An explanation of how to increase vocabulary through transmediation by creating a collage journal in response to reading a high quality newspaper on a daily basis.

1. Reading Newspapers & Keeping a
Collage Journal: Increasing
Vocabulary through
Transmediation
Mary Ann Reilly

2. Learning Vocabulary is Important
Because…
 High-knowledge third graders had
vocabularies about equal to lowest-
performing twelfth graders (Smith, 1981).
 Linguistically “poor” first graders knew
5,000 words; linguistically “rich” knew
20,000 words (Moats, 2001).
 Once established, such differences are
difficult to ameliorate (Biemiller, 1999; Hart
& Risley, 1995).

3. Decontextualized Language is at the
Core of Literacy Instruction
Decontextualized language:
Word Meanings Minimizes contextual cues
& shared assumptions by
explicitly encoding referents for
pronouns, actions, and locations
Also called literate or
academiclanguage because it
allows literate people to discuss
literary products
Text

4. So many words, so little time
 One estimate found that “Printed School English”
contains roughly 88,000 different words.
 The average child, by the end of high school, may
know about half or 45,000 different words.
 If a child enters 1st grade knowing about 6,000
words, then they must learn about 3,000 new
words per year.

5. Facts about Vocabulary
 One study found that, in fact, children
did learn between 1,000 and 5,000
new words per year, or about 3,000 on
the average.
 Even lower estimates suggest that
children learn at least one new word
per day, every day.

6. Where do these words come
from?
 Informal estimates suggest that active
teaching can cover 6-10 words per
week, or about 400 per year.
 We also estimate the average child
can learn nearly 3000 words through
ordinary reading of moderately
challenging text (text with 95% of
words known).

7. Vocabulary Knowledge is a
Consequence of reading
 Children learn most words from wide
reading.
 Newspapers are an excellent source
of rare words.

8. Finding Those Rare Words
Even though it is important to talk to
learners, more of the “rare” words are
found in print rather than oral language.
What would you guess?
Adult talking to child: __ rare words for 1,000
TV: __ rare words for 1,000
Children‟s book: ___ rare words for 1,000
Adult books: __ rare words for 1,000
Comic books: __ rare words for 1,000
(Hayes and Athens 1988)

9. Vocabulary Difficulty

10. Text Complexity of International
Newspapers
WHITE PAPER Text Complexity of English International Newspapers in a World Preparing for College and Career
Carl W. Swartz, Sean T. Hanlon, A. Jackson Stenner, Hal Burdick and Donald S. Burdick,
Learning Science and Technology, MetaMetrics

11. Guiding ?s: Creating a Reading
Habit
 How might creating a daily or weekly
collage based on the reading from a
single day's newspaper influence and
complicate how one reads a
newspaper?
 How might this practice over time
deepen learners‟ knowledge about
current events and increase vocabulary?
 What might happen if creating a daily or
weekly collage was a standing choice
assignment that was privileged work in
social studies or humanities courses?

12. Transmediation
 The process of taking understandings
from one sign system and moving
them into another in order to make
meaning or 'representing' meaning
across sign systems.
 From Semali, L.M. (ed). 2002. Transmediation in the classroom: A
semiotics-based media literacy framework. NY: Peter Lang .

13. Transmediation
 Using multiple symbol systems to
make and express meaning deepens
and complicates learning because the
meaning understood via one system
often is not replicated in the same way
in another symbol system. This
dissonance creates a need to „reread‟
the original text and interpret.

14. What is a Collage Journal?
 Peter Jacobs,
collage artist, has
been creating a
daily collage culled
from images and
text from that day's
newspaper for
seven years. He
creates these Collage by Peter Jacobs
collages (9” x 12”)
in a mix media
journal.

15. Complicating Reading
 Jacobs writes:
The Collage Journal is now in its seventh year. I
produce a collage solely from the images and texts of
that day‟s newspaper…As consistent as the newspaper
is printed, each day I sit down and construct/reconstruct
my visual response and internal feelings in that
morning‟s collage. Like a written journal, a visual journal
incorporates both personal and external experience.
The Collage Journal extends the external experience to
the world, having the palette of the newspaper‟s
dissection of stories and images. The newspapers also
bring the world of advertising, which is somewhat
surreal in their placement to their neighboring articles. I
believe this juxtaposition creates a de-sensitizing and
detachment in the reader/viewer to the gravity of the
news.

16. Peter
Jacobs
‟
Collag
e from
4.13.2
004

17. Materials Needed for Collage
Journal
 The materials needed are fairly minimal and
although I would certainly recommend a lesson
on how to use an X-acto knife--the rest is rather
minimal.
1. High quality newspaper
2. Canson Mix Media journal (9" x 12" , 98 lb
paper).
3. X-acto pen (finest size)
4. cutting mat
5. UHU clear glue stick (acid free)
6. Optional: gesso, watercolor, colored
pencils, stain (teabag, etc.), ink, and a camera
to capture the image.

18. Method for Collage Journal
 I found it helpful to read the same newspaper
consecutively. I selected the New York Times.
 Before creating the collage I took time to scan the
newspaper (first section completely and then one of
the other sections).
 I then read different articles and looked at images and
advertisements, noticing how central ideas emerged
as I moved from page to page. While reading I
marked images I wanted to return to.
 I looked at other collages to gather ideas about design.
 Sometimes I thought about the ideas that had
emerged while reading and composed based on the
idea(s).
 Other times I began collecting images, blocks of color
and the ideas emerged as I played with the images.
 I lay out the collage before gluing.

19. My response to reading the New York Times on 2.18.12

20. My response to reading the New York Times on 2.17.12

21. Reflection
 After learners have read and created a
few collages based on daily reading of
a newspaper, ask them to compose a
written or vocal reflection about the
process and what they are learning.
 See next slide for some guiding
questions (if needed).

22. Reflection: Guiding Questions
1. How did meaning change as you read
across articles, images, and
advertisements in a single issue? How
did it change as you made the collage?
2. What patterns related to meaning did
you notice and/or represent in your
collage(s)?
3. Did meaning emerge across collages?
If so, why do you think that happened?
4. How did creating a visual
representation influence the ways you