The relationship between children's plays and illustrations is a very convenient one in terms of developing the high order functions of reading. The combination of illustrations with drama makes way for an embodied learning experience.
1. 8 T H I N T E R N AT I O N A L T E C H N O L O G Y, E D U C AT I O N
A N D D E V E L O P M E N T C O N F E R E N C E
CHILDREN’S PLAYS AND ILLUSTRATIONS:
EMBODIMENT RESOURCES FOR READING
PRACTICES
Valencia
10th - 12th March 2014
Isabel Pinto (CECC, UCP)
Arcângela Carvalho (ESE Almeida Garrett)
3. GOALS
Enlightening the role played by illustrations in the reading
of plays as means to an improved meaning assessment.
Driving a new range of clues for constructing textual
meaning, through embodied reading practices.
Arguing for the relevance of “embodied cognition” and
“embodied pedagogy” as core concepts.
4. MAIN ARGUMENT
The relationship between drama and
illustration, through imitation and gesture,
is a promising one in terms of reading
achievements, at the level of textual
interpretation.
5. THE PLAYS
Teatro às Três Pancadas [Theatre with Three Punches] (2013),
by António Torrado, and illustrated by António Pilar, read at the 4th
grade;
O Príncipe Nabo [The Turnip Prince] (2000), by Ilse Losa, and
illustrated by Manuela Bacelar, read at the 5th grade;
Os Piratas [The Pirates] (1997), by Manuel António Pina, read at
the 6th grade.
7. OS PIRATAS
[THE PIRATES]
The plot: two teenagers, Manuel and Ana, and Manuel’s
mother, are caught up in a time thread, with events from the
past interfering with the present in such a way as to make
dream and reality collide.
The illustrations are scenery and costume sketches,
helping the reader pull together on his own a setting and a
mood for the plot.
9. O PRÍNCIPE NABO [THE
TURNIP PRINCE]
The plot: the king wishes to find a prince to marry his
daughter princess Beatriz. But she mocks all the princes that
want to marry her. As a result, she will end up marrying the
first man entering the palace.
The illustrations in bright colors depict scenery
arrangements, constantly alluding to the puppet theatre, thus
underlining the power of “make believe”.
10. PLAY
A Raposa e o Corvo
[The Fox and the
Raven] in Teatro às
Três Pancadas
[Theatre with Three
Punches], António
Torrado 2012, p. 41
11. TEATRO ÀS TRÊS PANCADAS
[THEATRE WITH THREE
PUNCHES]
The book contains seven short plays that, according to
the author himself, aim at satisfying teachers’ needs of
appropriate plays for school staging.
The illustrations add something of its own to the play,
giving a number of clues and hints concerning the
staging process.
12. DRAMATIZING
ILLUSTRATION
An intervention was conducted, namely an interview,
comprising different phases, in a school in the Lisbon area, with
two students from the 4th grade of primary school, about two
illustrations of O Príncipe Nabo [The Turnip Prince].
First, the students described the picture. Then, they were told
to enact what the illustration depicted. After that, they would
read the corresponding passage of the play.
13. RESULTS
Combining illustrations and plays prompts readers, mainly
those in the first stages of reading development, to engage in a
first imaginary staging of the plot, additionally promoting textual
interpretation and analysis.
At school illustrated plays make reading a matter of
performance, nourishing the complex relationship between
textual clues and the reader’s prior knowledge of the world.
14. FINAL REMARKS
The enactment of illustrations, through improvisation,
functioned as a first opportunity to collect meaningful clues
for the reading of the text.
Embodied resources for reading practices rely on: (a) the
distinctive features of plays when compared with other
genres, and (b) taking learning as a necessarily embodied
experience .
15. REFERENCES
Fang, Zhihui (1996). “Illustrations, Text, and the Child
Reader: What are Pictures in Children’s Storybooks for?”.
Reading Horizons, Vol. 37, N.º 2, 130-142.
Hassett, Dawnene D.; Curwood, Jen Scott (2009). “Theories
and Practices of Multimodal Education: The Instructional
Dynamics of Picture Books and Primary Classrooms”. The
Reading Teacher, 63(4), 270–282.
16. REFERENCES
Perry, Mia; Medina, Carmen (2011). “Embodiment and
Performance in Pedagogy Research: Investigating the Possibility of
the Body in Curriculum Experience”. Journal of Curriculum
Theorizing, Vol. 27, N.º 3, 62-75.
Pinto, I. (2009). Leitura do Texto de Teatro: Teoria, Prática e
Análise. Dissertação de doutoramento, na especialidade de Estudos
de Teatro, apresentada à Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de
Lisboa.
