An Easy Introduction to Interpretation Using the Art of Norman Rockwell

It’s one of the banes of an English teacher’s existence: trying to get students to interpret. Not summarize, not state the obvious, not make a vague statement that the evidence does, in fact, support their claim. What type of introduction to interpretation best sets our students up to perform meaningful literary analysis?

To interpret at its most basic means “to explain the meaning of; make understandable,” but as English teachers, we know this often means identifying a text’s deeper meaning, its theme; a challenging task for students but one they must master to be successful in English.

Of the many ways we try explaining interpretation to our students, our most successful introduction to interpretation came from asking our AP English Literature students to analyze Norman Rockwell paintings.

Introduction to Interpretation: A How-To

Begin with a brief introduction to interpretation as a concept: what is it, how we come by it (by examining the evidence, or the text), what makes a good one (going beyond the obvious and focusing on the “why” and “how” rather than the “who,” “what,” “when,” or “where”), and how we present it (through analysis, or explaining to the reader how the pieces of evidence connect to support an interpretation).

An introduction to interpretation should address the difference between these four related terms:

Then project images of Norman Rockwell paintings and ask students to make claims about each painting’s meaning as well as how specific details in the painting lead them to make those claims.

To give you an idea of how this works, one of our beginning images was Can’t Wait (1972), which features a young boy trying on a too big  Boy Scout uniform. (We don’t recommend including the titles of the paintings with the images: it often gives students a clue that defeats the purpose of the activity.)

You’ll find students fairly quickly grasp that the young boy is wearing his father’s or brother’s (there was often a bit of back and forth on that part) Boy Scout uniform. They even recognize pretty quickly that the younger boy wants to be like the father/brother.

What takes a few tries, though, is clearly explaining how they reached their understanding. It is the how that becomes the evidence, it is what moves them from unfounded observation to analysis.

Start easy: How do we know it is a Boy Scout uniform? (color, kerchiefs, badges)

Then a little deeper: How do we know he is wearing his father’s/older brother’s (the painting in the back shows two uniforms: a younger boy, the subject of our painting, in a Cub Scout uniform and an older boy/man, in a Boy Scout uniform; the blue uniform on the younger boy is now tossed on a chair, the brown uniform on the boy in the foreground is baggy, indicating it is too big).

Finally, end with: How do we know the younger boy wanted to be like the older? (the way the younger boy is looking at the older boy in the photo in the background; the pose of the younger boy as he looks at his image in the mirror he has propped up on the chair).

As we continue, students’ discussions deepen. We talk about the significance of the image in the background, how it guides us to the “now” image in the foreground, how the dog now mirrors the upward gaze of the boy. We discuss the idea that the boy was eager to grow up: he is smiling as he looks at himself in the mirror, and the blue uniform is carelessly tossed aside as if he no longer needs or wants it.

Some paintings are more complex than others, and students sometimes need reining in with wild interpretations (we shudder remembering the year they claimed any use of red signaled Communism), but it gives us an engaging and accessible way to introduce a skill they will use all year on increasingly difficult texts.

Other Rockwell paintings we find to work well for this introduction to interpretation include Breaking Home Ties (1954), Sunday Morning (Easter Morning) (1959), Girl at Mirror (1954), The Holdout (1959), Homecoming G.I. (1945), and New Kids in the Neighborhood (1967). The Young Lady with the Shiner (1953) doesn’t quite have the complexity we needed for this activity, but it did make for a fun narrative essay prompt with our standard-level class.

If you’d like to hear us discuss more about units we like to use early in the school year, check out this episode of our Answers May Vary podcast. Our theme activity that uses Disney Pixar short films is a great beginning of the year review; you may also consider using our supporting claims with textual evidence resource, which is always a good practice for the beginning of the year.

While we liked to keep this introduction to interpretation informal and casual (we had a lot of scared AP students who contemplated dropping the class), the supporting claims resource could easily be adapted to this Norman Rockwell activity should you choose to take it a step further than we did and more formally assess student understanding.

How have you introduced the concept of interpretation to your students? Have you found helpful ways to integrate artwork and images into your curriculum? Let us know! We’re always looking for different ways to introduce and teach important skills.