Student drawing and academic language processing.

Abstract

This paper focuses on analysis and interpretation of student-generated drawings as an alternate form of assessing undergraduate teacher education students' processing of academic language. First, a review of theories supporting classroom applications of the drawing construction strategy for mastery of content knowledge is presented. Next, classroom application of the drawing construction strategy in an undergraduate teacher education course is described, followed by an analysis and interpretation of student-generated drawings. Finally, implications of the drawing construction strategy for classroom instruction of pre-service teachers are specified.

Theoretical Support for Drawing Construction

According to Chamot and O'Malley (1996), language development is essential for academic learning because most classroom activities require reading, writing, and speaking about content information. Cummins (1981) identifies two types of language proficiency: Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). BICS involves language processing in everyday interpersonal situations like the home, church, play ground, and super market through proficiency in surface features like pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. Conversely, CALP requires language processing in academic settings like lectures, exams, laboratories, and assemblies with underlying proficiency in pragmatics, syntax, and semantics. Although language proficient students can identify, explain, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate academic information effectively, students with language deficiencies experience significant difficulties with mastery of academic language. Teachers therefore are faced with the responsibility of instructing students with and without language difficulties through integration of language strategies in content area classes (Horton, Lovitt, & Bergerud, 1990).

Traditionally, classroom instruction has focused on reading, writing, and speaking as primary means of investigating students' understanding of academic language. Contemporary language educators and researchers however advocate a multiple literacy perspective. Proponents of the multiple literacy perspective recognize art, music, dance, and film as alternative forms of expressing ideas acquired through reading and talking about literature (Short, Kauffman, & Kahn, 2000). Specifically, multiple literacy proponents identify "drawing" (i.e., a visual mode of expression) as an alternative for verifying students' academic language proficiency; one with the potential of modifying the preference for a verbal mode of expression (i.e., reading and talking) prevalent within classroom language instruction (Kendrick & McKay, 2004). Hibbing and Rankin-Erickson (2003) contend that a picture is worth a thousand words for students who struggle with reading comprehension. Accordingly, student-generated drawings can be used both for verifying students' understanding as well as retention of text and for explicitly recording learning. This is because drawing, in addition to serving as a tool for making predictions about subsequent reading, provides students with opportunities for using their prior knowledge about specific concepts as links for understanding new concepts. Furthermore, drawing is an important tool for thinking because students learn to externally represent visual images formed in their minds for the learned text (Short, Kauffman, & Kahn, 2000), specifically students with difficulty creating internal visual images of critical text information (Hibbing & Rankin-Erickson, 2003).

Theoretical support for drawing construction as a strategy for academic language learning can be derived from the Generative Theory of Textbook Design (Mayer, Steinhoff, Bower, & Mars, 1995). According to the Generative Theory of Textbook Design, readers create verbal and visual representations through use of three cognitive processes--selection, organization, and integration. Specifically, readers select important written words and illustrations from assigned text, organize selected information into visual and verbal modes, and integrate the verbal and visual representations through activation of prior knowledge of related concepts. Effectiveness of drawing construction as a strategy for promoting content knowledge of K-12 grades children (see Greene, 1989; Rich & Blake, 1994; Van Meter, 2001; and Whitin, 2002) as well as college students (see Alesandrini, 1981; and Hall, Bailey, & Tillman, 1997) has been investigated by several educators and researchers. Although empirical support has been obtained for classroom applications of drawings as a strategy for acquisition of content knowledge, none of the empirical studies, particularly those conducted with college students, included teacher education students. Consequently, drawing construction has not gained popularity amongst teacher educators as an instructional approach that pre-service teachers could use for their student teaching assignment.

This paper therefore reports a drawing construction activity conducted in my undergraduate teacher education course. The purposes of my activity were to: (a) examine teacher education students' ability to generate drawings based on recall of salient information from printed text, and (b) assess the effects of self-generated drawings on teacher education students' processing of academic language. Accordingly, students were asked to generate drawings representing key elements of learned text and student-generated drawings were qualitatively analyzed to determine: (a) accurate representations of text; (b) inaccurate representations of text; (c) exclusion of salient text representations; and (d) extraneous representations of text. Student-generated drawings were also analyzed to ascertain processing of academic language as: (a) literal comprehension of text and (b) inferential comprehension of text.

