It's no secret that exposure to text is vital to students in the early elementary grades. The more a student sees letters, words, and sentences, the more familiar they become with the structure of language. However, in order to enrich the meaning making process, it can be helpful to encourage students to do visual work as well. In Violent Red, Ogre Green, and Delicious White: Expanding Meaning Potential through Media, Leigh explains that "daily access to a variety of media (e.g., marker, crayon, pencil, colored pencil, pen, pastel, and paint) influenced how children constructed meaning through drawing and writing."
Leigh believes that elementary classrooms are too focused on pencil use. She explains that pencils are privileged over other types of media because they allow students to correct their work. The alternative Leigh offers is that "we should be pushing for a process-oriented mindset where daily access to drawing/writing media makes it possible to respect process, to value experience. There are several benefits to allowing students more freedom of media when working in the classroom. First, students learn to manipulate the different supplies they have to create their work (splattering paint, blending pastel colors, etc.). Further, when no two students are using the exact same materials in the same way, valuable practice in verbal communication can be had by explaining techniques to each other. Leigh explains that students in the classroom where she worked were very interested in learning how to make unique colors by layering the provided crayons or markers. Students explained to each other not only how by why they created these new colors for their work.
Possibly the most important argument for allowing students a variety of media to express themselves is that it gives students a new way to demonstrate their understanding. Leigh begins this article with an anecdote about Marcus, a second-grader who is drawing a response to read-alouds about storms and tornadoes. Marcus asked other students if they had a "violent red". This showed Leigh and Marcus' classroom teacher that he had understood the mood of the books about storms, that they are intense and sometimes scary things. Leigh explains that "Marcus needed a kind of red that would communicate movement, agitation, unrest." How great that Marcus had this way to express himself! As a second-grader, Marcus may not have had the written vocabulary to explain in such detail his understanding of this topic.
Leigh broadens this idea about children relating to the media they have access to by telling us "Children who are given rulers will likely measure their world, but if a ruler is their only tool, their knowing is limited." I think Leigh makes a very valid argument for giving our students access to many different types of media. In this way, we are encouraging our students to think about what tools make sense for the task at hand. Leigh says of students' access to media in her study, "Announcing to children when they can take out their markers to draw, a common school practice, seems to us contrived and controlling, putting emphasis on us rather than on them." I found myself realizing that if our goal as teachers is to encourage students to think independently and form their own thoughts about what is being presented to them, it doesn't make sense to tell them how to show us that they understand.
Certainly writing is a vital tool for life and it should not be replaced by drawing or painting. Leigh demonstrates, though, that working in media like markers, pastels or paints, does not have to be limited to the holiday keepsake craft.
Leigh, S. (2010). Violent Red, Ogre Green, and Delicious White: Expanding Meaning Potential through Media. Language Arts. Vol. 87 (No. 4). pp. 252-262. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41804190
Leigh believes that elementary classrooms are too focused on pencil use. She explains that pencils are privileged over other types of media because they allow students to correct their work. The alternative Leigh offers is that "we should be pushing for a process-oriented mindset where daily access to drawing/writing media makes it possible to respect process, to value experience. There are several benefits to allowing students more freedom of media when working in the classroom. First, students learn to manipulate the different supplies they have to create their work (splattering paint, blending pastel colors, etc.). Further, when no two students are using the exact same materials in the same way, valuable practice in verbal communication can be had by explaining techniques to each other. Leigh explains that students in the classroom where she worked were very interested in learning how to make unique colors by layering the provided crayons or markers. Students explained to each other not only how by why they created these new colors for their work.
Possibly the most important argument for allowing students a variety of media to express themselves is that it gives students a new way to demonstrate their understanding. Leigh begins this article with an anecdote about Marcus, a second-grader who is drawing a response to read-alouds about storms and tornadoes. Marcus asked other students if they had a "violent red". This showed Leigh and Marcus' classroom teacher that he had understood the mood of the books about storms, that they are intense and sometimes scary things. Leigh explains that "Marcus needed a kind of red that would communicate movement, agitation, unrest." How great that Marcus had this way to express himself! As a second-grader, Marcus may not have had the written vocabulary to explain in such detail his understanding of this topic.
Leigh broadens this idea about children relating to the media they have access to by telling us "Children who are given rulers will likely measure their world, but if a ruler is their only tool, their knowing is limited." I think Leigh makes a very valid argument for giving our students access to many different types of media. In this way, we are encouraging our students to think about what tools make sense for the task at hand. Leigh says of students' access to media in her study, "Announcing to children when they can take out their markers to draw, a common school practice, seems to us contrived and controlling, putting emphasis on us rather than on them." I found myself realizing that if our goal as teachers is to encourage students to think independently and form their own thoughts about what is being presented to them, it doesn't make sense to tell them how to show us that they understand.
Certainly writing is a vital tool for life and it should not be replaced by drawing or painting. Leigh demonstrates, though, that working in media like markers, pastels or paints, does not have to be limited to the holiday keepsake craft.
Leigh, S. (2010). Violent Red, Ogre Green, and Delicious White: Expanding Meaning Potential through Media. Language Arts. Vol. 87 (No. 4). pp. 252-262. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41804190
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