Research
Graphic narrative play is a research-based approach to extending and enhancing children's visual and verbal literacies. The method requires adult involvement and collaborative production. All involved become more critical and capable producers and consumers of their surrounding culture. The following are selections from articles and books that have informed my approach.
Note: Some in-text citations have been removed to facilitate reading.
Note: Some in-text citations have been removed to facilitate reading.
H. Porter Abbott, The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative, 2nd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 2, 129.
"Narrative capability shows up in infants some time in their third or fourth year, when they start putting verbs together with nouns. Its appearance coincides, roughly, with the first memories that are retained by adults of their infancy, a conjunction that has led some to propose that memory itself is dependent on the capacity for narrative. In other words, we do not have any mental record of who we are until narrative is present as a kind of armature, giving shape to that record."
"[I]t is only through narrative that we know ourselves as active entities that operate through time."
"Narrative capability shows up in infants some time in their third or fourth year, when they start putting verbs together with nouns. Its appearance coincides, roughly, with the first memories that are retained by adults of their infancy, a conjunction that has led some to propose that memory itself is dependent on the capacity for narrative. In other words, we do not have any mental record of who we are until narrative is present as a kind of armature, giving shape to that record."
"[I]t is only through narrative that we know ourselves as active entities that operate through time."
Angela Anning, "Conversations Around Young Children's Drawing: The Impact of the Beliefs of Significant Others at Home and School," JADE 21.3 (2002): 197-208.
"Evidence from the research confirmed the key role that significant adults played in the children's drawing. It also raised our awareness of the distinctiveness of 'joint involvement episodes' in the contrasting cultures of home and school.
At home parents and members of the extended families of the children modelled drawing behaviours on the basis of shared interests and activities. Drawing was a socio-cultural activity. Drawings often revolved around media, fashion, music or sport imagery and reflected gendered patterns. Children developed personal styles and pursued their own pre-occupations, persisting with trying to make sense of the world and their place within it through their self-initiated drawings. They mostly gained unconditional support for their drawing from the adults around them.
Practitioners in early childhood settings seemed unsure about the strategies they might use to foster young children's drawing or how to respond to their spontaneous representations. They were unable or reluctant to tune into the children's home worlds of media, fashion, pop music or sport imagery, and particularly the pre-occupations of boys. Their 'joint involvement episodes' with the children were unfocused and tentative. Their preoccupation was with getting the children to read and write. Drawing was perceived as a 'time filler', a vehicle for decorating the walls, or within art 'lessons' as a one off directed activity to promote specific skills and techniques. Children had increasingly limited opportunities to choose the content and style of drawing as they progressed from nursery to the end of Key Stage One settings.
The restrictions placed upon them within school contexts resulted in these young children withdrawing from drawing unless it was set as a directed activity. They began to lose confidence in their ability to draw. Their sense of self as artist appeared to wither in their emergent identity as learners in school contexts. But at home they quietly persisted in learning to draw and drawing to learn."
"Evidence from the research confirmed the key role that significant adults played in the children's drawing. It also raised our awareness of the distinctiveness of 'joint involvement episodes' in the contrasting cultures of home and school.
At home parents and members of the extended families of the children modelled drawing behaviours on the basis of shared interests and activities. Drawing was a socio-cultural activity. Drawings often revolved around media, fashion, music or sport imagery and reflected gendered patterns. Children developed personal styles and pursued their own pre-occupations, persisting with trying to make sense of the world and their place within it through their self-initiated drawings. They mostly gained unconditional support for their drawing from the adults around them.
Practitioners in early childhood settings seemed unsure about the strategies they might use to foster young children's drawing or how to respond to their spontaneous representations. They were unable or reluctant to tune into the children's home worlds of media, fashion, pop music or sport imagery, and particularly the pre-occupations of boys. Their 'joint involvement episodes' with the children were unfocused and tentative. Their preoccupation was with getting the children to read and write. Drawing was perceived as a 'time filler', a vehicle for decorating the walls, or within art 'lessons' as a one off directed activity to promote specific skills and techniques. Children had increasingly limited opportunities to choose the content and style of drawing as they progressed from nursery to the end of Key Stage One settings.
The restrictions placed upon them within school contexts resulted in these young children withdrawing from drawing unless it was set as a directed activity. They began to lose confidence in their ability to draw. Their sense of self as artist appeared to wither in their emergent identity as learners in school contexts. But at home they quietly persisted in learning to draw and drawing to learn."
Laura E. Berk, Awakening Children's Minds: How Parents and Teachers Can Make a Difference (Oxford University Press, 2001).
"Vygotsky proposed that as children engage in dialogues with more expert members of their culture, they integrate the language of those interactions into their inner mental lives and use it to think, overcome challenges, and guide their own behavior. The values, modes of reasoning, strategies, and skills that children acquire as adults converse with, assist, and encourage them are crucial for success in their families and communities. At the same time, children contribute significantly to those interactions; consequently, their dispositions, interests, talents, and limitations influence what they learn. But by tailoring communication to children's needs while promoting desirable competencies, adults can profoundly affect the formation of children's minds."
