Lesson Implementation Reflection: The Power of Multimodal Composition in 6th Grade ELA

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 Strengths/Weaknesses of PEDDL Framework and Digital Disciplinary Literacy

    The PEDDL framework, like most, focused on building a foundation on state standards which was very helpful in building this implementation plan. Choosing standards and overall lesson objectives were the first step of the PEDDL six-step framework. I believe starting with a very familiar step of standards and learning goals helped me feel more confident in building the entire unit within this framework. Approaching something as vast as multimodal and digital literacies in the 21st century can be overwhelming, so the familiarity was a definite strength in this framework. 

Other strengths were the focus on multimodal/digital texts integration (step 3), a variety of digital and multimodal assessment tools (step 4), and reaching all learners (step 6). The most important I think is how this framework pushes educators to see how multimodal and digital texts/assessments can reach the diverse learners in our classroom. Step 6 helped me completely pivot my focus from myths to ancient civilizations/cultures. This was very important because it opened up doors for students to ask questions and learn about whatever part of the world they chose. I am privileged enough to have students from many different cultural backgrounds and just by making this one change, they were able to make connections to their current cultures and those of ancient ones. As educators, we want to do this for our students, and I think the PEDDL framework was great in guiding me on how to do that. Step 3 also helped me see the need to present information in a variety of ways and about diverse ancient cultures/civilizations. Another unexpected benefit was how easy it was to integrate the chosen multimodal & digital texts into the virtual learning aspect of my current teaching. The multimodal and digital aspects helped me not only diversify the perspectives and modes shown but also made it possible for my virtual scholars to learn the same material as my in-person scholars. Lastly, step 4 was the focus of my entire project: finding ways students can showcase their creativity through multimodal composition and agency in product creation. PEDDL’s guiding questions helped me develop my idea of the final assessment/project. Students were able to have complete agency in how they completed their final project which definitely heightened engagement and pride in their work. 

The most difficult part of integrating disciplinary literacy through the PEDDL was step 2, and this is where I felt like I was least successful. Overall, the project was great and had great learning outcomes. However, I felt there was less tangible guidance in framing disciplinary literacy (step 2)  on how to actually integrate a project to produce disciplinary focused literacy. Colwell and Hutchinson (2020) went into detail on how step 2 would/could look in a classroom setting, but I still felt like there could have been more guiding questions or examples on how disciplinary literacy should be developed in classrooms. I think it would have been beneficial to have a few more guiding questions than the three provided to give educators a better pathway to making those crucial connections on disciplinary practices to students. There are many things I will do differently in the future. For example, I think I tried to fit too much into two weeks of instruction which led to not developing the disciplinary literacy aspect as I should. Next time, I am going to spread the unit out over three weeks, and during the explore phase when students build their interests, I will have them analyze the different articles, such as National Geographic, and see how the professionals wrote about ancient civilizations to bring in more real-world, applicable disciplinary connections. 

Lessons Learned in Supporting 21st Century Literacies 

      I learned that it is possible to create meaningful lessons that will serve students in our 21st-century world. By giving them very open guidelines/expectations, giving them tools, and offering a space to share their learning they were able to build skills in collaboration, critical thinking, communication, creativity, and comprehension. Collaboration has always been a big part of my classroom but the digital tools allowed this collaboration to occur in the middle of a pandemic while still keeping students safe. Students will not always be collaborating face-to-face, so it helped me see the need for offering spaces for them to practice collaboration across different spaces. Inquiry is so important to critical-thinking and continued learning. I learned by modeling my own inquiry questions/thought processes but then giving students complete reins to their own learning helps them build their own models of critical thinking. Communication and creativity were my two main focuses of this project. Students used tools given to them to communicate ideas through creative ways I didn't even dream possible. By allowing students these creative communication outlets, their comprehension grew too. Multimodal videos helped them gain comprehension about their civilizations using traditional texts only wouldn't. Multimodal composition helped them work through and comprehend meaning from their research in modes unavailable to them in traditional writing. 

    Students showed immense skills in 21st-century literacies. Figure 1 is a student group's example that I believe shows the accumulation of the 5 C's in one project where they studied the Vikings' effects on the world around them. They published their learning through a website creation on Google Sites. Not pictured are the pages about their effects on art around the world and trade. They also had a very innovative predictive chart of differences that might have happened had the Vikings never mastered the art of sailing. 

    

All students created amazing, creative communication pieces about their questions and ancient civilizations. This is just one example that was easy to share due to the website's publishable nature. 

Lessons Learned in Supporting Digital & Multimodal Literacies

   I learned how to slowly integrate and organize multimodal and digital tools to support literacy. At first, I wanted to implement almost ten different tools for students to use for projects. However, I quickly realized it is not about bombarding them with all the newest and coolest tools but more about taking risks as a teacher so they will feel comfortable about taking risks as researchers and creators.I still took a risk by showing them how to use the limited tools I did but felt much less overwhelmed which in turn seemed to help ease their nerves about trying something new. 

    Multimodal composition has changed the way I will approach writing instruction from now on. Students who were not engaged in content thrived with these projects. It also helped bring student creativity through for those who do not thrive off linguistic work. It is going to be a goal of mine to find ways to implement multimodal composition into my more traditional writing assignments from now on. I knew there were so many different learning styles in my classroom, but I failed to realize how multimodal literacies would be the way to open reading and writing instruction to all my students. 

    While Figure 2 does not look like much at first, it represents the power multimodal literacies give to students. It is a screenshot of an audio recording produced through GarageBand by one of my students. This gave her a safe, creative space to communicate her learning. She took the risk of using a quite difficult platform and created her own podcast. 

Figure 2:

Suggestions:

   A framework is a great place to start. Some examples are the PEDDL, TPACK, and QUEST. These frameworks show multimodal and digital literacies are not a completely new way of looking at reading and writing but are influential ways to make a big impact on literacy instruction. When looking at standards, analyze how they can be applied to the real-world in the 21st century. 

    Diversify the texts you put in front of students. Multimodal videos and free resources on the web are a great way to do this. Don't just depend on textbooks and writing prompts as ways for students to interact with the content. 

    Offer a choice when possible in assessments. Students will need to communicate within a variety of different modes and to very diverse audiences. Student choice will allow their creativity to shine through and use their voice to share their perspectives and learning with the world.