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Multimodal Composition: Week 5 (Palmeri & Visual Composition…
Multimodal Composition: Week 5
Reflections
I have been exposed to so many opportunities for incorporating technology into the classroom and using it as another form of composition. I found numerous resources that I can’t wait to experiment with and share with my team. I’m still concerned how it will go over in my district, but I think if I slowly start to incorporate it into my units it will work.
Goals:
Slowly incorporate multimodal composition into my classroom - 1 assignment per unit
Continue to explore other forms of multimodal composition
Bring this discussion to my PLC to see how receptive they are to it
Overall, I think if we slowly start to show others that there are more ways to write than just in alphabetic form we might make strides. I would be curious to see if anyone else has gone through the process of moving from traditional writing to multimodal composition. Are administrators and parents receptive to it?
Our discussions and Palmeri especially provided me with even more resources and ideas for my 9th graders.
I am excited to try some of these ideas with my own writing and see how they work. I want to try a padlet for some of my own stories to see how they read.
I am always looking for more resources and ideas to incorporate into the classroom. I loved reading the discussion posts to see how my peers composed their writing. I know there were some ideas in the Course Resources section, but I would love to see even more, especially just for ideas on how to present my discussion responses.
I LOVED this class! I was exposed to new resources and new ideas, plus I was given the chance to experiment with them. I plan to share these with other English teachers ASAP!
Palmeri & Visual Composition
I agree with Pameria that cinematic composing helps students to see the importance of the steps of the writing process. They may not realize it, but when they take a picture, they look at it to make sure it is clear and tells the story they want it to. Most students might take the time to ensure the picture is error free before approving it for the public eye. Essentially this is the same in the writing class.
With my yearbook students, I continually stress the importance of looking at the pictures as you take them. They may look clear through the lens, but you might have moved when you took it or you need to zoom in more. This is the same for writing because we know what we want to say, but sometimes it does not always come out clearly.
As I read Palmeri, I wondered if there was a way I could have students create a photo essay that tells a story or part of their narrative.
Palmeri mentioned more than once how the skills from filmmaking can be transferred into other areas, and that is one of our goals as English teachers. How can we teach students skills not only important for the English classroom, but for the real world, too?
Another point in his argument of cinematic composing was teaching students about point of view. We don’t realize that through a camera lens we can only see so much. It doesn’t capture what happens behind the scenes or off to the side. In writing, we tend to stick to one point of view and inform or persuade our audience based on that. But if we look at multiple points of view of an argument or for a character in a story, we can see how it affects the experience for the reader.
We are always telling students to take a step back and consider someone else’s ideas in addition to their own, and this would be the perfect way to teach that. How do camera angles at two different sides of the gym tell a different story at the same basketball game?
Palmeri's Goals:
I think they are doable because he suggests we slowly work into them. Add in one or two forms of multimodal composition per assignment or unit.
We should work with administrators and other colleagues to continue to implement them in more than just our own classes. That will help others to see the scholarship in it.
I'm planning to share some of these tools with members of the social studies department because I think they could easily incorporate one or two into their units.
I think the end goal is to push students to be as diverse as possible when they leave us. If we can expose them to a few different ways to present information and explore technology, images, sound, and design they should have some of the necessary tools to succeed.
What if everyone starts to move away from the five-paragraph essay in the next 10 years? If we start working on multimodal composition now, our students will be prepared.
After students are exposed to these elements, they will be more cognizant of them in the future. Now that I have worked backstage in theatre productions, I focus on those details when I watch other shows. The same goes for students who experiment with taking pictures and designs; they will notice it in their day-to-day experiences more.
MC Part 4
"Between Modes: Assessing Students' New Media Compositions"
How do you assess a multimodal composition? I am having students storyboard their narratives using Padlet, but how do I make sure they are proficient? What do they need to be proficient in?
We need to use a different set of assessment criteria for each medium because each medium lends itself to something different. Assessment still needs to stem from the skills practiced in the classroom.
Does the assignment reach the depth you are looking for and clearly answer the prompt?
Is the assignment cohesive?
"The New Work of Assessment: Evaluating Multimodal Composition"
Their study found 16% of composition instructors do not feel comfortable assessing multimodal composition and would not know how to go about it.
Make sure to look at the piece as a whole; do the words and images flow together?
Multimodal rubrics should have the same categories as alphabetic rubric, just have slightly different criteria/expectations. Students are still writing, so we should have similar expectations for them.
Potential elements to assess on (the rubric in this article was well written and put together!)
Audience Awareness through text and images. Are you using the strongest possible image and text?
I ask my yearbook students the same question: Yes, this is a picture from the basketball game, but is it the clearest, most appealing, action filled picture we have?
Organization/arrangement: Do all the pieces flow together?
When storyboarding on the Padlet, consider starting with the description and setting in the columns on the left, then moving through the elements of the plot map.
Rhetorical appeal/design: Look at color, layout, audio
Within their narrative, they will include multiple elements. Is the setting really the most important part? Or are the characters and the plot? Think about what we need to know first in the story as you create your Padlet (probably the setting).
Sources:
Palmeri, Jason. Remixing Composition: A History of MultiModal Writing Pedagogy. Southern Illinois University Press, 2012.
Murray, Elizabeth A., Sheets, Hailey A., Williams, Nicole A. "The New Work of Assessment: Evaluating Multimodal Compositions. Multimodal Composition: A Critical Sourcebook, edited by Claire Lutkewitte, Bedford St. Martin’s, 2014, pp. 382-383
Sorapure, Madeleine. "Between Modes: Assessming Students' New Media Compositions. Multimodal Composition: A Critical Sourcebook, edited by Claire Lutkewitte, Bedford St. Martin’s, 2014, p. 381
Andrews, Kendra. "Multimodal Composing, Sketchnoting, and Idea Generation". Kairos 2016.
http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/22.2/disputatio/andrews/index.html
Multimodal Composing, Sketchnoting, and Idea Generation
We need to remember that writing is more than just thinking - it's putting the design and thinking together. In alphabetic texts we put words in quotations or italics to provide emphasis. We might add a few side comments in parenthesis. Now we can do that through images, text, and design in a multimodal format.
Multimodal composition does not have to be digital, but I would argue that it will make assessment easier if it is. If our goal as teachers is to prepare our students for this technology-driven world, I will have a hard time not using technology with them.
Benefits of multimodal composition: We can re-live or re-experience what we read or wanted to talk about in a format different than alphabetic notes.
Writing and designing need to work together. That is one of the key elements in the assessment of multimodalities; if the piece does not flow, the audience will be confused and it will defeat the purpose of using multimodal composition.