Classroom Application of Drawing Construction

The drawing construction activity was conducted in my undergraduate teacher education course, Language, Literacy, and Culture in Education. Twelve teacher education students participated in the drawing construction activity. I started my classroom application by listing three themes, family, kitchen, and backyard, on the whiteboard. Undergraduate teacher education students were then invited to brainstorm ideas related to the listed themes. Student responses like refrigerators, tables, chairs, parents, children, neighbors, plants, trees, leaves and other related ideas were recorded on the board. Students then linked their brainstormed ideas to the listed themes. Colored markers were used to group ideas. For example, a black marker was used to list words like parents, children, and neighbors under the theme, family. A blue marker was used for listing ideas under kitchen (e.g., tables, refrigerator, chairs, etc.). Ideas for the backyard theme were recorded with a red marker (e.g., trees, plants, leaves, etc.). The brainstorming process aimed at activating students' prior knowledge of concepts for the follow-up reading task.

I then distributed copies of pages 44 and 45 from Caroline Clooney's (1991) book, The Face on the Milk Carton, and engaged the class in a read aloud and concept mapping task. Clooney's book revolves around her lead character, Janie who begins a search for her real identity when she discovers that the face of a missing girl on a milk carton is her face. Pages 44 and 45 of the book detail Janie's actions and thoughts in three settings--a kitchen, a flashback, and a backyard. To summarize the story plot on pages 44 and 45, Janie returns home from school to find her mother in her study. As she takes out a quart of ice cream from the freezer, she recalls her presence in a messy kitchen with screaming children, scattered toys, and spilled milk from her past. Janie is then transferred back to the present, and ends up helping Reeve (i.e., Janie's next-door neighbor who is also a senior student in her school) rake leaves in the yard.

For the read aloud and concept mapping task, students took turn reading sections from the assigned text and adding key information to the initially listed themes: family, kitchen, and yard. Key text information were added to the three themes using colored markers (e.g., green, purple, and brown) other than those used in the pre-reading brainstorming process. Key concepts like ice cream, wooden scoop, shut door, yellow linoleum, screaming babies, Wonder Bread bag, spilled milk, and raked leaves were added and linked to related themes, thereby creating a concept map. The concept map, exhibiting links between pre-reading and post-reading ideas related to the target themes, aimed at supporting verbal representations for key text information. According to the Generative Theory of Text Design (Mayer, Steinhoff, Bower, & Mars, 1995), verbal representations serve as the foundation for visual representation of text information. The brainstormed ideas, therefore, were to serve as links between the verbal and visual representations to be depicted in the drawing task.

Upon completion of the read aloud and concept mapping task, teacher education students were assigned to three groups, consisting of four members each. Each group was given a transparency sheet, a pack of colored markers, and directed to draw key elements of the assigned reading passages from memory. Each group then presented its drawing with an overhead projector. Analysis and interpretation of student-generated drawings are discussed in the section below. The drawings of Groups 1 and 3 were quite similar therefore analysis and interpretation in the following section is limited to drawings of Group 1 and 2 students.

Analysis and Interpretation of Student Drawings

Student-generated drawing of Group 1 represented three scenarios: Janie in a kitchen, Janie in a flashback, and Janie in a yard. The kitchen scenario included sketches of a freezer, a bowl of ice cream, a wooden scoop, a tabletop, and Janie's mother in the study with the door open. Comparatively, the flashback scenario included toys on the floor, a baby on the floor, a baby in a high chair, and a freezer. Finally, the yard scenario included illustration of Janie with a rake, Reeve with a rake, a tree, leaves flung into the air, and a mountain of leaves.

Student-generated drawing was analyzed in terms of: (a) accurate representations, (b) inaccurate representations, (c) excluded representations, and (d) extraneous representations. Furthermore, relation between student-generated drawing and academic language processing was analyzed in terms of: (a) literal text comprehension, and (b) inferential text comprehension. To begin, accurate text representations included: Janie with a wooden scoop (i.e., kitchen scene), two babies and toys on the floor (i.e., Flashback scene), and Janie and Reeve with rakes, leaves flung into the air, and a mountain of leaves (i.e., yard scene). This suggests that teacher education students in Group 1 had accurately represented facts, specifically information about Janie's actions in the yard. Group 1 drawing indicated that the students had accurately represented facts and their text comprehension was literal. Evidence for this interpretation can be drawn from students' accurate representation of the factual information (e.g., "She took the ice cream scoop"; "Leaves were flung into the air"; and "The leaves were a mountain in front of her") elicited from Clooney's text passages (1991, p. 44).

Next, five inaccurate representations were identified in the student-generated drawing of Group 1: (a) Janie's mother in the study with the door open in place of a shut door, (b) a baby on the floor rather than in a high chair, (c) a freezer instead of Janie opening the freezer, (d) a bowl of ice cream instead of an ice cream container and (e) a tabletop in the kitchen scene rather than the flashback scene. These inaccurate representations suggest that students in Group 1 had ignored details embedded within Clooney's (1991) text statements like: "Mother not only remained in her study; she even shut the door", "There was a quart of Wildberry Ripple ice cream", and "Two screaming babies, each in a high chair" (p. 44). Perhaps inaccurate representations of the text may be resulting from students' difficulty paraphrasing written statements, without excluding key details, and representing them as complete, rather than partial, verbal representations that could then be used for accurate visual representation of text. Inaccurate representations may have also resulted from deficient processing of complex syntax like "Then a tabletop--it was at eye level--she was the height of the table" (Clooney, 1991, p. 44).

