What does this mean for First Graders? As children begin to learn to read, we encourage them to make meaning from texts by referring to the illustrations to find connections to the print. Images hold semiotic functions that work in relationship to the semiotic functions of the written word and these are further related to the text type or genre they are imbedded in. Children soon understand these connections and can usually, quickly recognise a non-fiction from a fiction text by referring to the semiotic functions in images. What was fascinating to me, in a recent analysis of children’s work using multimodal texts to create an information book, some children used images that connected to their emotional/relational self and were thus lead away from this text type. The children had written a draft informational text and then published this using a digital book app, which allowed them to access images to enhance their writing. For some children the images led the writing as they connected strongly to the images they had chosen.
The semantics in the images for this child conjured up everyday experiences with her dog and this over took the purpose of the text, which was to inform about dogs. More important and pressing was to communicate her relationship and emotions connected to dogs!
This left me reflecting on just how rich and varied the semiotic functions of images can be and how as teachers we are often not aware of the affordances that images provide for children’s emotional and cultural world.
Teaching and Learning in the Primary School 