| dc.description.abstract | This study describes the relationship between shared response and the comprehension and re-interpretation
of picture books with four members of a response group of students in a grade 7/8 class
during the implementation of a seven-week unit on picture books. A key construct in the study was
Kiefer’s (1995) classification of verbal response to picture books which includes four functions of
language; informative, heuristic, imaginative, and personal.
Six themes emerged from the analysis of data: patterns of shared response to picture books;
verbal response to picture books; intertextual connections; aesthetic response to picture bodes;
integrity of text and pictures; and students’ perceptions of picture books. Although many of the
response group members’ verbal responses could be classified under Kiefer’s framework, the
categories did not accommodate the intertextual relationships evoked by readers during engagement
with and re-interpretation of picture books. Factors which influenced students’ comprehension and reinterpretation
of picture books included: the organization of the unit which provided time, structure
and flexibility; opportunities for shared response, which enabled social constructions of meaning;
opportunities to re-interpret texts through symbolic systems such as art and drama; and a group project
on text sets in which students worked collaboratively to select a “text set", identify the connections
across the picture books, and illustrate these in some form. | |