Finally, drawing construction of Group 1 students included visual representation of extraneous text like the sketch of a tree in the yard. Exclusion of vital information (e.g., legs of chairs, legs of grown-ups, spilling a puddle, and mopping of milk puddle) from the student-generated drawing was also noted. Inclusion of an extraneous element, like a tree in the yard, may have resulted from activation of students' prior knowledge through the pre-reading brainstorming and post-reading concept mapping processes. Exclusion of vital information from the flashback scene could be attributed to students' difficulty processing complex language like: "She saw the legs of chairs next, and the legs of grown-ups", "So Janie got it herself, spilling a puddle", and "Proud of herself for making the mess and for unmaking it" from Clooney's text (1991, p. 44-45).

Overall, Group 1 had accurately represented key elements from assigned sections of Caroline Clooney's (1991) book, The Face on the Milk Carton. This suggests that the teacher education students had appropriately constructed visual images of key information elicited from the verbal representations of written text. In other words, pre-service teachers had activated their prior knowledge of concepts like the freezer, high chair, wooden scoop, and rakes to visually illustrate key elements of the reading passages retrieved from verbal representations stored in memory.

Group 2 illustrated their visual representations in the form of cartoon strips. Their drawing was divided into two columns and four rows of eight sequentially organized slides. Students in this group constructed visual representations with sketches and words. Like Group 1, Group 2 also constructed three episodes, Janie's arrival at home from school, Janie's memories of a past event, and Janie's raking of leaves in the yard. Slides 1, 2, and 3 illustrate information pertaining to Janie's actions and thoughts upon her return from school. For example, Slide 1 is a sketch of Janie in a kitchen with a dialog box containing the word "Mommy". Slide 2 contains drawing of a door with the label, "Mom's Study" and the word "Slam" scrawled on the wall. Slides 3 shows Janie with a wooden spoon in front of a freezer and the dialog, "I think I'll get some ice cream". Slides 4, 5, and 6 contain visual representations of Janie's flashback of an incident from her past. For instance, Slide 4 shows Janie recalling the picture of a kitchen in her mind. The recalled image, illustrated as an overhead bubble, contains legs of a chair and legs of a woman, supplemented with the phrase, "I remember". Slides 5 and 6 represent a continuation of the recalled memory. Specifically, two screaming babies in high chairs with the written expression "WAAA!" in Slide 5 reflect flashback. Comparatively, Slide 6 portrays an image of a milk carton, a cup spilling a puddle, and Janie mopping with a paper towel, supplemented with the dialogue, "I'll clean this up". Finally, Slides 7 and 8 illustrate Janie's actions in the yard. Slide 7 shows Reeve with a rake and the dialog, "Want to help me rake?" and Slide 8 illustrates Janie raking leaves and ending up with a mountain of leaves in front of her.

Like Group 1, Group 2 also identified, organized, and integrated salient elements from the assigned text in an efficient manner. Compared to Group 1, however, the drawing of Group 2 was detailed and accurate. For example, Slides 4 and 8 illustrate salient information (e.g., legs of chair and woman and spilling and mopping of milk) that were omitted from the drawing of Group 1. The only inaccurate representation in the drawing of Group 2 related to illustration of toys in Slide 5. This is a misrepresentation because the toys were part of Janie's earlier memory of "legs of chairs" and "legs of grown-ups" illustrated in Slide 4 rather than that of "screaming children" depicted in Slide 5.

Implications of Drawing Construction Strategy

Classroom application of the drawing construction strategy in a teacher education course can have implications for pre-service teachers' classroom teaching. First, active participation in a drawing construction task could inform pre-service teachers of the strategic procedure that could be implemented in K-12 grades for developing children's academic language proficiency. Second, engaging pre-service teachers in an analysis of student-generated drawings could facilitate alternate assessment of K-12 grade children's academic language proficiency like expression of ideas, identification of facts, and interpretation of concepts. Finally, pre-service teachers' awareness of the drawing construction strategy could facilitate integration of language processes in content classes for promoting comprehension skills of students with limited ability to present complex conceptions in written or spoken format.

References

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Alpana Bhattacharya, Queens College, NY

Alpana Bhattacharya, Ph.D., is assistant professor of educational psychology in the Secondary Education department at Queens College of the City University of New York.