Implementing Multimodal Writing in 6th Grade ELA Inquiry
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Photo by Ayesha Parikh- Unsplash
We learn about our own societies when reflecting on those who came before us. Our world has been full of diverse, brilliant, and impactful cultures and civilizations dating over thousands of years ago. Each year I touch on some of these civilizations, mainly focusing our mythical literature in Ancient Greece. My students would choose an aspect of Ancient Greek culture and write an informative essay over it. However, I realize that I was missing out on offering so many diverse perspectives from our ancient realms. I was also limiting my students' pathways in showing their knowledge by allowing one format of writing to encompass all their rich learning.
My implementation plan is a way for me to bring in inquiry, diversity, and multimodal composition into my ELA classrooms. I want my students to see themselves as journalists-choosing their interest fields, researching their own great questions, and looking past the myths to see the real life people and cultures who shape our world today. Instead of only giving them the option of an informative essay, they will have opportunities to explore multiple modes of creation and choose which ones work best for their projects.
The PEDDL Framework seemed to be the best option in helping me revise my previous inquiry/research project around Ancient Greece; authors Colwell, Hutchinson, Woodward (2020) discuss how this framework was built to support teachers in implementing disciplinary literacy into their current plans---not have them rebuild everything. I knew I wanted my students’ research project to show how ELA skills be authentically applied in creative ways, so this framework seemed like a great place to start. Not only did it lead me to creating more multimodal content for teaching purposes but also guided me towards more authentic assessments to show how informative texts can be used in the real world.
I made decisions based on making inquiry and sharing relevant to my students. In past years, my students have always enjoyed reading myths and learning about Greek culture. However, they were limited to what they could research since it was specifically one culture. Adding multimodal texts per the framework I will be able to bring in many more diverse cultures and civilizations which will drastically widen students’ opportunities for wondering/discovering leading to greater inquiry, because we are not just limited to exposing students to the civilizations in the books we have available. Another decision was to add the important inquiry skill of keyword searching which I did not cover in years before and to use a multimodal video to model how to use keywords efficiently (figure 1). Keywords help students find more relevant sources which is a crucial real-world skill.
Figure 1
The most important change made for this implementation was to create a more authentic assessment compared to my traditional informative essay. Traditional writing and organization is very important in ELA; however, it is also very important that I give students opportunities to share research and learning in modes of communication they will use in the real world. For these lessons students will take their research and learning and create multimodal projects (posters, videos, songs, recipes, etc) and present to an authentic audience. Students will have voice and choice in the ways they create communication of their answers to inquiry questions. I want my students to become truth seekers who create their own questions and answers and support through relevant sources, instead of only answering others' questions.
I truly appreciate receiving feedback from my amazing fellow educators. They thought about details I would not have that can really help guide my students' learning. Since I am focusing my research on multimodal composition, I really need to implement this in my own teaching with using more visuals. Anchor charts will be great for adding quick references for students to evaluate their questions and keyword searches. Google Drawings is a great tool,. but I have not utilized it in my classroom, so it will be vital to show students how to use this tool while also modeling research skills. I also added videos for background knowledge which will grant more opportunities for wondering/discovering which is a crucial step in the inquiry process. Students cannot create great level 3 questions without the correct amount of background information to know what they want to explore. By adding more videos over more cultures students will be able to have more to choose and explore for their inquiry questions which will also create more diversity in projects. Another change in the initial implementation is in presentations. My amazing 6th grade counterpart teacher came up with the idea to have students present a "world fair" of what they have learned about ancient cultures. This will also be a great way for students to practice gestural communication, something I have struggled with using in my ELA classroom.
Multimodal Composition writing tools and tutorials (Piktochart, iMovie, Adobe Spark, Canva, GarageBand, Powtoon, Book Creator)
Tentative Schedule for Lessons
Nov. 5
Lesson 1- Identifying level of questions
Nov. 6
Lesson 2 part 1- Evaluating keyword searches
Nov. 9
Lesson 2 part 2- Explore ancient civilizations/ create level 2 or 3 inquiry question
Nov. 10-11
Lesson 3- Independent inquiry/research for questions
Nov. 12
Lesson 4- Creation Stations
Possibly begin project creations
Nov. 13-17
Lesson 5 Project Creations
Nov. 18-20
Lesson 6- World Fair/project presentations
Peer feedback
Reflections
References
Campisi, M. & Chen. P-P. -TED-Ed. (2015, June 30). The incredible history of China's terracotta warriors. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP5p4QbvPtc
Colwell, J., Hutchinson, A., & Woodward, L. (2020). Chapter 2 The PEDDL Framework. In Digitally Supported Disciplinary Literacy for Diverse K-5 Classrooms (pp. 20-39).Teachers College Press.
Khan Academy. (2017, May 10). Inca Empire overview- World History- Khan Academy. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20B94yLBGrg
Kilroy-Ewbank, L. (Dr.) & Harris, B. (Dr.). (Smarthistory). (2017, March 31). Introduction to the Aztecs (Mexica). [video] YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8cO1pAHVok
National Geographic. Ancient Civilization: China.https://www.nationalgeographic.org/topics/resource-library-ancient-civilization-china/?q=&page=1&per_page=25
National Geographic. (2018, November 4). Ancient Mesopotamia 101-National Geographic. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVf5kZA0HtQ
National Geographic. (2017, Sept. 8). Mohenjo Daro 101- National Geographic. [video].YouTube. https://youtu.be/QUng-iHhSzU
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I like th inclusion of myths beyond just Greek myths to move outside traditional western literature.
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