EFFECTIVENESS OF PICTOWORD IN IMPROVING

POEM INTERPRETATION

PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL

2023
Volume: 7
Pages: 261-264
Document ID: 2022PEMJ546
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7679167
Manuscript Accepted: 2023-22-2
Psych Educ, 2023, 7: 261-264, Document ID:2023 PEMJ546, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7679167, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article

Effectiveness of Pictoword in Improving Poem Interpretation

Gissele P. Gomez*
For affiliations and correspondence, see the last page.
Abstract
In recent years many activities have appeared to help learners understand what they are reading. One
of these activities is through the use of pictoword activity that uses pictures or other visual images to
represent words or symbols that we can integrate in improving poem interpretation. In this way, we
can help our learners to enhance their comprehension and make reading poem fun at the same time.
The main purpose of the research study was to determine the effectiveness of pictoword activity in
improving poem interpretation of grade 10 students. In view of the significant findings of the study,
the following conclusions are hereby presented: In terms of the performance of the respondents in
poem interpretation, pictoword method is effective based on the test scores of the students. Pictoword
method is effective for both the visual and non-visual learners in increasing their test scores in
interpreting poems. Based on the findings of this study, the used of pictoword method is highly
recommended to increase the performance of the students in poem interpretation.

Keywords: pictoword method, poem interpretation, visual learners, non-visual learners, pre-
experimental design

Introduction Furthermore, poetry also can offer us a way to

Poetry has been described by many as an artistic
creation which is meant to excite the senses. It has also
been described as a product of imagination and
emotional and imaginative discourse in metrical form,
which represents ideas that have special reference to
emotional significance (Senanu & Vincent, 1987;
Abrams, 1981).
Likewise, poetry as defined by Ollila and Jantas
(2006) as any kind of verbal or written language that is
structured rhythmically and is meant to tell a story, or
express any kind of emotion, idea, or state of being.
Poetry is used to achieve this artistic expression in
several ways. There are certain forms and patterns that
poets follow in the composition process of their work.
These different forms were birthed out of separate
artistic and cultural movements. Most of these forms
coincide with the previously mentioned definition of
poetry; and, the most popular of these forms are elegy,
narrative, ode, ballad, sonnet, villanelle, sestina, free
verse, and epic.
According to Osborn, Alice (2016) says that poetry is
so important because it helps us understand and
appreciate the world around us. Poetry’s strength lies
in its ability to shed a “sideways” light on the world,
so the truth sneaks up on you. No question about it.
Poetry teaches us how to live. Poetry is like the
Windex on a grubby car window—it bares open the
vulnerabilities of human beings so we can all relate to
each other a littlebetter.
empathize with one another. It is a counselor helping
us to understand one another leading us away from
hate to love, from violence to mercy and pity. It is a
bridge. An immediate path to becoming better people
and being the change in the world. Creating a world
less about tearing each other down and apart, and more
about coming together. Helping us to realize that we’re
not as different as we think. And despite our
differences, we are not alone in our grief, pain, joy or
happiness. Reading and writing poetry is the greater
good. Whose benefits are the rebuilding and forging a
more connected and caring world. (Osborn, 2016).
To effectively interpret a poem, an activity method
was first introduced by Woodcock, Richard (1965)
called “Pictoword”. It is a method where it helps
learners aid the difficulty in interpreting and analyzing
a poem. In an article published in Literary Terms, A
pictoword is a code or reference where pictures,
letters, or symbols represent certain words or phrases.
The more entertaining, absurd, beautiful, emotional,
unexpected or funny you can make these imagined
pictures, the more likely you are to remember them, so
really go for it using a pictoword because it is a code
or reference where pictures, letters or symbols
represent certain words or phrases. Nowadays,
pictoword methods are usually used as challenging
riddles, puzzles, and poems. Imagine your poem using
your imagination is a powerful strategy for
interpretation that has been used by people from
Ancient times until now. With this technique, you
create vivid mental experiences, with full color, sound,
smell, and feeling for your memory to enjoy.

