Paneling in Graphic Narratives

Pantaleo, S. (2013). Paneling "matters" in elementary students' graphic narratives. Literacy Research and Instruction, 52(2), 150-171.

Qualitative study guided by 3 purposes:

1) to develop students' viual meaning-making skills and competencies by focusing specifically on visual elements of art and design in picturebooks, graphic novels, and magazines

2) to explore how students transfer their knowledge and skills across different types of texts

3) to examine how the students access and apply their knowledge of visual elements of art and design to create their own print texts.

-10 week classroom based study

-20 fourth grade students

-multimodal social semiotic analysis

-peritextual features (cover, title page, dust jacket, end pages, dedication page, address of publisher, copyright dates, typesetting style, paper choice) examined

Notes:

-Graphic novels are a format, not a genre.

-"...compositional element of panels, which is the fundamental framing unit that is 'responsible for the narrative unity' (Bongco, 2000, p. 58) in the medium of comics" (p. 150).

-"Picturebooks, comics, and graphic novels are multimodal texts" (p. 151).

-"..., for English language learners, these multimodal texts offer pictorial support, less text, and exposure to authentic and conversational discourse and 'nuances of the English Language' (Thompson, 2008, p. 18, as cited in Pantaleo, p. 152).

-Comics and graphic novels are multimodal in nature. Images and writing are necessary for expression and construction of meaning. (p. 152).

-Panels are independent, yet part of a larger design.

-Panels can be used to teach angles, perspectives, and signal space and time.

Quotes:

"Making critical the role of visual analysis significantly implicates the textmaker and the viewer as active and critical makers and readers of visual texts" (Albers, Vasquex, & Harste, 2008 p. 200, as cited in Pantaleo, p. 168).