THE VISUAL TURN AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE TEXTBOOK JAMES ANDREW LASPINA The Visual Turn and the Transformation of the Textbook This page intentionally left blank The Visual Turn and the Transformation of the Textbook James Andrew LaSpina University of California Humanities Research Institute Routledge R Taylor & Francis Group NEW YORK AND LONDON First Published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers 10 Industrial Avenue Mahwah, New Jersey 07430 Transferred to Digital Printing 2009 by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Copyright ©1998 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microform, retrieval system, or any other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data LaSpina, James Andrew. The visual turn and the transformation of the textbook / James Andrew LaSpina. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8058-2701-3 (cloth : alk. paper)ISBN 0-8058-2702-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Textbooks-Publishing-Data processing. I. Title. LB3045.5.L37 1998 371.3*2—DC21 97-44944 CIP Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent. Contents Figures and Tables Acknowledgments From Pre-face to Interface Introduction: Turning a Textbook Controversy on Its Head 1 Social Studies for the 21st Century Ligature: The Binding of the Visual and the Verbal 8 Prototype Development and National Testing 13 The Influence of the California Market 15 The Thumbnail Process: Views of Designers, Editors, and Authors 16 Finessing at the Back End: Textbook Production and Computer-Based Design 22 2 When Image Meets Word The Textbook and Standard Publishing Practice 28 Thinking Beyond the Book 29 How Images and Words Work Together 36 Words and Pictures Belong Together 54 At the Intersection of Image, Word, Number, Art 56 3 Making the Beautiful Book The Comenius Continuum 58 SS21 Program Architecture: The Toolbox 64 From Architecture to Openers: Social Studies That You Can Step Into 72 Looking Down: I Know a Place of Planetary Spacc 85 Looking at Ourselves Looking Dow n 94 4 A Beautiful Book or Considerate Text Instructional Design in the SS21 Program 98 The Postlinear Text 104 The Visual Pattern of Meaning and the Principles of Gestalt 108 On the Myth of Coherence and the Considerate Text 121 vi CONTENTS 5 A Different Model of Reading 123 Formative Thinking in the Development of the Visual Learning Strand 125 Multiple Intelligences and Visual Learning 128 The DBAE Connection to Visual Learning 131 Discipline Concepts for DBAE 132 A Different Kind of Guided Instruction 134 On the Question of Assessment ¡44 6 History as Our Best Guess 155 A Contest of Identities: California Adoption Politik 158 At the Visual/Verbal Center of the Adoption Storm 161 What You See Is Not What You Get 177 7 A Window in the Text 183 WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get 187 On Paper or Screen: The Semiotics of Book Form 194 The Last Word: Reading Under Re-vision 201 8 Face-to-Face or Interface: Social Studies in Cyberspace 207 A Different Engine 209 VR/RL: Virtual Reality or Real Life 212 A Window Through ... 214 Transmission in Transition 218 References 225 Appendix 1 235 Appendix 2 237 Author Index 241 Subject Index 245 Figures and Tables I would like to thank Regina Clay and Lisa Jacobson of the Permissions Department, and Melody English of the School Design-Image Resource Group of the Houghton Mifflin Company for assistance in sorting out the artists, agencies, institutions and various sources credited for the illustrations, photographs, maps, graphs, and so forth, cited in this study. All page numbers listed below are from the Houghton Mifflin Social Studies Program, 1991 First Edition. 1.1: Copyright © 1989, Ligature, Inc. 2.1: Copyright © 1989, Ligature, Inc. 2.2a, b, c: illustration: p. 356. From A MESSAGE OF ANCIENT DAYS in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved, photographs: p. 356-357, © P. Sclarandris, Black Star Publishing. 2.3: illustration: p. xi. From I KNOW A PLACE in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Re printed by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved, photographs: p. xi-1. © Will and Deni Mclntrye, Photo Researchers, Inc. 2.4: illustration: p. 91. From FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Com pany. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. photograph: Stephen Kennedy (r). 2.5: illustration: p. 187. From SOME PEOPLE I KNOW' in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Com pany. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2.6: Copyright © 1989 Ligature, Inc. 2.7: illustration: p. 298. From ACROSS THE CENTURIES in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Com pany. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. vii viii FIGURES AND TABLES 2.8: illustration: p. 233. From ACROSS THE CENTURIES in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Com pany. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 2.9: Copyright © 1989 Ligature, Inc. 2.10: illustration: p. 226-227. From A MESSAGE OF ANCIENT DAYS in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved, photographs: p. 226, © Paolo Koch, Photo Researchers, Inc.; p. 227, Karachi Museum, Pakistan, Art Resources, Inc., New York (t); © Dilip Mehta, Woodfin Camp & Associates (c); Ralph Brunke (bl); Government of India, Department of Archaeol ogy (br). 3.1: Copyright © 1989 Ligature, Inc. 3.2: photograph: p. 118. © Corbis-Bettman Newsphoto. 3.3: photographs: p. 8. © Mike Clemmer (tr, bl); Stephen Kennedy (cl, br). From SOME PEOPLE I KNOW in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES Armento, et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3.4: graph: p. 163. From SEA TO SHINING SEA in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Re printed by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved, photograph: © Jack Parsons, the Stock Broker. 3.5: photograph: p.202-203. © Jerry Jacka Photography. 3.6: photograph: p. 78-79. The Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont. From A MORE PERFECT UNION in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3.7: photographs: p. 206.1.N. Phelps Stokes Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Divi sion of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (c); Peabody Museum of Archaelogy and Ethnology, Harvard University, photo by Hillel Burger (bl); p. 207. Oakland Museum History Depart ment, Oakland, California, (b); illustration: © Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma (t). From THIS IS MY COUNTRY in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES by Armcnto ct al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3.8: photographs: P. 267. Wan-go H.C. Weng (tr); Ralph J. Brunke (cr, bl, be, br); From A MESSAGE OF ANCIENT DAYS in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reprinted by per mission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. FIGURES AND TABLES ix 3.9: photographs: p. 125.1.N. Phelps Stokes Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Divi sion of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (t); New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown, New York (r). From SEA TO SHINING SEA in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUD IES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3.10: maps: p. 134 -135. From SEA TO SHINING SEA in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SO CIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Com pany. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. photographs: p. 134-135, © David Muench. 3.11: photograph: p. 56. SCALA, Art Resources, New York. From A MESSAGE OF AN CIENT DAYS in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copy right © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3.12: photograph: Title page. From I KNOW A PLACE in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SO CIAL STUDIES Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3.13: photograph: p. 1. © Will and Deni Mclntrye, Photo Researchers, Inc. 3.14: illustration: p. 14-15. From I KNOW A PLACE in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SO CIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Com pany. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3.15: illustration: p. 28-29. From I KNOW A PLACE in HOUGHTON MIFFIN SO CIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Com pany. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. photograph: p. 28-29. © R. Perron, Nawrocki Stock Photo. 3.16: photograph: NASA photo, p. 58-59. From I KNOW A PLACE in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 3.17: map: p. 120-121. From I KNOW A PLACE in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUDIES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Re printed by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved, photographs: pp. 120-121, (flags) Stephen Kennedy, Copyright © (children) C. Lindstrom. 3.18: photograph: p. 29. Earth Satellite Corporation/Science Photo Library, Photo Research ers, Inc. (t). From I KNOW A PLACE in HOUGHTON MIFFLIN SOCIAL STUD IES by Armento et al. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.