Visual source analysis - story books

Two PowerPoints which include scans from two picture book memoirs.

1. The Little Refugee (Anh Do) - It includes pre-reading questions. The powerpoint also introduces key terms for analysing these visuals: visual components of a text such as placement, salience, framing, representation of action or reaction, shot size, social distance and camera angle. Body Language – A non-verbal form of communication including facial expression, posture & gestures. Salience – a strategy of emphasis, highlighting what is important in a text. In images, salience is created through strategies like the placement of an item in the foreground, size and contrast in tone or colour. There are also comprehension questions and an explanation of things to note about the illustrations.

2. The Peasant Prince (Li Cunxin) - a more comprehensive lesson (for a higher class). It includes information about the author and the illustrator and the techniques she used. It introduces visual literacy techniques to look for e.g. use of colour vs black and white. Ways to describe colour e.g. vivid and muted. Colour theory - the connotations of specific colours. Describing the positioning of elements within the image (e.g. foreground & background). How to describe the settings within the story (there is a graphic organiser for them to fill in to respond to three images from the book). Nonverbal communication (explanations of body langauge and facial expression). Students have the chance to apply this to describing three figures in the book. Shot size, Angle and Mise en scene are defined and there are further activities for each of these. Other concepts are covered incuding reading path, salience, positioning, vectors, allusion, symbols and language features.