Teaching Multimodal Writing

Reflecting on multimodal writing in our classes

  • Make a list of writing projects you’ve assigned over the past few semesters. How many of them relied on printed words on a page? How many use multiple modes — and what are they? (EAA pg 581)
  • How has your approach to teaching digital and/or multimodal writing changed over time?
  • What is your approach to providing feedback that helps students struggling with multimodal writing?

Defining multimodal:
Multimodal texts draw on more than words, bringing in still or moving images, sound, and so on. Selfe identifies five modes writers can use to convey their messages: linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spacial. Today’s writers have easy access to all five modalities and can produce texts that convey meaning not only through words, but also through sounds, moving and still images, animations, and more — delivered through print, spoken, and digital media. (EAA pg. 580)

Ways students are creating multimodal writing

Multimodal writing is interdisciplinary! Developing proficiency and fluency with tools of technology, across modes and media options is crucial for students. Our classes are likely to not be the only ones that ask students to create multimodally.

DWS Consultant Jose Padron shares how he utilized multimodal writing in his art appreciation class.

So, how can we provide feedback to multimodal writing?

This activity is adapted from Christa Teston and Yanar Hashlamon’s presentation at the 2019 Digital Media and Composition Institute. We will look at four multimodal compositions created by students in a professional writing course. The students were asked to create flyers for a non-profit providing free trees to economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. To begin, open “Student multimodal compositions” and view all four pdf documents.

  • In this form, Fill in “box 1” with your initial thoughts and evaluations, then consider how you could operationalize them in “box 2”
  • Next, look at the feedback factors document. Think about some of the questions you’d like to ask in order to capture the inequities that students had to negotiate when composing their work.
  • How could these questions be mobilized towards revision-focused feedback?

References