charlotte

sourced from: http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~acarpi/NSC/images/digestive.jpg
 * **The Digestive System** ||
 * [[image:the_digestive_system.jpg]] ||


 * //Explanation of the resource: The Digestive System//**

//The Digestive System// is an annotated picture showing the organs involved in the digestive system. This image incorporates all of the main organs and body parts such as nasal passage, mouth, saliva glands, oesophagus, stomach, liver, large intestine, small intestine, rectum and anus while presenting them in the order in which the process occurs.


 * Discuss the relevance of the resource to the KLA you have chosen**

//The Digestive System// relates strongly to the outcome as students are required to describe human functions, one of which being the digestive system. This image related directly to this outcome as it displays a full annotated diagram of the digestive system. The image encompasses all of the organs and body parts which are involved which students are required to know as well as to describe the processes involved in each organ or body part.


 * Aspect of literacy suitable to be explored**

As students are required to write a narrative based on the image students will need to ensure they are writing a narrative which is modally coherent to the image. Latter in the lesson students will need to create their own image to complement their text.

In analysing the image //The Digestive System// it is important that the three meanings gained from an image are explored. These three meanings are; representational meaning, interactive meaning, and compositional meaning.

The first meaning, representation meaning refers to "the events, participants and objects involved...the circumstances in which they occur" (Callow;2006;pp11). The representation meaning expressed in the diagram is high as the author has represented the digestive system in a way where meaning can be easily accessed. The diagram has drawn images in a realistic way where the shapes and size are relative to what they actually look like. The second reason why meaning is gained easily is because the process of the digestive system is mapped out in the image that is the organs which the food travels from the mouth to the anus are shown on this image. Finally the image is an action image. This is indicated by the vectors which direct your eyes immediately to the mouth. As the viewer you follow the organs which follow the mouth in order that they appear.

The interactive meaning is the "relationships constructed between the viewer and what is viewed" (Callow; 2006; pp11). The image has an automatic emotional connection, according to Callow, with the audience as the image is; realistic, it’s in colour, it represents a human like digestive system, it’s a close up and the image is at eye level. ... EXPAND ...

Finally the compositional meaning which is gained though an image, according to Callow is "concerned with the layout and information value among the visual elements of an image" (2006; pp11). The image above can be analysed in terms of its composition meaning is high. The salience is high due to the size and colour of the image. There is also a reading path established in the image as it follows the process of the food as it travels through the digestive process. There is no information which is of more importance in this image; however a clear path from top to bottom is established.

It is important for students to understand and gain meaning from this text as the students are required to write a narrative based on this image as a stimulus. If students fully understand this image they should produce a text which is emotively high, rich in description as well as ensure all of the organs and body parts represented in the image are in the text.

Finally students are to understand all the meaning gained from this image and create their own image which further reflects their story. The students will need to understand how the three meanings interrelate in order to produce their own visual literacy text which is rich in meaning as well as complementing their narrative