Multimodal Composition and 21st Century Creativity

  

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 thinkers. Every student has a unique viewpoint about the concepts and content in ELA. The National Council of Teachers of English discusses creativity as the ability to take unique perspectives, show learning by creating products utilizing a variety of modes, and sharing these products and ideas with authentic audiences (NCTE, 2019). Multimodal composition allows opportunities for students to reach all these goals towards creativity. Students should still have guidelines and expectations for writing, but it is important they also feel they have the agency to truly create something from their own ideas and perspectives in whichever modes they choose. 

By opening up more doors of expression, we can reach more students who have learning styles who might not always be implemented in ELA. Each student has unique abilities and ways of showing their learning. Jason Ranker, associate professor at Portland State University, discusses creative composition through the lens of Vygotsky’s concept of “everyday idea of creativity” and states, “Association occurs when the creator recombines these decontextualized elements within the composition, thus changing the original elements and working them into a new, creative whole, bringing the first dissociated and then combined elements into a unique relationship with one another” (Ranker, 2015, p. 360). Multimodal composition asks students to take their new understanding of concepts combined with the connections they make to the world and lived experiences to create a unique learning product. Even if students are all researching similar topics through inquiry, they will be able to see themselves as creative composers due to the way they uniquely choose to combine different modes in their own way. 

My own students who have expressed struggles with traditional creative writing have had completely different attitudes when they are given opportunities to create multimodal projects; they take agency from the beginning and use their own ideas to create amazing projects: iMovies, songs, artwork, and much more. I now know this is them taking ownership of their “everyday creativity” Vygotsky discusses. Through inquiry, they can find answers to their own questions, take their new knowledge, and then create something completely new. Every student deserves the opportunity to embrace their creativity. 

Teachers have the power to build assessments and learning activities to help all students find their creative selves. In her study of a 4th-grade classroom, Sylvia Pantaleo researches how the class utilizes the five creative habits of mind (inquisitive, imaginative, persistent, collaborative, and disciplined) in a unit analyzing and critiquing visual arts and narrative elements in storybooks then having students apply these creative aspects to make their own multimodal picture books (Pantaleo, 2019). Instead of storybooks, I began thinking about how I could implement something similar to my guided inquiry project around The Lightning Thief- a graphic novel by Rick Riordan. Instead of simply reading the graphic novel, I really want to have my students analyze the visual arts of the novel since we usually read traditional novels. Then, they explore their own question/inquiries around the theme of “what makes a hero”. In the future, I would really like to have the students include the visual arts lessons they learn from reading the graphic novel into their own projects to exhibit their creative habits of mind. 

Digital literacies open many new doors for creativity through multimodal composition. Jennifer  Sanders and Peggy Albers discuss how “new technologies” can help guide students into producing creative new products through their ideas and also help them find new, creative ways to interact with the world around them (Sanders & Albers, 2010, pp. 10-11). Students are much more likely to practice and build their creativity when they are given opportunities to explore digital tools and multiple modes of expression than simply having to follow the same writing prompt and format in a linguistic centered traditional writing assignment. Multimodal composition allows students to take new information and create something new and unique with their learning.

                      Image by Tumisu on Pixabay.                                                       Image by the-one-is-alone on Unsplash 

          My idea of creativity used to align more to the first image of being born "right-brained" and having innate creativity or "left-brained" and lacking it. Now, I know creativity is also like the second picture where our imagination and all our lived experiences come together to create beautiful things.  I have the power to be a creative teacher and show every one of my students they have creative instincts by allowing thinking of Vygotsky's "everyday creativity" (Ranker, 2015) and creative habits of mind (Pantaleo, 2019). Each one of my students deserves to know he/she can create and innovate anything they set their mind to. By adding more multimodal writing into my classroom, students will be able to take new information and create something outside of the box instead of only staying within the lines of traditional writing.

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