Geronimo Stilton Lesson Package
Rationale
Choice of text
Geronimo Stilton is a Transmedia text, which is defined by Djonov, Tseng & Lim (2018) as a story shown through different media formats (comic strips, video, games, etc.). Students' experiences with Transmedia narratives provide a good starting point to develop their knowledge of the affordances of different media as well as understand the meaning-making potential of different semiotic resources (Djonov, Tseng & Lim, 2018).
Rationale for Lesson 1
Choice of Resource:
Research has found that picture books (or rather books with visuals in our case) can be an effective tool to hone critical literacy among young children (Callow, 2017). In fact, Callow (2017) believes that "By guiding students to critically question how visual and verbal modes are used purposefully in picture books, teachers can help their students progress beyond a 'diegetic interpretation' of the text, to a more critical, 'semiotic' response" (p.234).
Focus of the Lesson:
Lim, Nguyen and Tan (2020) stated that "the metalanguage for the five semiotic systems should be introduced progressively starting from lower levels and built up consistently as the student progresses to higher levels" (p. 3). As the lesson package is designed for middle primary students, lesson 1 and 2 focus on mainly the semiotic system of visuals and linguistics rather than introducing all five semiotic systems at one go.
LO1: Use metalanguage to describe how visuals semiotic mode interact with texts to make meaning in narrative books
(Lim, Weninger, Chia, Nguyen, Tan, Adams, Tan-Chia, Peters, Towndrow & Unsworth, 2020)
The crafted lesson objective aligns to the learning objective (LO3 in the image) in terms of analysing how semiotic modes work together to convey meaning. Nonetheless, as mentioned, since this lesson serves as an introductory lesson to multiliteracies, a specific focus on two semiotic modes would prevent overloading of information.
Metalanguage:
The Encounter, Engagement, Evaluation (EEE) framework was designed specifically for the interpretation and analysis of picture books (Lim, Nguyen, Tan, 2020). Used in lesson 1, the EEE framework offers teachers and students a metalanguage to discuss about multimodal literacy, specifically about the effect of semiotic choices, how those choices are made to convey particular meanings, what alternatives could have been chosen, etc. (Lim, Nguyen, Tan, 2020; Unsworth, 2006).
Structured inquiry process:
Additionally, the EEE framework provides a structured inquiry process for students to explore how various elements of visuals express different meaning (Lim, Nguyen, Tan, 2020).
LO2: Critically consider the intentions of the author and illustrator in depicting the characters in a certain way
Critical Thinking:
LO2 is supported by Kress and van Leeuwen (1996) who believed that visual grammar should be used to prompt critical thinking about the intentions or rationale behind semiotic choices.
Creative Thinking:
The final activity of creating an alternative representation prompts critical and creative thinking which are part of the EEE framework (Lim, Nguyen, Tan, 2020). At the same time, this lesson allows students to build on viewing and representing skills simultaneously through a gradual and guided process.
