Multimodal Composition: Creating Engaging Communication in English/Language Arts

    Photo from Nikita Kachanovsky- Unsplash              Creativity is a 21st-century skill that needs to be a focus in classrooms. Looking back on my own learning, creativity was something that scared me, because I wanted to follow specific parameters and meet expectations; I did not see myself as a creative individual and was scared to even try to think outside of the box, much less try to bring those ideas to life for others to see. There are many students who struggle with seeing themselves as creative, just like I did. This can be especially true during writing because this is when students have to visibly show their ideas and creativity on paper. By allowing students voice and choice in how they show these ideas through multimodal composition, teachers can help foster creativity in a less intimidating way.  Creativity in the 21st century makes room for every student to see themselves as innovative and creative thinke...

  English/Language Arts Disciplinary Literacy and Multimodal Composition                 Before this semester, I had never heard of disciplinary literacy. Being a secondary English/language arts teacher, I knew my discipline and followed the standards I was supposed to teach. However, now I realize that I was missing so many opportunities to make ELA learning authentic to the world around my students and their futures. Trying to avoid questions like "what are we going to use this for?" or "why do we need to learn this?" has driven me to find answers for creating authentic learning experiences for my students, especially through relevant multimodal composition projects that can be shared with real-world audiences.  Disciplinary literacy is not only the specific skills needed to read and write within specific subjects but also teaching students how they can utilize these skills outside of school. English/language arts gives found...

            Overview/Definition of Multimodal Writing            Multimodal literacies have brought up many important discussions in the educational world. No longer can we solely depend on traditional reading and writing to prepare our students for the 21st century. They must not only read but also convey information within multiple modes of communication. Writing at its core seems to be a very linguistic, thoughts to words (written or typed), mode of communication; yet, this does not help students reach the ability to communicate in the variety of modes our globalized world needs.  Before beginning my research, I had an idea of what multimodal writing encompassed and looked like in the classroom, but I was unaware of how many modes of communication could be implemented into writing projects. Dr. Cruz Medina, Rhetoric and Composition Professor at Santa Clara University, discusses and uses the five m...