Table Of ContentTHE
VISUAL TURN
AND THE
TRANSFORMATION
OF THE
TEXTBOOK
JAMES ANDREW LASPINA
The Visual Turn
and the
Transformation of the Textbook
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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.
