Beyond picture walks: Revaluing picture books as written and pictorial texts

Maderazo, C., Martens, P., Croce, K., Martens, R., Doyle, M., Aghalarov, S., & Noble, R. (2010). Beyond picture walks: Revaluing picture books as written and pictorial texts. Language Arts, 87(6), 437-446.


When we talk about multi-literacies, we talk in terms of "sign systems." The notion of "text" isn't just about print. Any form of communication can be a text, and different forms each have their own sign systems, whether it is visual art, or music, or dance, or any way we express meaning, including print.

The authors here attempted to enrich the picture book experience for elementary grade students by looking at the pictures on an equal footing with the printed text, not just as a support for the printed text. They show convincingly that pictures have as developed a set of cueing systems as print does -- it's just a different set. Where print involves graphophonic, syntactic, and semantic cues, art involves the Elements of Art (dot, line, value, shape, color, space, form, texture) and the Principles of Design (balance, emphasis, pattern, rhythm, movement, variety, harmony, contrast, unity). Here, we get a glimpse of classrooms where all types of "texts" are equally valued.