d never been trained in, which is something that I actually have a little bit of a beef with every time that I read an article like this (or any of theatrical design books). My issue (forgive me, but I just have to say this) is that a lot of the time I feel like people don’t take these ideas into consideration when creating the work, but only when analyzing it. In the creation, I feel like there is more of doing and pure emotion than analytical thought process of where to put the vertical line. This makes me wonder how much of this stuff is intuitive and how much is contrived. Thoughts?

I know they were talking about reading an image at the time, but I liked the discussion of “determine the ‘figure’ and the ‘background’” at the beginning of the article. The discussion talked about how different images may or may not include an actual “figure” in them, but that there still is a figure there, and that that figure may change based on what your perspective is on “figure” and (I believe) your perspective on the image itself. I think that this can be applied to verbal texts as well as visual. As both actors and artists my students will have to consider both the verbal and visual implications of “figures”. Visually they will have to do as discussed – determine what is the figure and what is the background. Using this as an exercise could help them to understand how to place themselves on stage according to where the focus should be, which parts of the stage to avoid and which to capitalize off of. They could repeat this idea using only themselves, or in groups of anywhere from 2-your entire cast. Verbally the idea is slightly different, but similar in fundamentals. When reading a text, usually a poem but occasionally plays as well, there is room for interpretation. Students’ own backgrounds can lead to different thoughts and meanings for the text. (As mentioned in the article, this often occurs with visual texts as well.) This can be a hazard unless it is recognized. If recognized, it then allows the students to explore the differences between their own ideas and others (the class, the author if available, etc) and compare and contrast the differences in meaning that surface. This exploration can (not will) lead to a greater understanding of the text and their classmates’ views and personalities.

Another topic discussed that I find transcends the area discussed (visual text) is tone. Tone is something that is a part of every text – visual, verbal, physical, and anything else you can think of. Its manifestation varies depending on the medium (body, paint, words), but the result should be the same when used appropriately. The tone of the piece can completely change the idea that the observer comes away with. I think the best way to help my students understand this idea is to let them experience it through as many mediums as possible – paintings, poems, plays, short stories, etc. One way that just came to mind would be to greet them two consecutive days using the exact same words, but using a completely different tone (physically and verbally), and to have them compare their reactions. Or, play with one word – “Oh.” “Ohhhhhh.” “Ooooooohhhhhhh.” can all yield different reactions.

Mixed media is definitely an interesting thing to consider in the lens of a theatre teacher. If you think about it, all plays present mixed media – text, bodies, paintings, wood, metal, fabric, music, light… all come together to present one message. Discussing mixed media wouldn’t be so different than our own discussion of concept and how to tie in each of the design elements to the central theme so that nothing stand out by itself and attracts undue attention, or how to make something attract a lot of focus. As the book mentioned, the discussion of materials (or at least what the materials are made to resemble) and realisms/abstract/impressionism, and the relationship with the text are all extremely important thoughts to consider in conveying the desired theme of a theatre piece.

Learning to Read Again

I had always planned on creating a classroom where all sorts of media would be involved with the learning process. I will be (as long as what I hope to happen pans out) both a theatre and an English teacher, so literacy is extremely important to me. That literacy would have to be the all-inclusive definition of the word that the reading pushes: visual and verbal (verbal meaning both words on the page and words we speak). For me, however, the idea of really separating these kinds of literacy is rather new. I have always seen writing as an example of both kinds of literacy, even if it is a long essay. The way an essay is formatted is something read visually, and it is brought into your reading before you even get into the verbal language written on the page. You cannot have one without the other. In the appendix we’d read, “On Reading Visual and Verbal Texts,” it illustrates this. Of course, it mentions it more in the poetry section of the appendix more than anywhere else because of the large part that formatting has to play in the meaning of a poem, but I truly do believe that any page’s formatting speaks levels. If I, as a teacher, received a book report that had one-and-a-half inch margins and was double spaced, it would speak levels about the writer when comparing it to a report that came in as single-spaced with half-inch margins in order to keep within the page limit. Reading “On Visual and Verbal Texts” helped me recognize that I can teach my English students how to read not only different types of written works, but how to read paintings and photographs as well.

