Learning How to Read What’s Displayed on School Hallway Walls -- and What’s Not

Linda D. Labbo
M. Kristiina Montero
A. Jonathan Eakle

Abstract

This article shares a brief foray the authors took to examine elementary school hallway displays for evidence of the use of multimedia literacies. A qualitative content analysis of photographs of the hallway displays in three elementary schools explores what is displayed, what is not displayed, and why it matters. The forms and functions of things displayed on hallway walls reveal much about school culture, what is valued, and what educational tools are and are not being used. Analyses of 70 photographs indicate that students utilized computer-related tools in 8 (11%) of the items displayed. Implications of ways educators can use hallway display areas to support students’ active learning and to foster development of new multimedia literacies are included.

Introduction

What is displayed on the hallway walls of elementary schools? What’s not? Why should we care? As educators, researchers, students, parents, and interested stakeholders, many of us walk down school hallways on a daily basis. If you are like us, your eyes are drawn to the more colorful bulletin board displays that seem to sprout with the seasons -- green spikes of construction-paper grass, fluffy white cotton-ball clouds, and paper-cup daffodils, or white paper snowflakes falling on button-eyed snowmen assembled from styrofoam balls. The smell of fresh tempera paint or damp school paste may also capture your attention as you walk by artwork drying along the baseboards. On other occasions, your attention may be drawn to a particular exhibit that has collected a thick layer of dust. You may wonder why the faded construction-paper poster has been on display for such a long time.

If you are like many people, however, it is likely that you haven’t paid very much attention to the forms, functions, and media representations embedded within school hallway exhibits. We believe that a closer “reading” of hallway displays may provide insights into the role of new media literacies as they are practiced and valued (or devalued) in elementary schools. This is an especially important undertaking to pursue during an era when various stakeholders are wondering if and how expensive computer technologies (e.g., computers and printers in classrooms, collections of software, Internet access, technology-related staff development) that have recently been infused into schools are being utilized to their maximum potential (National Center for Education Statistics, 1999, online document; United States Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, 1995, online document). Items displayed in hallways are a reflection of the media tools and symbol systems (e.g., print, graphics, photographs, video, sound effects, music) that are used and valued within the school culture. Do these displays offer evidence that new media literacies are being integrated into classroom learning environments alongside more traditional print-based literacies?

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, we report on an informal study that serves as an initial exploration into the forms and functions of elementary school hallway wall displays. Within this section, we address the following questions:

• How did we become interested in this topic?
• What are new media literacies?
• How did we conduct the study?
• What did we find?

Second, we extend the discussion by considering what is not displayed and what might be displayed with a particular emphasis on the potential role of new multimedia literacies.

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The Study

The following two vignettes describe the origins of the study.

Vignette one. We were at a school in northeastern Georgia, USA, conducting research on kindergarten children’s opportunities for computer-related literacy development. As we walked toward the classroom, we casually glanced at the school hallway displays. One particular kindergarten display stopped us dead in our tracks and demanded our attention. The hand-printed title banner hanging over it read “Famous Americans.” What surprised us was that most of the photographs and text passages displayed on the kindergartners’ posters had come from Web sites, and had been downloaded, printed out, and pasted on posterboard. As we looked over the display, we found the expected reports about past and present American presidents and popular sports figures. However, we were surprised to see a poster, nestled alongside George Washington, that included a picture of the pop diva Britney Spears, dressed in a scanty halter top. Later that morning, we found out that one of the kindergarten boys had been sent to the principal’s office for announcing that Britney Spears had “big boobs.”

With the recent infusion of computers into classrooms and access to the Internet in schools, we wondered if much of the other work displayed in halls would be computer-related and how many items displayed in school hallways might reflect multimedia literacies.

Vignette two. The principal, smiling pleasantly, held open the heavy, gray door of the school building as groups of young children, disembarking from school buses, cars, and bicycles, scurried inside to shelter from the rain. Many of the children wore dripping wet rain ponchos sporting the Atlanta Braves baseball team logo, Mickey Mouse raincoats, or Cartoon Network t-shirts. Some children folded up pink Barbie doll or black-and-white Snoopy umbrellas that left raindrop trails on the off-white linoleum floor as they entered the building. One Spanish-speaking child called to his friend, “Juanito, espérame” (“Juanito, wait for me!”). The children joined teachers, staff, student-teachers, parents, volunteers, and delivery personnel, who were walking along the school hallways, hallways walked countless times every day throughout the school year.