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Psych Educ, 2023, 7: 261-264, Document ID:2023 PEMJ546, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7679167, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article
Thus, pictoword is a symbol or a picture that
represents an entire word in contrast to letters that
represent sounds. It may be pictorial, geometric or
completely abstract. The word pictoword could be
depicted with the letters followed by a picture of a
school bus. Some children's books use pictowords as a
way of introducing kids to the reading process, but
pictowords can also be quite challenging, even for the
adult mind.
Pictoword methods have long been used by teachers
and parents to help young children learn to memorize
poems. Pictoword poems substitute pictures for the
harder words that young students cannot yet identify or
decode. Many students are also familiar with
electronic interactive play-a-sound books that allow
them to match and touch the pictoword pictures and
hear the characters speak, laugh, or make sounds
(daSilva, 2001).
Pictoword Approach (Woodcock, 1965), simplifies the
initial stages of learning to read through the use of
pictoword symbols for beginning reading. Pictoword is
a picture or symbol of a printed word and it is used in
the reading material instead of certain printed words.
The researcher sees this problem as vital to students’
ability to understand the aesthetics of literature in their
lives. Thus, he wants to conduct a study with regard to
improving the ability of students in interpreting poems
by employing pictoword Method.
Methodology
This study was quantitative research and it used a pre-
experimental design. Good and Scates (1972), cited
that this approach was appropriate wherever the
objects of any class vary among themselves and one
was interested in knowing the extent to which different
conditions obtain varied among themselves. This
design was also suitable for gathering information that
demonstrated relationships because it examined a
situation as it was. Survey research involved acquiring
information about one or more groups of people-
perhaps about their characteristics, opinions, attitudes,
or previous experiences by asking them questions and
tabulating their answers. It proved the value of facts
and focused attention on the most important things
reported.
Gissele P. Gomez
The questionnaire was the main instrument used in
gathering the data. It is composed of two (2) parts, the
Visual Audio Kinaesthetic (VAK) Learning Styles
Self-Assessment Questionnaire and the five poems
with two formats interpreted by the students. The
VAK Learning Styles Self-Assessment Questionnaire
identified the student’s learning style whether it was an
audio, visual, or kinaesthetic learner. The second part
included a poem in two formats, the first format was
the plain poem from the Grade 10 learning module
while the second format was a teacher’s made poem
having pictoword method.
Data gathered were tallied, analyzed and interpreted.
These data were treated using routine statistical
procedures and Excel computer software programs in
doing the analysis of obtained data. The data were
analyzed and interpreted by employing the following
statistical tools such as percentage, weighted
arithmetic mean and test for independent samples. The
percentage determined the percentage distribution of a
related variable, while the weighted arithmetic mean
knew the weighted scores of the respondents and the
test for independent samples determined whether a
significant difference in the scores of the respondents
exists.
Results and Discussion
Distribution of the Students when Grouped as
Visual and Non-Visual Learners
Students learn best by seeing the value and importance
of the information presented in the classroom. If the
students are not interested in the material presented,
they will not learn it (Gilakjani, 2012). In order to
achieve the ultimate goal of student learning it is
important to use a combination of teaching methods.
Students learn in many different ways, some students
are visual learners, while others are auditory or
kinaesthetic learners. Visual learners learn visually by
means of charts, graphs, and pictures. Auditory
learners learn by listening to lectures and reading, and
Kinaesthetic learners learn by doing. Because of these
different learning styles, it is important for teachers to
incorporate their curriculum activities related to each
of these learning styles so that all students are able to
succeed in their classes (Cuaresma, 2008).
Test Scores of the Students without Pictoword
Method
Higher-order thinking skills are labeled as analysis,
synthesis, and evaluation in Bloom’s taxonomy. In
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Psych Educ, 2023, 7: 261-264, Document ID:2023 PEMJ546, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7679167, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article
recent years, a higher level has been added which is
knowledge creation. The first American educational
philosopher, John Dewey, addressed the issue of why
people learn by stating that learners are faced with
learning problems, and these learning problems
perplex and challenge the mind it making belief
uncertain. Students experienced difficulties in
choosing and reading literary pieces, understanding
and interpreting the texts, and identifying the figure of
speech. Rosenblatt (1969,1993) suggests that the
transaction of meaning depends on the individual
reader’s experiences and interpretation, therefore apart
from textual reading experiential, psychological and
social, and cultural reading need to find bigger space
in reading and related curricula. More imaginative
activities can also be a part of the communicative
language classrooms such as, changing the flow of the
event or adding a new character for better
understanding and enhancing the learner’s
comprehension of the literary piece (Larson-Freeman,
2000).
Test Scores of the Students with Pictoword Method
Various studies report that 75 of all information
processed by the brain is derived from visual format.
Furthermore, visual information is mapped better in
students’ minds (Williams, 2009). Learners understand
