The UKLA annual National Conference (online, 2023) explores the importance of developing visual literacy skills to navigate and understand the world we live in. Join authors/illustrators, scholars and practitioners from the United Kingdom and beyond in an interesting exchange of ideas, aiming to provide new insights and fuel innovative practice.
Keynote Speakers
Keynote 1: James Mayhew
James has been creating books for children for over 30 years. His many titles include the classic best-selling Katie series, Ella Bella Ballerina, Once Upon A Tune, and illustrations for the Mrs Noah books by Jackie Morris, Joyce Dunbar’s Mouse & Mole series, Zeb Soanes’s Gaspard the Fox and the Polari Prize-winning Nen & the Lonely Fisherman by Ian Eagleton. Alongside his work in publishing, James also presents classical concerts for children that incorporate art created live on stage in time to the music. His collaborations with the London Mozart Players, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra include Pictures at an Exhibition, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Peter & the Wolf and many other favourites. He lives in Suffolk, where the big skies and gentle light are perfect for artists.
Twitter: @mrjamesmayhew
Instagram: @mrjamesmayhew
Website: www.jamesmayhew.co.uk
“Talking Pictures” with James Mayhew. From the best-selling “Katie” series to #BookIllustrationOfTheDay on social media, James will talk about his inspirations, and how learning to read through illustration really inspired him to become an illustrator. The idea that “every picture tells a story” is brought to life in his exploration of gallery art in the “Katie” series, but through teaching and looking more deeply at the world of illustration, and how images communicate, his own work has evolved in exciting new directions.
Keynote 2: Victoria Jamieson
Victoria Jamieson is a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of books for children. WHEN STARS ARE SCATTERED, co-written with Omar Mohamed, was named a National Book Award Finalist in 2020. The book was also awarded the Shadower’s Award for the 7-10 age bracket, and shortlisted for the UKLA Book Award. She lives with her family in Pennsylvania.
www.victoriajamieson.com
Twitter: @JamiesonV
Victoria will discuss the making of WHEN STARS ARE SCATTERED, which was written with co-author Omar Mohamed. The book recounts Omar’s life growing up in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. She will discuss how they worked together to tell Omar’s personal story as a graphic novel for young readers.
Keynote 3: Evelyn Arizpe
Evelyn Arizpe is Professor of Children’s Literature at the School of Education, University of Glasgow, and is co-founder of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s programme, ‘Children’s Literature, Media and Culture’. She has taught and published widely both nationally and internationally and her current research involves children’s literature and the arts in projects on migration, conflict and peacebuilding. Evelyn is a judge for the Han C Andersen Award for 2022 and 2024.
Twitter: @EvelynArizpe
Kate Noble
Kate Noble is a Senior Research Associate: Museum Learning at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, where she leads a teacher training programme which encourages creative teaching and learning using objects and images.
Her publications include articles and chapters on visual literacy, young children in museums and participatory research which she has been exploring through a number of museum residencies. She also worked as a Researcher for Tate’s Young Cultural Creators Project, and more recently she has led research and evaluation projects on behalf of the National Gallery, London and University of Cambridge Museums. Kate sits on the council for the National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD).
Twitter: @katejnoble
Morag Styles
Morag Styles is Emeritus Professor of Children’s Poetry and an Emeritus Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge. She has taught and published widely on poetry and picturebooks. She was Director of the Caribbean Poetry Project, a collaboration between Cambridge Faculty of Education and The University of the West Indies (2010–15). She co-curated an exhibition for the Fitzwilliam Museum on children’s picturebooks (2000), and the British Library with Michael Rosen on the history of children’s poetry (2009). Morag is a judge for the BolognaRagazzi Award for Poetry and Illustration 2021 and 2022. She is currently finishing a childhood memoir set in Scotland and India In this keynote, they will present some of the new lines of research on the response of children to picturebooks based on the up-to-date material they have included in the third edition of Children Reading Pictures, now subtitled New Contexts and Approaches to picturebooks. The new edition highlights inclusion and examines the potential of picturebooks for helping to overcome cultural, educational and linguistic barriers. For this edition Morag Styles and Evelyn Arizpe invited Kate Noble to contribute with her experiences on pupils and teachers working with art museum educators and Kate will discuss how these experiences were enhanced through slow reading and making. They will also discuss how they extended their focus to include children reading picturebooks beyond the school classroom, using examples from the work of reading mediators in Latin America. Finally, they will briefly consider new research methodologies, including working with picturebook apps.
Programme
09:20-09:30 Welcome and Introductions
09:30-10:30 Keynote 1 James Mayhew
10:45-11:30 Workshop 1
11:30-11:45 Break
11:45-12:45 Keynote 2 Victoria Jamieson
12:45-13.00 Break
13:00-13:45 Workshop 2
14:00-15:00 Closing Keynote & Plenary – Evelyn Arizpe & Kate Noble, Morag Styles.
Workshops
Workshop 1
A. Teresa Cremin – The Open University
Twitter: @TeresaCremin
Overcoming Adversity: Hope through Picture Fiction
An exploration of Seeing Beneath the Surface, the new OU Picture Fiction Framework which highlights how picture fiction can mediates hope, understanding and acceptance, and contribute to the quality of reading together.
This session is aimed at primary members.
B. Richard Ruddick
Twitter: @RuddickRichard
Using Graphic Novels to Engage
This session will look at how to use graphic novels to create a deeper engagement with reading and to support English development.
This session is aimed at all members.