We observed the early morning parade of people as we sat on a bench that served as the visitors’ waiting area. It was our first visit to this school and, as the minutes ticked by, we began to read the hallway walls to pass the time. We then began to comment on what we saw, and what this said about the school culture and learning environment. After admiring a permanent wall mural that recognized a growing Hispanic community and student population, we began to ask ourselves more questions: What was valued? Who was valued? What messages did the multiple symbolic forms send to us outsiders about this particular learning community? Was there evidence of new multimedia literacies in the hallway displays?

What are new media literacies? New media literacies include both multimedia and critical media literacies. Multimedia literacies consist of abilities that students need in order to utilize computer tools effectively for economic, private, and public communicative purposes (Brunner & Tally, 1999). In other words, multimedia literacies equip students to use technology tools to participate in various discourse communities for various purposes. Such communities require graduates who are multiliterate (able to read and write strategically both multimedia/digital- and print-based information) and not just uniliterate (able to read and write strategically only print-based information). Indeed, in an era when life outside school walls is filled with multimedia and digital forms of communication and many cultivate the ability to work on multiple tasks simultaneously (to “multitask”), it is crucial that we envision ways to help our students become multiliterate within school walls.

Multiliterate people include those who can

• Use technological tools to read and write various symbolic forms of information (e.g., print, graphics, photographs, video, sound effects, music) as they are displayed digitally on computer screens, not just on paper pages
• Critically and strategically manage and assemble knowledge from various digital online databases
• Use their expertise to work collaboratively in flexible online teams that are formed to solve specific problems
• Represent a synthesis of knowledge about a topic in informative and persuasive ways with technological tools (Labbo, in press)

Critical media literacies consist of

• Providing individuals access to understanding how the print and nonprint texts that are part of everyday life help to construct their knowledge of the world and the various social, economic, and political positions they occupy within it (Baker & Luke, 1991, cited in Alvermann & Hagood, 2000, p. 2)
• Providing individuals with abilities for understanding overt and tacit messages included in the mass media -- “television, radio, videos, newspapers, alternatives, zines, Hollywood cinema, billboards, web sites, video games” (Lumby, 1997, cited in Alvermann & Hagood, p. 128)

New media literacies involve abilities to create, read, analyze critically, and navigate texts displayed on computer screens with a seamless digital blending of photographic and other images, video clips, music, audio recordings, print, mass media resources, and the links that connect them (Myers, Hammett, & McKillop, 1998).

How we conducted the study. We adapted a six-step qualitative approach for analyzing the content of visual representations suggested by Ball and Smith (1992):

1. Select the topic or research problem
2. Select the documentary source
3. Devise a set of analytical categories that reflect the question
4. Formulate a set of coding rules
5. Establish a principled basis for sampling the documents
6. Count the frequency of the categories within the documents that can be displayed in tables or graphs

First we identified our research question as an attempt to identify the forms and functions (including computer-related work) of hallway wall displays. We then decided that photographs would serve as an appropriate documentary data source. Photographs have proven to be effective documentary resources for creating meaningful literacy lessons (Allen &Labbo, in press-a; Labbo, Eakle, & Montero, 2000), building positive home-school connections (Allen & Labbo, 2001, online PDF document), and conducting visual anthropology studies (Collier & Collier, 1986). Over the course of 2 weeks in the spring of the 2000-01 academic school year, we took pictures of all the objects in three elementary school hallways. The types of schools selected -- one rural, one urban/suburban, one suburban -- served as a representative sampling of elementary schools in the southeastern United States. The photographs served as a documentary data source that provided a visual inventory of hallway displays. Photographs were taken at a close-up angle that showed one or two displays or displayed small collections of objects. In all cases, we ensured that detail was clearly discernible. (Note that the photographs reproduced in this article have been reduced from their original size to facilitate display.)

We then began a recursive, systematic cycle of analysis of the content of the photographs. We each separately viewed, wrote comments, and identified initial content categories for one set of photographs. The initial comment categories (e.g., bragging rights, little scientists, cutting and pasting) were challenged and refined in subsequent steps.

After we had arranged the photographs in arrays for discussion and further analysis, we grouped and collapsed them into a more refined set of categories that reflected the research question. At the same meeting, we concurrently viewed a second set of photographs to see if the initial categories needed refining or if new categories could be identified. Once our rules of procedure for coding were determined, we viewed a third set of photographs together and confirmed the categories to be consistent.

Next, two of us used the categories to analyze all of the objects that we saw displayed during a walk through the hallways of a fourth suburban school. No additional categories were identified.