Reading “Observing the Ordinary” gave me an idea. I loved the essay “Ode to an Orange” by Larry Woiwode. His prose is intoxicating and brings out the most amazing sensations of eating an orange. He even discusses ways to eat one that I have never thought about before, such as sticking a pencil into the orange and sucking the juice out before going in for the pulp. It is creative and a fun read that seems to sell oranges just by its masterful description. Then, when turning the page, there is an advertisement of a half-peeled orange and the words “Have One.” It gave me a teaching idea in which I could ask my English students, after studying the different types of literature and how to read them, to look at an advertisement of their choice (being school appropriate, of course) and to write an essay that sells the product in a different way than the ad. Another idea came from the series of telephone advertisements. I would ask my students to read ads for a product over time and ask them what differences in implications were in each one, and then either create advertisements themselves or write an essay on the differences in selling points that they saw. In “On Reading Visual and Verbal Texts” it gives great guiding questions that I could ask my students to make points on and therefore help in my creation of a grading rubric, such as “what is the viewer’s eye drawn to first in the advertisement?” and “What is the underlying ‘logic’ of the advertisement?” Guiding questions and rubrics have been a large part of the lesson plans I have been asked to make in the Theatre Education major, and it was great to have some there to help me teach a deeper lesson on how to read, no matter what kind of reading it might be.

I plan to teach my theatre students through the written word as well as through images. Reading this text has helped me understand all of the different ways I can tie different media sources together to help students better understand how to create something that can be read by any person as a quality work of art. I am exited to use the many forms of reading and creating in my classroom, no matter what subject I might teach.

The Power of Media and its Meanings

    

Media is an exciting thing to learn about especially for high school aged students because it is information that they are surrounded by constantly and know a great deal about. A typical high school student has a cell phone, watches television on the TV or on their computer thus exposed to blatant or subtle advertisements, and either has a Facebook social networking sight or blog and sometimes even both. They are well versed in the creating and using of media but the question is do they understand how these types of media construct meaning and how to interpret and read these visual images and verbal texts. I want to give my students critical analysis skills to be able to find meaning.

Ways I can use media texts in the classroom is constantly bringing things into class that inspire me or things that can be sources of inspiration for my students. By showing my students the piece of art work, a piece of clothing, a movie, or photograph that inspires creativity they will have a physical example of the step by step analytical process I go through to shape my

thinking. I will challenge my student to practice these skills of thinking in new ways. A possible exercise I could do with them is as follows.

-Hand out a picture of a piece of artwork with a one-line caption underneath. Then challenge the students to write a 10-line story about this picture. During this activity they will be practicing the skills of looking at a visual image and text and taking those observations and creating a new work.

A point made in the reading is different mediums have very similar approaches of analyzing them. This can be difficult and a plus to the students. Show the students how closely the different types of media are to each other and how in the grand scheme of things they all affect one another. Learning how to read one type of media can be beneficial when being exposed to a different media because the basic skills are already present and developed.

1. The first thing I want to teach my students is how to read an image. A way to do this is by determining the inital type of image. Is it a photograph, a piece of art, a still frame of a film. In teaching our students how to understand and find meaning in visual images and texts they first need to know what they are dealing with. Along with identifying the type of media what is this piece of media saying--consider the context and construction of the image.

2. Determine the figure and the background. The figure is the most important thing in the image and the background is the immediate context.  The figure is the thing the students need to focus on.  It is the main character of the story that a person would follow from beginning middle to end. 

3. The piece of media that students are exposed to the most in their interactions are advertisements.  A fascinating thing about advertisements is at times they fool you.  You think they are selling one thing which they are but are there hidden products being sold.  The majority of ads for perfume and jewelry show a sexy young model selling the product but is that the only thing.  These ads are selling sex as well.  I want my students to understand the power media can have and how it can be a positive and negative thing. 

Classroom Applications for Reading Visual Texts

There were several times during my reading of “On Reading Visual and Verbal Texts” that I thought to myself, “Oh, I know that!” Some of the things I was reading didn’t really feel that new to me, but they were more of a review of things I had learned elsewhere.

On the other hand, there were some paragraphs that I read where I thought, “Woah doggies. Let’s see that again.” I’m honestly not even sure how to explain what I mean by that, but sometimes I think I get caught up in my own head when I’m thinking about visual mediums like written mediums (or something like that).

Nevertheless, as I read, ideas would sort of float into my head; ideas for classroom application of the text I was reading. After finishing the reading, I thought back to those ideas that fluttered across my consciousness. I’ve returned to them and I’ve tried to follow them out to a complete idea, something that I could apply to classroom teaching.

The first idea came to me in within the first few paragraphs regarding reading an image. The book reads, “…the easiest way to begin reading an image is to determine its story.” The book offers some suggested questions to ask when searching for this story: “What are the denotative and connotative meanings of the objects, people, and places within the image? Where are the items in the image placed in relationship to one another?”

