Drawing and Play as Windows Into a Child's Multimodal Meaning-Making During COVID-19 (Poster 34)

• In Event: AERA Virtual Poster Session 8
  In Poster Session: Multimodality, Embodiment, and Emerging Identities

Abstract

This case study describes a child’s literacy practices by analyzing her drawing and play as multimodal semiotic modes situated in the context of COVID-19 in Canada.

Framed within multimodality, this study aligns with research that integrates child literacy within semiotics and ethnography. The 120-minute open-ended interviews focused on the participant’s oral accounts of 16 artifacts. Thematic analysis allowed for clustering codes into patterns and categorizing them into themes. The interrelated themes connect the here-now with the there-then, showcasing the child’s interactions with the human and material world that contributed to making meaning during the pandemic.

This study has the potential to enhance teachers’ awareness of students’ meaning-making, allow for lessons to be co-constructed, and contribute to more inclusive learning environments.

Author

• Laura Brass, University of British Columbia