Graphicacy

Megan: “A very big fast roller coaster!” Megan is in the reception class (the first year of school in England). This was the first of three drawings Megan drew at home about fairground rides, including a Ferris wheel and ‘a runaway train’. Megan’s drawing suggests the route the roller coaster took, its undulating and rapid movement and shows its many seats. Megan told her mum ‘This is a very big fast roller coaster!’ Her mother explained ‘Megan was thinking about how much she’d love to go to a funfair again’. Megan recalled some of the different rides with excitement and used the drawings as a means of persuading her family that they should take her again. Communicating meanings through graphicacy Children use their graphics for a wide range of communicative purposes, to sometimes face and explore anxieties and to feel in control or to develop, negotiate and justify their sense of belonging (in their family and peer group). They reveal how new media, technologies and popular culture exert influence on both their feelings and their representations and – as in Megan’s example – they show how children also use their graphics to persuade. Link to Gallery 5: Graphicacy

New Members

From the North and North West, welcome to Tricia Penfold, Seaton Carew Nursery School, Hartlepool. From London and the South East, welcome to Lynne Chinnery from Children’s Sevices, Newport, Isle of Wight and Celia Williams from Roehampton University, Twickenham. From the South and South West, welcome to Rachel Buttress from Cheltenham Junior School; Ida Collier from Speedwell Nursery, Bristol; Amy Gamble from the Red House Children’s Centre, Bristol; Jo Goodwill from St George’s Primary School, Bristol; Emma Higgins from Redcliffe Children’s centre, Bristol; Angela Hodegekins from Bamwell School, Weston-super-Mare; Eleri Jones from St Paul’s Nursery School & Children’s Centre, Bristol; Carole Keane from Redcliffe Children’s Centre, Bristol; Francesca Lacey from Speedwell Nursery, Bristol; Sharon Ledbury form Oldmixon Primary School, Weston-super-Mare; Jill Lowe from Speedwell Nursery, Bristol; Violetta Norris from Yatton, Bristol; Marie North from Little Acorns Preschool, Weston-super-Mare; Jan Palmer from Broomhill Infants School, Bristol; Denise Payne from Ashcombe Children’s Centre, Weston-super-Mare; Jay Ramsey from St Werburgh’s Park Nursery School, Bristol; Mandy Sandell from St Philip’s Marsh Nursery School, Bristol; Hugo Turvey from Redcliffe Children’s Centre, Bristol; Kim Tregear from Around 3 Day Nursery, Weston-super-Mare and Alexandra Underwood from The Limes Nursery, Bristol. From Wales, welcome to Linda Newman from Cardiff LEA.

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Courses and Conferences: 2010

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February 2010

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