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A Multiliteracies Pedagogy: Exploring Semiotic Possibilities of a Disney Video in a Third Grade Diverse Classroom

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Abstract

Disney videos are used across the US as important materials for teaching language arts and literacy in elementary schools. However, how pupils make meaning of the videos has not been sufficiently investigated in educational research. Twenty-five third-grade pupils were taught comprehension skills using Sleeping Beauty. The students created their understanding in visual images. Their drawings and explanations were analyzed using a social semiotic theory. The findings indicated that the students’ interpretations of Sleeping Beauty were not a decontextualized practice; rather, they used the specificity of their gender, social-cultural experiences and available multimodal resources at their disposal to construct interpretations of the video. The implications of the findings were discussed.

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Correspondence to Lasisi Ajayi.

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Ajayi, L. A Multiliteracies Pedagogy: Exploring Semiotic Possibilities of a Disney Video in a Third Grade Diverse Classroom. Urban Rev 43, 396–413 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-010-0151-0

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