"Vygotsky proposed that as children engage in dialogues with more expert members of their culture, they integrate the language of those interactions into their inner mental lives and use it to think, overcome challenges, and guide their own behavior. The values, modes of reasoning, strategies, and skills that children acquire as adults converse with, assist, and encourage them are crucial for success in their families and communities. At the same time, children contribute significantly to those interactions; consequently, their dispositions, interests, talents, and limitations influence what they learn. But by tailoring communication to children's needs while promoting desirable competencies, adults can profoundly affect the formation of children's minds."
Esther Burkitt, Richard Jolley, Sarah Rose, "The Attitudes and Practices that Shape Children's Drawing Experience at Home and at School," JADE 29.3 (2010): 257-270.
"In our examination of the children's and parents' responses we noticed that some of the parental help appeared to occur during a shared drawing experience, where the parent sat with the child. This is something which Matthews (2003) identifies as being of particular importance to young children. Mathews has collected evidence which demonstrates that drawing episodes are composed of rapidly alternating bursts of action, and that like speech, are related to the breathing patterns of young children. Initially it is necessary for an adult to interact with the child to facilitate this conversation, the child will then develop and be able to maintain the 'conversation' on their own."
"In our examination of the children's and parents' responses we noticed that some of the parental help appeared to occur during a shared drawing experience, where the parent sat with the child. This is something which Matthews (2003) identifies as being of particular importance to young children. Mathews has collected evidence which demonstrates that drawing episodes are composed of rapidly alternating bursts of action, and that like speech, are related to the breathing patterns of young children. Initially it is necessary for an adult to interact with the child to facilitate this conversation, the child will then develop and be able to maintain the 'conversation' on their own."
Hillary L. Chute, Marianne DeKoven, "Introduction: Graphic Narrative," MFS Modern Fiction Studies 52.4 (Winter 2006): 767-782.
"[C]ritics often misread graphic narrative: Patricia Storace, for example, writing in The New York Review of Books, notes that Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is "a book in which it is almost impossible to find an image distinguished enough to consider an important piece of visual art" (40). As we hope to make clear, graphic narrative is not interested in creating images to be independent artworks; the import and meaning of graphic narrative is in how images interact with text, and in how they interact with other images on the page, moving time forward spatially."
"[C]ritics often misread graphic narrative: Patricia Storace, for example, writing in The New York Review of Books, notes that Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is "a book in which it is almost impossible to find an image distinguished enough to consider an important piece of visual art" (40). As we hope to make clear, graphic narrative is not interested in creating images to be independent artworks; the import and meaning of graphic narrative is in how images interact with text, and in how they interact with other images on the page, moving time forward spatially."
Patricia K. Kuhl, "Early Language Learning and Literacy: Neuroscience Implications for Education," Mind, Brain, and Education 5.3 (2011): 128-142.
"Social cues ‘gate’ what and when children learn from language input. Machines are not sufficient as instructors, at least in the early period and when standard machines such as television sets are used as the instructor. Further studies are needed to test whether our work suggesting that language learning must be social to ‘stick’ applies to other learning domains—must cognitive learning or learning about numbers be social?"
"Social cues ‘gate’ what and when children learn from language input. Machines are not sufficient as instructors, at least in the early period and when standard machines such as television sets are used as the instructor. Further studies are needed to test whether our work suggesting that language learning must be social to ‘stick’ applies to other learning domains—must cognitive learning or learning about numbers be social?"
Marissa McClure, "Spectral Childhoods and Educational Consequences of Images of Children," Visual Arts Research 35.2 (Winter 2009): 91-104.
"The competent child, like the children whom Dyson describes (again, following Vygotsky, 1962), seeks to make meaning by using the symbolic languages that surround and describe her. In her making, acceptable themes (wonder about nature, for example) meet uneasy themes (curiosity about culture that sometimes includes sexuality, poverty, and violence). Neither essential nor eternal, competent children navigate multiple social worlds and contradictory spaces, continually redefining themselves in relationship with others and using making (or visual productions) as a marker of affiliation and exclusion.
In this view, then, development is not a process of 'optimization' or a linear progression through predictable stages (in the case of the visual arts, a progression toward visual realism). Rather, development more accurately resembles Corsaro's research of interpretive reproduction in peer culture. Corsaro (1992) describes 'development as reproductive rather than linear' and Corsaro and Eder (1990) position development as public, collaborative, and performative--a productive-reproductive process of increasing density and a reorganization of knowledge.'"
"The competent child, like the children whom Dyson describes (again, following Vygotsky, 1962), seeks to make meaning by using the symbolic languages that surround and describe her. In her making, acceptable themes (wonder about nature, for example) meet uneasy themes (curiosity about culture that sometimes includes sexuality, poverty, and violence). Neither essential nor eternal, competent children navigate multiple social worlds and contradictory spaces, continually redefining themselves in relationship with others and using making (or visual productions) as a marker of affiliation and exclusion.
