Multimodal Instructionto Support Diverse Learners and Foster Multiliteracies

by Rhiannon Vining

We’ve heard of multimodal instruction,

but what does that mean?

Let’s start from the beginning…

Creating and Communicating Meaning

•A mode is a…

• “Code used to represent information” (Moreno & Mayer, 2007, p.310)

• “Fully semiotically articulated means of representation and communication.” (Stein & Newfield, 2006, p.2)

• Verbal (printed or spoken words)

• Non-Verbal (illustrations, photos, video)

•Modalities are…

• “Sense receptors used to receive information” (Moreno & Mayer, 2007,

p.310)

• Auditory (through the ears)

• Visual (through the eyes)

Multimodality

• Multimodal Learning Environments “use two different modes to represent the content knowledge: verbal and non-verbal” (Moreno & Mayer, 2007, p.310)

• “The most effective designs for learning adapt to include a variety of media, combinations of modalities, levels of interactivity, learner characteristics, and pedagogy based on a complex set of circumstances.” (Metiri, 2008, p.14)

image source: http://primaryblog.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/new-literacies-and-their-affordances/

Semiotics

• Semiotic resources are “resources that people draw on and configure in specific moments and places to represent events and relations.” (Loerts, 2010, p.27)

• “Semiotic resources of modes are shaped by how people use them to make meaning - the social functions that they are put to.” (Jewitt, 2005, p.311)

• These social functions are classified into three meta-functions (three different kinds of meaning):

• Ideational meaning

• Interpersonal meaning

• Textual meaning(Jewitt, 2005, p.311)

Social Semiotics

• Multimodal social semiotics “concerns itself with how human beings use different modes of communication, such as speech, writing, image, gesture and sound, as resources to represent or make meaning in the social world.... Teaching and learning are multimodal: they happen mainly through the modes of speech, writing, action, gesture, image and space, all of which work in different ways with different effects, to create multi-layered, communicational ensembles.” (Stein & Newfield, 2006, p.2)

• Social semiotic theory of communication “emphasizes the social aspect of communication, where people are active designers of meaning.” (Loerts, 2010, p.27)

Doesn’t technology have something to do with it?

Technology as a Tool

• Achievement is more strongly correlated with pedagogy than use of media. It is not whether or not we use technology, but how we use it. (Metiri, 2008)

• Makes available dynamic representations

• Audio, video, animations, dynamically changing graphs/tables, interactive visuals (van der Meij & de Jong, 2006)

• Facilitates interactivity

• Responsive to learner’s actions during learning (Moreno & Mayer, 2007)

• As students create digital media they begin to think more critically about it. (Cooper, Lockyer, & Brown, 2013)

Technology as a Literacy

• “The question before us is how to redesign school literacy so that youth can develop the broad repertoire of literacy knowledge and practices they will need to successfully participate as citizens of local and global communities characterized by constant change and increasing diversity.” (Siegel, 2012, p.672)

• Multimodal learning clubs as “a classroom strategy that supports students’ acquisition of new knowledge by pairing digital tools with requisite literacy strategies.” (Casey, 2012, p.39)

“Today’s learners require an expanded knowledge base and set of skills to support their participation in our evolving digital world. This

digital world requires learners to construct knowledge in nonlinear environments using a range of tools. These changing learning needs

have implications for how we define literacy and the literacy practices necessary to ensure

education is relevant, reflecting a diversity of contexts.”

(Cooper, Lockyer, & Brown, 2013)

OK. So why is multimodality so great?

Knowledge Construction

• Information Acquisition: Information is added to learner’s memory.

• Knowledge Construction: “Learner is a sense-maker who works to select, organize, and integrate new information with existing knowledge.” (Moreno & Mayer, 2007, p.312)

• Actively integrating multiple representations improves learning outcomes (van der Meij & de Jong, 2006)

Engagement

• When students are presented with multimodal options they are provided the opportunity to become “agents of their own meaning making. When communication is agentive, students take greater responsibility for their learning which in turn makes them more motivated to engage in further literacy practices that support new ways of learning that are important to them, their school, and their community.” (Loerts, 2010, p.27)

• Particularly motivating for “students who struggle due to cultural, economic, or gender differences.”

