The relationship between children's plays and illustrations is a very convenient one in terms of developing the high order functions of reading. The combination of illustrations with drama makes way for an embodied learning experience.

1. 8 T H I N T E R N AT I O N A L T E C H N O L O G Y, E D U C AT I O N
A N D D E V E L O P M E N T C O N F E R E N C E
CHILDREN’S PLAYS AND ILLUSTRATIONS:
EMBODIMENT RESOURCES FOR READING
PRACTICES
Valencia
10th - 12th March 2014
Isabel Pinto (CECC, UCP)
Arcângela Carvalho (ESE Almeida Garrett)

2. CHILDREN’S PLAYS
AND
ILLUSTRATIONS:
EMBODIMENT
RESOURCES FOR
READING PRACTICES

3. GOALS
 Enlightening the role played by illustrations in the reading
of plays as means to an improved meaning assessment.
 Driving a new range of clues for constructing textual
meaning, through embodied reading practices.
 Arguing for the relevance of “embodied cognition” and
“embodied pedagogy” as core concepts.

4. MAIN ARGUMENT
The relationship between drama and
illustration, through imitation and gesture,
is a promising one in terms of reading
achievements, at the level of textual
interpretation.

5. THE PLAYS
 Teatro às Três Pancadas [Theatre with Three Punches] (2013),
by António Torrado, and illustrated by António Pilar, read at the 4th
grade;
 O Príncipe Nabo [The Turnip Prince] (2000), by Ilse Losa, and
illustrated by Manuela Bacelar, read at the 5th grade;
 Os Piratas [The Pirates] (1997), by Manuel António Pina, read at
the 6th grade.

6. PLAY
Os Piratas [The
Pirates], Manuel
António Pina
1997, p. 47

7. OS PIRATAS
[THE PIRATES]
The plot: two teenagers, Manuel and Ana, and Manuel’s
mother, are caught up in a time thread, with events from the
past interfering with the present in such a way as to make
dream and reality collide.
The illustrations are scenery and costume sketches,
helping the reader pull together on his own a setting and a
mood for the plot.

8. PLAY
O Príncipe Nabo
[The Turnip
Prince], Ilse Losa
2000, p.31

9. O PRÍNCIPE NABO [THE
TURNIP PRINCE]
The plot: the king wishes to find a prince to marry his
daughter princess Beatriz. But she mocks all the princes that
want to marry her. As a result, she will end up marrying the
first man entering the palace.
The illustrations in bright colors depict scenery
arrangements, constantly alluding to the puppet theatre, thus
underlining the power of “make believe”.

10. PLAY
A Raposa e o Corvo
[The Fox and the
Raven] in Teatro às
Três Pancadas
[Theatre with Three
Punches], António
Torrado 2012, p. 41

11. TEATRO ÀS TRÊS PANCADAS
[THEATRE WITH THREE
PUNCHES]
The book contains seven short plays that, according to
the author himself, aim at satisfying teachers’ needs of
appropriate plays for school staging.
The illustrations add something of its own to the play,
giving a number of clues and hints concerning the
staging process.

12. DRAMATIZING
ILLUSTRATION
An intervention was conducted, namely an interview,
comprising different phases, in a school in the Lisbon area, with
two students from the 4th grade of primary school, about two
illustrations of O Príncipe Nabo [The Turnip Prince].
First, the students described the picture. Then, they were told
to enact what the illustration depicted. After that, they would
read the corresponding passage of the play.

13. RESULTS
Combining illustrations and plays prompts readers, mainly
those in the first stages of reading development, to engage in a
first imaginary staging of the plot, additionally promoting textual
interpretation and analysis.
At school illustrated plays make reading a matter of
performance, nourishing the complex relationship between
textual clues and the reader’s prior knowledge of the world.

14. FINAL REMARKS
 The enactment of illustrations, through improvisation,
functioned as a first opportunity to collect meaningful clues
for the reading of the text.
Embodied resources for reading practices rely on: (a) the
distinctive features of plays when compared with other
genres, and (b) taking learning as a necessarily embodied
experience .

15. REFERENCES
 Fang, Zhihui (1996). “Illustrations, Text, and the Child
Reader: What are Pictures in Children’s Storybooks for?”.
Reading Horizons, Vol. 37, N.º 2, 130-142.
 Hassett, Dawnene D.; Curwood, Jen Scott (2009). “Theories
and Practices of Multimodal Education: The Instructional
Dynamics of Picture Books and Primary Classrooms”. The
Reading Teacher, 63(4), 270–282.

16. REFERENCES
 Perry, Mia; Medina, Carmen (2011). “Embodiment and
Performance in Pedagogy Research: Investigating the Possibility of
the Body in Curriculum Experience”. Journal of Curriculum
Theorizing, Vol. 27, N.º 3, 62-75.
 Pinto, I. (2009). Leitura do Texto de Teatro: Teoria, Prática e
Análise. Dissertação de doutoramento, na especialidade de Estudos
de Teatro, apresentada à Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de
Lisboa.