We then conducted individual “member checks” with five elementary school teachers. Member checking involved discussing the categories with the teachers and then inviting each of them to look at an array of photographs within each category. Teachers were then asked to talk about the photographs and to tell us how they did or did not fit the categories. All teachers reported to us that the categories reflected the content of the photographs. However, two of the teachers indicated that one or two photographs could be further sorted into at least two content area subcategories (e.g., writing and social studies). The teachers’ feedback suggested to us that our categories were reliable and led to the formation of mutually exclusive categories.

In addition, two teachers engaged in extensive open-ended interviews about the content of the photographs and provided us with an insider’s or emic perspective on the purpose for some hallway displays. In other words, the teachers related the categories to the sociocultural meanings that the different types of displays held within their local contexts. Relevant comments drawn from the interviews are included in the final section of this article.

What we found out about the forms and functions of hallway wall displays. We identified eight categories of the things we found in school hallways. However, in this section we focus on the five categories that met our criteria for things displayed (see Table 1):

• Sense of community and identity
• Curriculum and content area work
• Writing products
• Author focus
• Functional signs

Displays are those individual items or collections that are crafted and assembled for public communication. The three other categories included things in the hallway that are not used for display purposes -- storage, additional instructional space, and expansive, empty wall space -- and are discussed later in the article.

The purpose of displays in the sense of community/identity category is to foster school pride, positive self-image, and a sense of school or community spirit. Included in this category are celebrations of the achievements of individuals and groups within the school. Trophies, awards, fund-raising endeavors, exemplary art projects, and photographs of teachers of the year are routinely displayed close to the entryway or main office. Commercially produced banners and flags (depicting, for example, shamrocks or spring bunnies) invite faculty, staff, and students to celebrate or acknowledge various holidays or times of year as a community. Students’ “All About Me” or “Star Student” posters routinely consist of photographs from home with handwritten captions. None of the displays of this type examined in this study showed the use of computer-related tools. However, it is possible that visual literacy was utilized as students selected individual photographs to represent different aspects of their out-of-school lives (Allen & Labbo, in press-a).
Items displayed in the curriculum/content area work category are individual or group-constructed work products (e.g., collaborative story telling, chain stories). In the photographs examined for this study, we found children’s best efforts within a discipline, such as pasting together patterns in math class, displayed alongside integrated curriculum projects that involved an artistic medium as part of a science or social studies report. Reports ranged from one sentence to one page and all were print based, with a few being computer generated. The works displayed did not include digital graphics; none were designed by computer or downloaded from the Internet.
Writing products are in evidence across all grade levels; however, in lower grades, much of displayed writing involves completing sentence patterns, group compositions, or writing to a prompt. Displays of writing in intermediate grades in this study consisted of research reports, poetry, innovations on text, and response to literature. Of the 23 items in this category, 5 were computer generated; all were print based (no imported graphics), with the computer apparently having been used only as a publishing tool (and perhaps in the composing process).
The author focus category included commercially produced posters and bulletin boards designed to promote reading or to provide information about authors. They were routinely displayed in proximity to the school library or media center.
Functional signs provide directions, behavioral expectations, legal notices, or designations of how a particular room is used. Teacher-created computer signs or purchased signs dominated this category.

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What Is Not Displayed, and What Could Be

Our informal study has shed light on the forms, functions, and symbol systems that are displayed in public spaces within schools’ out-of-classroom hallway walls. In this section, we discuss a rationale for including new media literacies in the curriculum, and we highlight selected implications of our findings that relate to the potential role of new media literacies within the classroom literacy curriculum and as displayed on hallway walls. We consider implications of what’s missing in terms of what should be included: (1) computer-related work, not just paper-and-pencil products; (2) process, not just product; and (3) on screen, not just on the wall.

A rationale. It is worth emphasizing that the literacy demands of the contemporary 21st-century workplace have changed from those of the 20th-century industrial age (Mikulecky & Kirkley, 1998). We believe that students in schools at the onset of the 21st century should be able to use and show they can use a variety of technological tools, including the Internet, multimedia creativity tools, and public communication tools (Brunner & Tally, 1999). Internet access tools should be used strategically in ways that enable students to conduct critical, expanded, and updated research online. Multimedia creativity and presentation tools should enable students to shape their ideas and share newly acquired knowledge for various audiences through appropriate symbol systems. Public communication tools should enable students to engage in reflective, critical conversations with experts, peers, or friends via e-mail or Internet-based chat rooms. New multimedia literacies take into consideration the unique structures, content forms, genres, purposes, and conventions of digital information.

