Multimodal Literacy in the Secondary Classroom

Multimodal Literacy in the Secondary Classroom

Using Graphic Novels

Diving into Multimodal Literacy

Key Issues

Using Video and Film

Field Experience

Expanding Perspectives for Comprehending Visual Images

Key Issues

• Graphic novels are very popular withdrawals from libraries, however, this popularity is not global.

• Very popular among readers of graphic novels, but not in the population in general

• Research suggests that graphic novels can have positive benefits both for ELL learners

• Crawford (2004): argued that graphic novels can benefit English learners

• Stall (2000): Graphic novels can aid in vocab development for emergent bilinguals and students with disabilities

• MacDonell (2004): Found that pleasure reading is crucial for ELLs

• “Reading graphic novels is a process requiring attention to the interplay of the written and visual and it also involves responding to something which has not been depicted within the encapsulated movement of the sequential panels.” (Hammond 2012)

Introduction

Key Issues

Field Experience

• Multimodal Texts Used in Specific Programs
• ACL
• KAE

• Where were Multimodal Texts Used?
• "Option" Classes

• Picture Books to enhance students' learning and reading comprehension.

• Improving literacy with sessions in the Learning Commons

• Scaffolding

• Written by Teachers Who Teach Preservice Teachers

• Theoretical vs. Practicality

• Multimodality in the Classroom

• Reception to Multimodal Texts

• Need for Incorporation in the Classroom

Connections

I don’t want to see

anyone reading

Archie comics or

‘graphic novels’.

Field Experience

• While graphic novels are popular there is still a lot of stigma associated with them in an educational context

Connections

• Analysis and comprehension of imagery in multimodal texts
• picture books
• advertisements

• Art theory
• How a viewer should analyze an image by focusing on what is noticed, what it might mean, and what the larger cultural implications are

• Three components of Visual Grammar

• Importance of media literacies

• The need for adolescents to analyze advertisements

• Devlop strong mulltimodal analytical skills.

• Absence in the Classroom
• Stigma of Graphic Novels

• Students choosing to read graphic novels on their own time

• Cannot be a passive experience for students or teachers

• Using film requires "active teaching" (Fisher, Frey, 2011)

Connections

• Multimodal texts and Web 2.0 philosophies are becoming more prevalent in media and in society more broadly
• The emergence of new literacies makes it necessary for teachers to incorporate them into their practice

Key Issues

Connections

"Film has been used for decades as a means to connect images with the concepts being taught." (Fisher, Frey, 2011)

• Film has it's place...
• Consider it's purpose
• What am I trying to show?
• Where am I taking my class?
• What points of view are present? missing?
• Is the film meaningful or a 'time filler'?

• Skepticism Among Students and Teachers
• Texts would not be taken seriously as the main focus of learning

• Teachers are reluctant to move from traditional learning and assignments to ones using multiple modalities

• Opinions on multimodal texts in the classroom:
• Seen as something students do in option classes
• Not beneficial to core subjects

• This relates to the article's concern with a lack of application and practicality within multimodality and new literacy literature

Field Experience

Frank Serafini (2011) states that “raising students’ awareness of various media and how to interrogate these media is an important aspect of contemporary literacy education” (p. 348). I raised this point in my interviews with both the grade 6 teacher and the literacy teacher and they both strongly agreed that the world is changing and students increasingly encounter different modalities on a daily basis.

• When using film in a classroom, disruptions are necessary

• It is important to break students away from just being the audience

• Developing critical thinking skills

• Watching videos in the dark

• Videos viewed with a purpose

• Critical thinking

Using Podcasts

Conclusion

Field Experience

Key Issues

Connections

Pedagogical Strategies

- Benefits of Podcasts in the Classroom

- Article suggests that podcasts are effective for ESL students. However, Practicum shows that podcasts can be used to enhance literacy learning for all learners and students.

- Creating and Analyzing Bead Looms in Math and Social Studies

- They analysed these bead looms using pod casts

"A podcast is one of several Web 2.0 digital social-networking tools, including bogs, YouTube, and Facebook, that provide platforms for the creation and sharing of user-generated content, often by means of portable media players, such as Ipods and MP3 players" (Smythe & Neudfeld, 2010, p.489).

Research:

- Study done in a grade 6 and 7 classroom where the students are ELL and of low SES.

- Students were to write a story, record it onto the computer, and then upload it to a web.

Research Conclusion:

- Students tended to think aloud when working through comprehension

- Students were able to identify different genres of texts

- Students were engaged in reading and writing to promote fluency and confidence

• Multiple modalities create affordances for students who are learning the language.

• Using multimodal texts can help strengthen and facilitate student engagement

• Multimodal texts should not only be used to enhance traditional texts but rather as a vehicle for learning

• Use appropriate modalities for the tasks at hand

• Multimodal texts can be used not just to supplement learning of traditional texts but can also stand on their own

• Use mutlimodal texts to engage a variety of intelligences

• Assign tasks that gives students the freedom to incorporate different modalities

• Incorporating multimodal texts in the classroom is beneficial to ELLs.

Learning

Activity