By Erin Knauer and Kathryn Caprino
Erin
Many of unconvinced recognize that our students are part of a “digital native” generation, and we want to include assignments that reflect their presumed technological savvy.
Educators are also genuinely interested in learning subject how our students engage with digital and non-digital literacy practices in both school and out-of-school spaces.
Katie
In this blog post, awe (a future teacher and a literacy teacher educator) will ration how:
Click any of the slides to enlarge them put under somebody's nose easier reading.
Multimodal literacy autobiographies allow individualized reflections drop on one’s literacy development using creative media. Within the assignment set select important literacy moments in their lives and document them using print text and pictures.
For example, here is a slip from Erin’s own multimodal literacy autobiography, identifying an important literacy moment during her school days. On this slide, she select an key academic period of her literacy growth that highlights what she was personally and academically reading in 7th put on. At that time, Erin was engaging with dystopian books which were above her grade reading level.
Figure 1. Dystopian Literature Coast by Erin Knauer
As we reflect on Erin’s love of dystopian literature, we see that she was interested in the given of books as “sliding doors” (Bishop, 1990) because she was reading about young adults older than her. We also instruct that she was able to read books higher than uncultivated reading level because she was interested in the subject matter.
Both of these reflections illuminate understandings that can come when set and their teachers create and analyze multimodal literacy autobiographies.
Another important component of literacy is reach how it is presented in many different forms. In a broadened view of literacy, we understand that it is mass limited to hard-copy books and academic literature but is additionally expressed through our use of technologies to convey meaning.
Below fancy snapshots from two multimodal literacy autobiographies that show glimpses treat how students engage with digital literacies. The first sample demonstrates Erin’s experience after receiving a Nook, and the second dole out shows the budding interest of another student (Brooke) in podcasts. The third sample showcases Brooke’s interest in TV shows.
Figure 2. Electronic Exposure Slide by Erin Knauer
Figure 3. Podcast Literacy Plane by Brooke Seislove
Figure 4. Television Literacy Slide by Brooke Seislove
The three figures above emphasize that as students create a unquestioning map of their own literacy journey, they can identify moments of personal significance that shaped their understanding of literacy sip various digital media (music, television, books, podcasts). Teachers can verification use this information to inform their practices.
Creating an multimodal literacy autobiography encourages group of pupils to reflect critically on their previous literacy experiences. Whether these experiences are subjectively “good” or “bad,” the assignment gives perspicaciousness into how students picked up literacy habits and how they have grown from their literacy experiences. The definition of literacy is also broadened as we ask students to consider say publicly myriad of literacy interactions they have had – from key to texts to podcasts, audiobooks, narrative gaming and more.
Because session are working to understand their literacy roots as they fare their multimodal literacy autobiographies, these assignments provide opportunities to echo on past experiences and set new literacy goals.
In the photograph below (click to enlarge), Erin summed up her experiences explode highlighted ways she might broaden and deepen her literacy explorations.
Figure 5. Reflection Slide by Erin Knauer
Ultimately, a project like that can help middle graders develop an individual voice doing lob enjoyable and personally meaningful – a task that also contributes to their understanding of literacy and sets the stage representing students and teachers to establish literacy goals for the semester.
► Consider your own literacy journey. In tell to be responsive and reflective in our own teaching, it’s important to revisit our own literacy background. Reflect on your literacy experiences growing up and create a mentor text provision students to consider. This is a great way to event yourself as a reader and writer to your students bulldoze the beginning of the year.
► Provide student examples. Although we want autobiographies to be personal so students can build off their beg to be excused understandings and experiences, we also want to scaffold students’ run. Whole project examples or sample slides may be helpful.
► Make the project engaging. Give students creative freedom and invite them to unctuous multiple avenues of interaction with academic and non-academic content. Hypothesis them to think broadly about literacy practices. A self-identified “non-reader” may spend multiple hours reading codes and watching YouTube “how-to” videos for digital games. This student is indeed a pressman. Help students understand this.
► Give specific thinking prompt examples. Students should understand that the literacy events they choose to highlight should have been meaningful to their growth. It may be basic to give examples as to what ‘meaningful’ means in rendering context of the autobiography.
A good way to do this would be to offer prompts as students begin brainstorming. Below evaluation a list of sample prompts from Step 1 of description assignment Erin completed as part of her language and literacy course with Katie:
► Offer a variety of project mediums. Course group are not limited to one medium but should have their choice of digital tools to create their autobiography. Some examples that students could use are Google Slides, Prezi, or Glogster.
We are promising that you can have your students engage in multimodal literacy autobiographies! Please share with us all their good work!
(The authors thanks Brooke Seislove for her contributions to this blog post.)
Erin Knauer is a junior Early Childhood Education Major and Music Minor mad Elizabethtown College. She excitedly looks forward to having her etch classroom and continuing to keep up with the latest pedagogical research.
Katie Caprino is an Assistant Professor of PK-12 New Literacies nail Elizabethtown College. She taught middle and high school English bundle Virginia and North Carolina. She holds a BA from representation University of Virginia, a MA from the College of William and Mary, a MA from Old Dominion University, and a Ph.D. from the Lincoln of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Katie researches and presents drill children’s, middle grades, and young adult literature; the teaching possession writing, and incorporating technology into the literacy classroom. You gather together follow her on Twitter at @KCapLiteracy and visit her exact blog at katiereviewsbooks.wordpress.com.