Computer-related work, not just paper-and-pencil products. Our findings suggest that, for the most part, computer use has not become an integral component of classroom literacy instruction -- at least not in ways that result in hallway wall displays. With the rare exception of written products or content area research reports that appeared to have been composed, drafted, and edited with paper and pencil before they were published by being printed out in final format on the computer, there was scant evidence of children’s computer-related or computer-generated work.

Although computers are present in classrooms, teachers indicate that they are not comfortable using them for instructional purposes (United States Congress, Office of Technological Assessment, 1995). This suggests to us that the time is ripe for teachers to engage in well-crafted computer-related professional development that targets integration of new media literacies into the curriculum. Teachers also may be uncomfortable in dealing with sensitive issues that may arise when children have broad access to various types of information online (Alvermann & Hagood, 2000), as was the case for the teacher who wasn’t sure how to respond to the kindergarten child’s comments about pop diva Britney Spears.

It is also possible that classroom computer time may currently be allocated to children’s interactions with skill-and-drill software or low-level reading comprehension assessments (Labbo, 1999, online document).

The teachers we interviewed during this study consistently reported their conviction that there is a pressing need to include computer use as a key component of literacy instruction. We also believe that exposure to such learning tools will continue to increase motivation for their use. The result is likely to be better training for our students’ and greater success for them in the workplace of today and the future, where technology will be a part of everyday life -- without exception.

Process, not just product. The majority of hallway displays we studied were devoted to showcasing final products; none was devoted to describing a learning process. It is possible that focusing exclusively on polished, finished products sends a mixed message to children as well as hallway visitors. Children of varying ability levels might benefit from preparing part of a hallway display to explain the learning processes involved in a writing or research project. For example, one hallway bulletin board we analyzed displayed patches of paper that children had made from recycled paper. Children’s learning might have been enhanced if they and the teacher had included a poster or photo essay explaining the processes involved in making recycled paper.

On screen, not just on the wall. Not one of the hallway displays we analyzed included on-screen presentations. We wonder what would happen if there were a designated place for computer multimedia work to be displayed publicly on a computer screen? We wonder if making at least one older computer available in the main hallway for continuous slide shows of students’ multimedia presentations would foster more interest in making classroom time and computer resources available for the development of multimedia literacies. Such opportunities to display multimedia presentations might foster “the use of technological tools to ‘read’ and ‘write’ various symbolic forms of information (e.g., print, graphics, photographs, video, sound effects, music). To critically and strategically manage and assemble knowledge from various digital online data bases, and to represent a synthesis of knowledge about a topic in informative and persuasive ways with technological tools”(Labbo, in press).

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Hallway Items Not Intended for Display

What do things in the hallway that are not intended for “display” purposes tell us about schooling? Analysis of our collection of photographs resulted in three small categories of things that were in hallways but were not intended to display or communicate messages. It is worth considering the hidden messages that are inherent in these categories: storage, additional instructional spaces, and empty wall spaces.

Storage and additional instructional space. All the schools we entered, whether rural, urban/suburban, or suburban, used some public areas in hallways for storage or for additional instructional space. It was not unusual to encounter stacks of materials, rolls of paper, extra chairs, outdated and unused computers, and even mops, brooms, and buckets. Some small corridors in hallways leading to exit doors were converted into additional or overflow instructional spaces such as resource rooms, tables for small-group work, and even a counselor’s corner consisting of a couple of rocking chairs and a table with tissues. The use of public hallway space for these varied purposes suggests to us that many schools continue to face overcrowded conditions, a lack of storage space, and a critical need for additional instructional areas.

Empty wall space. The empty space reminded us of just how important hallway wall displays are: Without them, schools look sterile and grayishly institutional -- improbable places for young children to be stimulated to engage in meaningful learning. As we examined the particular picture at the right, we also recalled that most of the special education or resource classroom bulletin boards did not have any evidence of children’s work displayed. These walls either were left empty or were filled with behavioral slogans affirming appropriate school behaviors. What do these messages communicate to children and adults?

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Closing Thoughts: Why It’s Not Just a Matter of Space -- It’s Also a Matter of Pace

Much attention has been paid to the nature and type of environmental print that is posted on the walls within elementary school classrooms. For example, word wall displays of key words arranged on cards in alphabetical order are used for direct instruction, phonics practice, and automatic word recognition. Colorful seasonal calendars function during group time as a means for helping young children develop concepts about time, months, days of the week, days of the month, and the making and keeping of schedules for activities. Interactive, theme-related bulletin boards are designed to teach or display students’ best work. Frager and Valentour (1984) note that creative literature-based bulletin boards encourage students to read more and to read more widely. The things displayed on walls inside of classrooms tend to invite a celebration and investigation of literacy learning.

