Walker/Barrett

What I liked about the Walker article is the comparison of a theme to a big idea. The author gives very good examples showing how the theme and the big idea of an artists’ work can either be the same or they can be two completely different things.

I think that the author could have done a better job of explaining how a big idea and the subject matter are different. I feel like he just wasn’t as clear about this point as he was on some of the other points he made. Another thing I disliked was how I had to jump around the pages to make sure I read only the things that pertained to me and not read irrelevant information such as teaching tips.

In the Barrett article I thought it was overall great. I liked how they referenced the breaking down of things such as the magazine cover into 3 different messages; denotative, connotative, and the linguistic message. I also found it amazing that the person doing these studies could get kids as young as 3 and 4 to point out denotations and connotations without them even knowing that they were doing it.

I would have been interested in seeing how high school aged kids interpreted connotations and denotations in images and other things. In the article, they just skipped from graduate students to middle school-aged children. There was no in-between.