Multimodal Writing and 21st Century Literacy of Communication
Communication is a crucial 21st Century Skill. ELA classrooms are full of communication through discussions and writing. One of the most important aspects students need to understand about communication is its reciprocal aspects; it is important that they not only are able to clearly communicate their thoughts in various modes but also effectively receive communication from others through multiple modes.
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) guides teachers on 21st Century Literacies, such as communication. In their communication framework, they focus on communication that teaches students to critically look for biases, hate speech, and any sources that might oppress others’ voices; they see communication as a tool that can change society and oppressive systems (NCTE, 2019). It is important to look through this lens to get past teaching communication strategies as a way for students to simply say or write what they think and move towards 21st-century communication in schools as a way to reach greater communities and audiences for the greater good.
In today’s world, students receive more messages than ever before, and no longer are writing and talking face-to-face the only modes we send messages in our daily lives. Classrooms need to give students the opportunity to grow communication skills across the digital modes they will be using outside of school. Shanahan (2013) discusses a classroom study where the teacher asked students to play different science disciplinarian roles and communicate what they learned about the concept of acid rain through multiple modes in a project; the study showed students tended to still use only one mode of communication, even if it wasn’t linguistic, so it is important teachers feel comfortable teaching the “hows” and “whys” behind each mode. For instance, gestural modality is a mode many teachers might not feel familiar within their own classrooms; however, it is a crucial aspect of communicating during presentations, which is a skill taught in many classrooms. Simply analyzing the gestural skills of communication in presentations, such as body language, can help students start seeing why and how to to use different modes for different types of communication needs.
One way I have tried to teach students to be critical of the hows and whys of modes for communication is through their multimodal project choice board. At times I fail to really have students reflect on why and how they use certain skills even in traditional writing, so I really wanted to be intentional through this project where they would be using multiple modes at once depending on how they wanted to communicate their research/learning. I tried to do this by creating a Symbaloo choice board of digital multimodal tools and purposely organize them in areas based on which modes of communication each tool would utilize. Before students chose their communication tool, we discussed which mode each tool would best serve. We also discussed applicable ways each tool could be used outside of the classroom so students could see real-world applications of each mode and how they can work together to create authentic multimodal products.
My hope behind this project was that all my students would feel confident in communicating what they learned through their research, not just those who are already confident and proficient in showing their learning through writing or discussion. Alshreif (2016) examines graffiti as a multimodal way for all students to communicate about issues affecting their communities; the article focused on ELL students who could feel empowered to share their ideas and make meaning through different modes instead of relying on linguistic modes they might not be fully proficient in, yet. One way this could be applied in ELA classrooms is students could research a social justice issue or issue directly affecting their community and create paintings or graffiti with slogans or other sayings (such as the one in Figure 1) to bring awareness to the issue.
Figure 1: Randy Tarampi-Unsplash.com
Selfe (2008) reviews another similar classroom activity using Public Service Announcements as multimodal communication projects and states “...teachers need to pay some attention to multimodal communications because this and future generations will undoubtedly use such exchanges to learn, remember, think, and act in the world” (84). The article also discusses Global Communication Networks (GCN) which are real-world applications of students choosing which modes to utilize to “act in the world” as the quote states. Students will need to be prepared to communicate with wider audiences, such as GCNs, instead of only practicing traditional writing which is usually shared only with the teacher or a few other peers.
Multimodal composition gives all students opportunities to think critically about the modes they want to utilize for a particular situation. Classrooms are the perfect places to give students these opportunities and practice them while in a safe learning community. Our globalized world seems to share communication by the second with us, and our students need to be prepared to analyze messages they receive and feel confident to produce their own pieces of communication in response using the modes needed to share their voices in our world.
this is an important topic. thanks.
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