Little attention has been paid to the nature and type of things that are posted in the public display spaces of school hallways. Findings from this small-scale study suggest that a very limited amount of hallway wall space is devoted to the promotion of multimedia literacies. However, we believe that it’s not just a matter of space, it’s also a matter of pace. Like the proverbial fish that is unaware of the surrounding water, much of the displayed environmental print seems to go largely unexplored and untapped as a potential learning resource by those who work at, attend, or visit schools.

Cultural norms hold that school hallways are for walking in straight lines with no talking, no touching, and no pausing. There’s no opportunity to become aware of what’s on hallway walls because getting to destinations in a timely manner is paramount. Schools are run on tightly maintained schedules that do not build in time for hallway wall gazing. It is our conviction that school hallways can only become additional, valuable learning spaces that reflect and support multimedia literacies if cultural norms bend to accommodate time for pausing, wondering, noticing, and inquiring. Perhaps then, hallway walls will represent a celebration and investigation of learning that incorporates a complete range of multiliteracies.

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References

Allen, J.B., & Labbo, L.D. (in press-a). PhOLKS lore: Learning from photographs, families, and children. Language Arts.
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Allen, J.B., & Labbo, L.D. (2001). Giving it a second thought: Making culturally engaged teaching culturally engaging. Language Arts, 79(1), 40-52. Available (PDF document): www.ncte.org/pdfs/subscribers-only/la/0791-sept01/LA0791Giving.pdf
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Alvermann, D.E., & Hagood, M.C. (2000). Critical media literacy: Research, theory, and practice in “new times.” Journal of Educational Research, 93(3), 193-205.
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Ball, M.S., & Smith, G.W.H. (1992). Analyzing visual data: Qualitative research methods series 24. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
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Brunner, C., & Tally, W. (1999). The new media literacy handbook: An educator’s guide to bringing new media into the classroom. New York: Doubleday.
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Collier, J., & Collier, M. (1986). Visual anthropology: Photography as a research method. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.
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Frager, A., & Valentour, J. (1984). Beyond book jackets: Creative bulletin boards to encourage reading. Reading Horizons, 24(4), 259-262.
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Labbo, L.D. (1999, November). Questions worth asking about The Accelerated Reader: A response to Topping. Reading Online. Available: www.readingonline.org/past/past_index.asp?HREF=/critical/labbo/index.html
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Labbo, L.D. (in press). Workplace literacy demands: Taking note of changes. Language Arts, 79(3).
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Labbo, L.D., Montero, K., & Eakle, A.J. (2000, December). Computer center conversations: Purpose of children’s talk during kindergarten computer-center literacy-related work. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Reading Conference, Scottsdale, Arizona.
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Mikulecky, L., & Kirkley, J.R. (1998). Literacy instruction for the 21st-century workplace. Peabody Journal of Education, 73(3/4), 290-316.
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Myers, J., Hammett, R., & McKillop, A.M. (1998). Opportunities for critical literacy and pedagogy in student-authored hypermedia. In D. Reinking, L.D. Labbo, M.C. McKenna, & R.D. Kieffer (Eds.), Handbook of literacy and technology: Transformations in a post-typographic world (pp. 63-78). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. [Note: This book is reviewed elsewhere in this journal.]
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National Center for Education Statistics. (1999). Internet access in public schools and classrooms: 1994-98. Washington, DC: Author. Available: nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=1999017
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About the Authors

Linda Labbo is an associate professor in the Department of Reading Education of the University of Georgia (Athens, GA, USA), where she conducts research on young children’s computer-related literacy development, sociocultural aspects of emergent literacy, and the role of technology in preservice teacher education. She is a former department editor for Reading Online. Reach Linda by e-mail at llabbo@coe.uga.edu.

Kristiina Montero is a graduate student in reading education at the University of Georgia. Her research interests include sociocultural aspects of language and literacy, heritage language literacy, bilingualism and biliteracy, and multicultural and international children’s literature. Contact her by e-mail at kmontero@coe.uga.edu.

Jonathan Eakle is a doctoral student at the University of Georgia in the Department of Reading Education. His research interests include beginning reading, English language learners and linguistics, and multiliteracies, especially the role that the arts serve in literacy development. His e-mail address is j_eakle@msn.com.

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Citation: Labbo, L.D., Montero, M.K., & Eakle, A.J. (2001, October). Learning how to read what’s displayed on school hallway walls -- and what’s not. Reading Online, 5(3). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/lit_index.asp?HREF=labbo/index.html

Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted October 2001
© 2001 International Reading Association, Inc.   ISSN 1096-1232