Using Arabic Picturebooks

1. Supported by the Inspiring Innovation Fund Julie McAdam Susanne Abou Ghaida Lavinia Hirsu Using Arabic Picturebooks

2. Power of Picturebooks Picturebooks can • provide equitable spaces for learning to read critically and visually (Arizpe et al., 2013); these skills can be applied to all texts. • afford children safe spaces (Sargent, 2003) to make intertextual links to their own culture and life. • act as mirrors allowing children to see themselves in literature, windows to other worlds and doors to new ways of thinking and acting (Sims-Bishop, 1997).

3. The texts (1) Aunt Osha Fatima Sharafeddine(author) & Hanan Qa’ee (illus) العمة عوشة تأليف فاطمة شرف الدين ورسم حنان القاعي The Street Sweeper Mathilde Chevre الكناس ماتيلد شيفر

4. The texts (2) Taksheera (A Frown) Naseeba al-Ozaibi (author) Hatem Fathy Ali (illus) تكشيرة تأليف نسيبة العزيبي رسم حاتم فتحي علي The Black Dot Walid Taher (auth/illus) النقطة السوداء وليد طاهر (تأليف ورسم) A Triangle… and a Circle Amal Farah (author) Helmi Touni (illus) مثلث... ودائرة تاليف أمل فرح رسم حلمي التوني

5. Walk and Talk Throughs The use of walking and talking through the book allows children time to respond to illustrations and make texts to life connections. Using frameworks based on Callow (2008) and Kress & van Leeuwen (1996), children can be asked to respond, personally, compositionally, intertextually and analytically. Potential of the Strategy Texts generate themes for discussion Children use their ‘funds of knowledge’ to connect the texts to their lives. As researchers we can capture these ‘generated themes’ for analysis. Realised potential: Children have symbolic competence and make meaning through the visuals “Can we do a story in another language?” Spontaneous use of the dictionary and Google Translate.

6. Annotated Spreads The use of annotated spreads allowed children to look closely at one particular image and comment on it with their own words, providing us with a glimpse into their thought processes as they ‘read’ the picture. The research team selected images that were crucial to understanding the narrative. In previous work, children selected their own images to annotate. The Potential of the Strategy • Reading a new medium • Close interrogation of the visual elements • Co-construction of knowledge • Labelling of the experiential elements • Making interpersonal connections • Navigating multimodal texts. Realised Potential Symbolic competence: “It’s a Muslim country, there’s a mosque.” “It’s a lighthouse.” “Why are their speakers on the lighthouse?” Speculation: “Maybe she’s crying , maybe it’s letters.” 6

7. First Collage Activity What We Did In Aunt Osha, the illustrator represented the speech of titular character by newspaper cuttings in the shape of triangles. Based on this cue, we asked the students to create collages populated by triangles that mention things they talk about and languages they use; they could use images and their own illustrations as well as words. Potential of the Strategy - Reversal of a deficit model concerning students’ linguistic abilities - Reflection on languages used, the diversity and situational character of student talk/writing and its content Realized Potential • Valorization of student’s native languages • Heightened awareness of digital platforms of expression • Student Engagement and Openness

8. Multilingual/Multimodal Reading What We Did Responding to children’s request, we encouraged them to read books in their own languages. Children read stories and worked through images together. We shared books in their original and translated versions. Potential of the Strategy - Making visible and valuing children’s languages - Giving ownership and voice to children in their own languages - Creating a space for multicultural sharing and celebrating linguistic diversity. Realised potential: - Transferring symbolic competences to other reading and language contexts. “Look at the pictures...” - Co-constructing narratives across modes and languages - Observing cultural “translations”“Her face is not Chinese.” (in the English version)

9. Collage of Languages • Celebrating the classroom as a multilingual space. • We hoped the children would fill the collage with languages they used in their lives.

10. Student Evaluations Most valued activities - Multilingual readings - Collage construction Their advice to us: “Give us more time.” – 2 “Let people finish their work.” “Good to read and see different languages.” “More Mandarin books.” – 2 “More writing – too much talking.” “Would do again.”

11. Teacher Comments “It was very interesting for me to see how you were working with a different teacher because usually I ask all the questions; I could listen to what you were saying…; it was interesting and sometimes you said much more than you ever told me before, so I was very pleased with how you work.” EFL Teacher (City Secondary School)

12. Findings • Confidence and curiosity • Intercultural dialogue • Desire for multilingual texts

13. Greater advocacy for multilingual texts in schools, libraries and public spaces. • Multilingual Picnic in the Park and Multilingual readings during the summer of 2017 at the CCA exhibition on the House that Heals the Soul

14. Picturebook mediation workshops

15. References • Arizpe, E., Farrell, M., & McAdam, J. (2013). Opening the Classroom Door to Children’s Literature: A Review of Research. In Hall, K., Cremin, T., Comber, B. & Moll, L. (Eds.), International Handbook of Research in Children's Literacy, Learning and Culture (pp. 241-257). England: Wiley Blackwell. • Callow, J. (2008). Show Me: Principles for Assessing Students' Visual Literacy, The Reading Teacher, 61 (8), pp. 616-626. • Fielding, M. (2007). On the Necessity of Radical State Education: Democracy and the Common School. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 41 (4), 539- 557. • Kress, R.K. and van Leeuwen, T. (1996) Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, London: Routledge • Nikolajeva, M. (2013). Picturebooks and Emotional Literacy. The Reading Teacher, 67 • Sargent, L. T. (2003). Afterword. In Hintz, C. and Ostry, E. (Eds.), Utopian and Dystopian Writing for Children and Young Adults (pp. 232-234). London: Routledge. • Sims Bishop, R. (1997). Selecting literature for a multicultural curriculum. In Violet J. Harris (Ed.), Using multiethnic literature in the K-8 classroom (pp. 1-20). Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon.

16. Pay attention to :

17. Activity 4: Walk Through and Talk Through Awareness of how you are responding using the mirror, window door metaphor.

18. Activity One: Amma Osha (15 mins) What do you see? What is she thinking? What is she feeling?

19. Activity two : Al Kannas (10 mins) • Look at the collage of texts? • Which part are you drawn to? • What stories might you tell about this? • How can the text act as a mirror, window or door for you?

20. Activity three (5 mins) Previous workshops have identified priorities in: • Creating safe spaces in the city for children to meet outside their homes • Strengthening capacity of staff to manage change and work in multilingual contexts • Fostering social cohesion to avoid discrimination • Setting up accessible, inclusive and sustainable ways of working with picturebooks • Fostering imagination, self expression and problem solving • Fostering ways of working that are inclusive and collaborative. • Would you add anything?

21. Feedback • Take a triangle, what will you say about this workshop? • What will you take away? • What will you say to friends/colleagues? • What will you do next?

22. Julie.e.mcadam@glasgow.ac.uk • Lavinia.Hirsu@glasgow.ac.uk • s.abou-ghaida.1@research.gla.ac.uk • Sally.zacharias@Glasgow.ac.uk • Future Learn MOOC – TESOL Strategies – May • 22nd March – Masters in Children’s Literature and Literacies are running a public workshop from 6-8pm in St Andrew’s Building, University of Glasgow.