I think these kinds of questions, as well as these skills necessary to read an image like a painting, photograph, or advertisement are the same skills that good actors, directors, and designers need. A director needs to be aware of the message they convey through a certain stage picture. A designer can tell a limitless number of stories, but they should be aware of how they can tell that one story they wish to tell. I think I will incorporate plenty of opportunities to find a story within an image, not only through blocking on a stage, but also through other media. A film, a photograph, or even an advertisement can be effective supplements in my classroom.

Another idea that I had sprouted from the paragraph about the devices used by both Visual and Verbal artists. Once sentence in particular started me thinking: “While readers of prose texts frequently find metaphor, viewers of images often find metonymy—the concept of ‘a part substituting for the whole.’” This is something I think I can keep in mind. I think that finding metonymy is something we should try to do in our theatrical pursuits (and for the rest of life). I think it’s about finding the big picture. Some monologues, scenes, or entire plays are just a small part of something bigger. I think there are a number of ways to teach this in the classroom. I can imagine using some images, and asking the students to create the story represented by the image.

I had another idea as I read the section on reading advertisements. The book asks several questions to guide our reading of advertisements, and the two that stuck out to me were, “What is the viewer’s eye drawn to first in the advertisement?” and “How much of the advertisement’s message is delivered through words and how much through images?” I understand that advertisements are usually used in a commercial environment, but I think there is an application for Theatre Education.

Advertisements are designed to convey their messaged efficiently and effectively. I think that through understanding and even creating advertisements, students can learn to sift through a work to find it’s core values and message. I think that showing advertisements, whether they be printed or ads for television, and taking the time to take them apart will help student to do the same to other work. I think it could be included in a unit on script analysis.

Those were my first three ideas, and I think there is a lot more to be discovered. I’m not sure I even have a strong handle on the information that was presented in that essay. I look forward to exploring visual media in the same way that I explore written works. I’m excited to practice my own media literacy skills, and as I do that I hope I can incorporate Media Literacy effectively in my own classroom.

Training students to read media texts

I think an effective way to get students started learning, understanding, and practicing the skills discussed in “On Reading Visual and Verbal Texts” would be to begin with advertisements.  The bottom line is that every text is advertising, selling, and/or trying to convince its audience of something in some way, so beginning with this concept in mind would be a good way to bring students’ minds alive to this fundamental principle of reading media.  A savvy selection could also be an excellent vehicle to engaging students’ interest in learning the skills being taught: their attention will be drawn by a hip, funny, or popular commercial; an ad for a product they like will naturally interest them; and what high school student wouldn’t relish poking a little fun at some of the older ads that seem cheesy or hokey now?    As students learn to engage critically with these texts, they’ll very likely find themselves pursuing their critical examination as they constantly encounter ads outside the classroom.

One point in “On Reading” that particularly struck me was how similar the approaches to reading various types of media are.  I’d like my students to learn to transfer their skills from one medium to another as they become more conversant with the vocabulary and symbolism of visual media, so I’d like to have them focus on one aspect of visual media across several examples.  For instance, a photograph, a painting, and a sculpture which each include a building could be connected to a real-world piece of architecture as students are asked to read each of the structures they encounter in those works.  This study of transferring skills from one medium to another could then be carried forward into verbal texts, such as a poem, short story, or political speech.  Once students have a solid understanding of how they can use the same vocabulary and conventions to inform their examinations across various media, they can be encouraged to continue to use those skills as they learn new techniques and deepen their critical analyses of the media they encounter.

Since we typically use the words “read” and “reading” to refer strictly to verbal texts, I feel many students would benefit from approaching these texts in a media literacy class (or unit) only after several interactions with visual texts.  Once students have developed solid skills and habits in reading visual media and have made the connection between visual and verbal media, they will be better prepared to read verbal media critically (as opposed to the skimming-the-surface say/think-the-words-and-then-forget-them approach students often take to the verbal texts they encounter in school).  An interesting and, I think, fruitful way to help students begin reading more critically would be to have them read a film (such as Harry Potter) and then read the book on which that film is based.  As students discuss and interpret the similarities and differences between the two versions of the chosen narrative, they should be able to engage more thoughtfully in their reading of each medium.

Reading Response 2

How does “On Reading Visual and Verbal Texts” shape your thinking about possible ways to use media texts in your classroom? Identify three key points from the reading and discuss how these points could aid your classroom teaching and planning.