information better in the classroom when they see it.
Visual information is presented in different formats,
such as images, flowcharts, diagrams, videos,
simulations, graphs, cartoons, coloring books, slide
shows, posters, movies, games, and flashcards (Rodger
et.al 2009). Pictowordes have had occasional use in
children’s textbooks, both as a novelty and as a
purposeful aid in making the text more readable. With
Pictoword materials the child is immediately able to
attend to the meaning of the passage, and other aspects
of the reading process, rather than primarily to the
translation of a difficult system of symbols
(Woodcock, 1968).
Conclusion
In an article published by the OECD (2018) entitle
“What Students Know and Can Do”, a fifteen-year-old
student in the Philippines scored lower in reading,
mathematics, and science in the Program for
International Student Assessment (PISA) among the
79 participating countries and economies in the PISA
2018. The country’s average score in reading was 340
score points, on par with that of the Dominican
Republic. In the Philippines,1 9% of students attained
at least Level 2 proficiency in reading. These students
Gissele P. Gomez
can identify the main idea in a text of moderate length,
find information based on explicit, though sometimes
complex criteria, and can reflect on the purpose and
form of texts when explicitly directed to do so almost
no student was a top performer in reading, meaning
that they attained level 5 or 6 in the PISA reading test.
At these levels, students can comprehend lengthy
texts, deal with concepts that are abstract and establish
distinctions between fact and opinion, based on
implicit cues pertaining to the content or source of
information. Over 80% of students in the Philippines
did not reach a minimum level of proficiency in
reading, which is one of the largest shares of low
performers among all PISA- participating countries
and economies.
Visual literacy using pictoword method assists
students with disabilities by creating a system for
expressing, recognizing, understanding, and learning
visual images that are negotiable by all people,
examples include pictorial and graphic symbols and
signs. A pictoword is a symbol or picture which
represents an entire word and can be pictorial,
geometric, or abstract. Pictures can be added to words
in a particular context without the meaning being
substantially altered. The Widget pictoword system
requires that children have the fundamental skill of
visual attention, whereas they will be able to visually
attend to the pictures in the story in order to gain
comprehension of the meaning of the words associated
with the picture. Pictures that are paired with words
can be taught to represent the meaning of words in
relation to people, places, things, and actions and can
also be generalized between the different contexts of
literature and environments. Adding symbols to
written text can improve its comprehensibility for
adults with learning disabilities. Also, it can make
comprehension easier for some adults with mild and
borderline learning disabilities.
Generating poetry from images is much more
challenging than generating poetry from text since
images contain very rich visual information which
cannot be described completely using several
keywords, and a good poem should convey the image
accurately. Poetry helps us to understand the hidden
feelings or emotions of every single word in the given
poem. In an article published in The Atlantic (2014)
poetry touches our lives and it gives important lessons
that we can use in real-life situations, especially
nowadays, students have too much pampering to use
social media and different internet websites to do what
they want to do and leave the books inside their
classroom or the worst part, inside their home. It is
noticeable that even though they want to read some
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Research Article
poems to get a great deal of knowledge they struggled
on understanding the poem in general, that’s the
reason why the researcher came up with this study to
unlock their difficulties in terms of understanding and
to help them memorize the poem as easy as ABC. By
repeating this process two or three times, making the
pictures, sounds smells, and words bigger, brighter,
and bolder, we give our memory something other than
words to latch onto.
References
Cuaresma, J. (2008). Learning Style Preferences and Academic
Performance of PHEM Majors at the University of the Cordilleras.
Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis. University of the Cordilleras,
BaguioCity.
daSilva, Karen Ernst (2001). "Drawing on Experience: Connecting
Art and Language."
Gilakjani, Abbas P. (2012). Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic Learning
Styles and Their Impacts on English Language Teaching. Islamic
Azad University, Iran. Journal of Studies in Education.
Good and Scates (1972). 2 Descriptive normative survey.
Larson-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language
Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
OECD (2019), PISA 2018 Results (Volume I):What Students
K n o w and Can Do . , P I S A , O E C D P u b l i s h i n g ,
Gissele P. Gomez
P a ri s , h t t p s : / / d o i . o rg / 1 0 . 1 7 8 7 /5 f0 7 c 7 5 4 -e n
Osborn, A. (2016). “Why is Poetry Important to
our World Today”.
Rodger et.al (2009). Engaging Middle School Teachers and Students
with Alice in a Diverse Set of Subjects. SIGSE09, March 3-7, 2009.
Rosenblatt, L. M. (1993). The Transactional Theory: Against
Dualisms. College English, 55, 377-386.
Senanu & Vincent, (1987) & Abrams (1981). “A Critical Look at
the Teacher Factor in Senior Secondary School Students‟ Poetic
Appreciation Skills Development.
The Atlantic Article (2014). Why teaching is important?.
Williams, R, (2009).Visual Learning Theory.
Woodcock, Richard W. (1968). Pictoword as a Medium in
Beginning Reading Instruction. George Peabody Coll. for Teachers,
Nashville, Tenn. Inst. on Mental Retardation and Intellectual
Development. USA
Affiliations and Corresponding Information
Gissele P. Gomez
Sta. Cruz National High School,
Department of Education - Philippines
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