C. Jo Tregenza – University of Sussex
Twitter: @jotregenza
Paddling Through a Picture Book
We will paddle through the wonderful book The Boat by Helen Ward and Ian Andrew but with a specific focus on key visual literacy approaches. We will focus on how we can equip our pupils with the skills to understand and analyse contextual, ethical and aesthetic components of the book. To explore the story through new eyes. As a bonus, anyone attending will also receive a drama flier and a unit plan for the book.
This session is aimed at primary members.
D. Stephen Dilley – St Clare’s School, Oxford and Andrea Barlien – Latymer Upper School
Twitter: @stephenjdilley @AndreaBarlien
Using Picture Books and Graphic Novels in the Secondary English Classroom
This workshop will explore a range of ways that picture book and graphic novels can enrich pupils’ learning in English at secondary level, including using picture books to introduce complex poetry and teaching graphic novels as a literary form in order to develop pupils’ understanding of genre, conventions and authorial choice. The workshop will include a range of include resources and practical strategies which could work with students across the secondary age range based on our own experiences in the classroom.
This session is aimed at secondary members.
E. Olivia Edmonds – Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College
Twitter: @MissOliviaReads
The Power of Visual Literacy in Further Education
This presentation shares ideas and strategies of how visual literacy can impact reading, student engagement and learning at an FE level. Case studies on disengaged readers, English as a second language students and adult learners amongst others will feature.
This session is aimed at further education members.
Workshop 2
A. Navan Govender, Jane Catlin & Zinnia Mevawalla – University of Strathclyde
Twitter: @navangovender1, @ZinniaMevawalla, @citizen_ehm
Finding, Framing, Focus: Making Sense of Photographs Through Critical Visual Literacies
How do you use photographs? When, where, and why, if at all? Photographs and amateur photography continue to play a significant part in the out-of-school literacy practices of children, young people, and adults alike. Whether through social media or for private meaning-making, the pictures we take (or indeed find) are tied to our ways of seeing (in) and being in the world. In this workshop, we the presenters (Navan Govender, Zinnia Mevawalla, and Jane Catlin from the University of Strathclyde) draw on our collective interests in critical literacy studies, participatory methods, and art and design. Participants can expect to take and use photographs to explore the spaces and things around them, share and contest meanings, tell stories, and explore the pedagogical utilities of images and words through the lens of critical visual literacies. Please have a camera (phone) and writing equipment to hand.
This session is aimed at all members.
B. Rebecca Phillips – The University of Manchester
Twitter: @MeadowSharple
Understanding Children’s Literacy Worlds Through Photo-elicitation Activities
Children come to school with a wealth of knowledge and experience of language and literacy from their homes and communities of which teachers can often be unaware. Finding out about the out-of-school literacy practices and interests of children in my year 1 class was a transformative experience for me as a teacher as it enabled me to better understand how young children begin to make sense of their language and literacy worlds. In this session, we will discuss how a small-scale classroom action research project can bring home and school literacy practices into dialogue through the use of photo-elicitation as a visual research method. We will examine photographs and data from one such project which show the role of language and literacy in children’s out-of-school lives and discuss the implications for teachers. We will also examine the potential for developing this approach in order to further understand the relationship between home and school literacy practices, how they align, where the contradictions lie and how we might resolve these
This session is aimed at primary members.
C. Lucy Starbuck Braidley – Comic Boom, The Comics in Education Podcast
Twitter: @Lucy_Braidley www.comicboom.co.uk
Comic Boom – Investigating the Case for and Challenges of Using Comics in the Classroom
Comics are growing in popularity in the UK but the form still battles against misconceptions and preconceptions around the level of challenge and nuance within comic texts and their appropriateness for the classroom. Drawing on insights from interviews with comics creators, teachers, librarians and academics this session will unpick some of the historical and cultural factors playing into these misconceptions and provide an overview of research insights which make the case for increasing our use of comics throughout education.
This session is aimed at all members.
D. Stephen Dilley – St Clare’s School, Oxford and Andrea Barlien – Latymer Upper School (Andrea Barlien will not be in attendance in this afternoon session)
Twitter: @stephenjdilley @AndreaBarlien
Using Picture Books and Graphic Novels in the Secondary English Classroom
This workshop will explore a range of ways that picture book and graphic novels can enrich pupils’ learning in English at secondary level, including using picture books to introduce complex poetry and teaching graphic novels as a literary form in order to develop pupils’ understanding of genre, conventions and authorial choice. The workshop will include a range of include resources and practical strategies which could work with students across the secondary age range based on our own experiences in the classroom.
This session is aimed at secondary members.
E. Olivia Edmonds – Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College
Twitter: @MissOliviaReads
The Power of Visual Literacy in Further Education
This presentation shares ideas and strategies of how visual literacy can impact reading, student engagement and learning at an FE level. Case studies on disengaged readers, English as a second language students and adult learners amongst others will feature.
This session is aimed at further education members.
F. Maaike Wessels-Compagnie – Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maaike-wessels-compagnie-062a1b2a
Design and Evaluation of an Information Comic on Multimedia Learning
Presentation on the design and evaluation of an information comic for HE. Introduction of key ideas, expert informants, guidelines for design, considerations. Short discussion on the need for more visuals (comics) in academia. More info can be found here: https://ivla.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1-Designing-a-Information-Comic.pdf This presentation is aimed at higher education members.
This presentation is aimed at higher education members.
Tickets available here: https://www.trybooking.co.uk/37546
Students: £10
UKLA members: £30
Non-members £40