In this view, then, development is not a process of 'optimization' or a linear progression through predictable stages (in the case of the visual arts, a progression toward visual realism). Rather, development more accurately resembles Corsaro's research of interpretive reproduction in peer culture. Corsaro (1992) describes 'development as reproductive rather than linear' and Corsaro and Eder (1990) position development as public, collaborative, and performative--a productive-reproductive process of increasing density and a reorganization of knowledge.'"
Deena Skolnick Weisberg, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, "Guided Play: Where Curricular Goals Meet a Playful Pedagogy" Mind, Brain, and Education 7.2 (2013): 104-112.
"In guided play, adults initiate the learning process, constrain the learning goals, and are responsible for maintaining focus on these goals even as the child guides his or her own discovery. This latter point is critical. While adults might initiate the play sequence, children direct their own learning within the play context. Thus, guided play is child-directed and can take a number of paths within a play setting. In guided play, teachers might enhance children’s exploration and learning by commenting on their discoveries, co-playing along with the children, asking open-ended questions about what children are finding, or exploring the materials in ways that children might not have thought to do. These kinds of situations embody a social-constructivist or assisted-discovery approach that have proven effective for learning in both younger and older children. Guided play always sees the child as an active collaborator in the process of learning, and not merely as a recipient of information."
"In guided play, adults initiate the learning process, constrain the learning goals, and are responsible for maintaining focus on these goals even as the child guides his or her own discovery. This latter point is critical. While adults might initiate the play sequence, children direct their own learning within the play context. Thus, guided play is child-directed and can take a number of paths within a play setting. In guided play, teachers might enhance children’s exploration and learning by commenting on their discoveries, co-playing along with the children, asking open-ended questions about what children are finding, or exploring the materials in ways that children might not have thought to do. These kinds of situations embody a social-constructivist or assisted-discovery approach that have proven effective for learning in both younger and older children. Guided play always sees the child as an active collaborator in the process of learning, and not merely as a recipient of information."
Brent Wilson, "Art, Visual Culture, and Child/Adult Collaborative Images: Recognizing the Other-Than," Visual Arts Research 33.2: 6-20.
"The story of the simultaneous emergence of modern art and child art is much more complicated than I have space to recount here and it's been told in other places. Nevertheless, I need to establish one extremely important point. The children's images that so fascinated artists were of at least two distinctly different types. One type consists mainly of the self-initiated story-laden drawings that children made for their own enjoyment--images that might be seen as graphic play. The second class of visual culture associated with childhood, usually labeled child art, consists of images that are almost always initiated and directed by adults--school art."
"The story of the simultaneous emergence of modern art and child art is much more complicated than I have space to recount here and it's been told in other places. Nevertheless, I need to establish one extremely important point. The children's images that so fascinated artists were of at least two distinctly different types. One type consists mainly of the self-initiated story-laden drawings that children made for their own enjoyment--images that might be seen as graphic play. The second class of visual culture associated with childhood, usually labeled child art, consists of images that are almost always initiated and directed by adults--school art."
Susan Wright, "Graphic-narrative play: Young children's authoring through drawing and telling," International Journal of Education & the Arts 8.8 (2007): 1-27.
"In graphic-narrative play, children use a rich amalgam of fantasy and reality – both verbal and non-verbal – to portray life experiences on a blank page. Yet cross-modal meaning-making such as this often can be suppressed in institutionalized education. This is largely due to the social and cultural dominance of literal language and written modes of expression. Such beliefs and curricular practices may be related to the underlying assumption that if something is not expressed through spoken or written language, it is considered to be outside rational thought, outside articulate feeling.
Yet language as a communicational medium is inadequate for the expression of everything that we think, feel or sense. Hence, drawing, graphic-narrative play and other forms of artistic expression offer important and distinct forms of meaning-making through figurative communication, which is intricate, multifaceted, symbolic and metaphoric. Graphic-narrative play integrates visual-spatial imagery, feelings, sensory modalities and interconnectedness with the body. Such open-ended, personal forms of knowing, expressing and communicating unleash and reveal children’s deep meaning, multiple perspective-taking and fluidity of thought."
"In graphic-narrative play, children use a rich amalgam of fantasy and reality – both verbal and non-verbal – to portray life experiences on a blank page. Yet cross-modal meaning-making such as this often can be suppressed in institutionalized education. This is largely due to the social and cultural dominance of literal language and written modes of expression. Such beliefs and curricular practices may be related to the underlying assumption that if something is not expressed through spoken or written language, it is considered to be outside rational thought, outside articulate feeling.
Yet language as a communicational medium is inadequate for the expression of everything that we think, feel or sense. Hence, drawing, graphic-narrative play and other forms of artistic expression offer important and distinct forms of meaning-making through figurative communication, which is intricate, multifaceted, symbolic and metaphoric. Graphic-narrative play integrates visual-spatial imagery, feelings, sensory modalities and interconnectedness with the body. Such open-ended, personal forms of knowing, expressing and communicating unleash and reveal children’s deep meaning, multiple perspective-taking and fluidity of thought."