(Loerts, 2010, p.30)

Diverse Learners

• “One size does not fit all learners.” Optimal instructional design depends on the content, the context, and the learner. (Metiri, 2008, p.8)

• Diverse Learning Styles & Multiple Intelligences

• Socio-Cultural Context

“Many literacy educators have tapped multimodality because it often recasts students who are labeled

‘at risk’ students - whether English-language learners, low-achieving or reluctant readers, deaf, or

learning disabled - as students ‘of promise’.... Creating opportunities for these students to draw on

all the resources in their semiotic toolkits allowed them to demonstrate knowledge and critical understandings far beyond that which they

displayed when language was the sole mode of meaning making and communication.”

(Siegel, 2012, p.674)

To continue, we need to tackle another concept.

Multiliteracies

• “The concept of ‘multiliteracies’... has been taken up by numerous scholars to challenge the idea of a singular, universal literacy restricted to monolingual, monocultural and rule-governed standard forms of language.” (Stein & Newfield, 2006, p.1)

• “Traditional definitions of literacy have focused on reading and writing of printed materials to communicate.... By drawing on a multiliteracies perspective that naturally embraces multimodal pedagogy, teachers can become motivated to embrace the tools needed to equip students with communicational options.” (Loerts, 2010, p.24)

Literacies in Critical Theory

• Communicational ensembles “are never neutral: they are meaning-bearing signs which are produced in particular contexts of power, culture and history.” (Stein & Newfield, 2006, p.2)

• “Issues of power, policy and choice of medium are clearly part of the policy-practice nexus in education and impact profoundly on how students learn and construct their identities. They also affect curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices.” (Stein & Newfield, 2006, p.3)

Social Justice, Equity, & Democracy

• “A pedagogy of multiliteracies is concerned with building learning conditions leading to full and equitable social participation.... Its basic principle of plurality opens the space for indigenous, local epistemologies, languages and literatures to co-exist alongside standard English and canonical English literature and culture.” (Stein & Newfield, 2006, p.5)

• “Education is not about limiting or controlling students’ communicational options, but instead, should be representative of all ‘design’ processes, linking them to various cultural and linguistic diversities.” (Loerts, 2010, p.25)

“The forms of representation through which students are permitted to make their meanings are a critical component in constructing classrooms as

hybrid, democratic spaces which value diversity and difference. Positively valuing social difference as a

resource is an essential component in building democratic culture.”

(Stein quoted in Loerts, 2010, p.28)

Empowerment

• Helps students develop confidence in own ability to make meaning (Loerts, 2010)

• “Even students with limited English proficiency, who are often labeled as ‘outsiders’ benefit from language arts activities that include multiple modes of representation because it more easily allows students’ personal voices to prevail. Through webcasts, gestures, play, music, speech, drawing and writing, students [are] empowered to communicate in ways that [minimize] the limitations that language alone would have afforded.” (Loerts, 2010, p.29)

Multimodality increases the semiotic resources with which students can represent their learning. This has the potential to afford them confidence and previously deemed unavailable career options.

(Loerts, 2010, p.29)

Cool. So are there any drawbacks?

Challenges - Implementation

• Inequitable access to resources. (Siegel, 2012, p.674)

• Novices may have problems translating between various representations. (van der Meij & de Jong, 2006)

• Teachers need to be fluent in literacies to provide pretraining, give explanatory feedback, and guide reflection and cognitive processing. (Moreno & Mayer, 2007)

• “A major tension and difficulty is developing a viable metalanguage for teaching and assessing multimodal texts.” (Stein & Newfield, 2006, p.17)

“From a practical point of view, teachers have been comfortable working within the traditional view of literacy which privileges language, in part because

accountability standards are traditionally based, and because their perceived lack of knowledge in forms of multimodal communication has been seen as an

obstacle.”

(Loerts, 2010, p.25)

Challenges - Assessment

• We hold the power. Students are empowered only so far as the socio-cultural context validates their contributions and literacies.

• “Pedagogies which work with multiliteracies and multimodality face the urgent task of reconceptualizing assessment criteria and practices. Without reliable assessment tools, multimodal instructional practices ... carry little weight and authority where it matters.” (Stein & Newfield, 2006,

p.16)

• Standardized Testing

• Post-Secondary Expectations

So how does this look in the classroom?

Implementing

• What are the learning objectives?

• e.g. Psychology

• PLOs (e.g. “demonstrate…” - not specific as to how)

• Post-Secondary preparedness or life skills?

• Academic writing an objective in itself? (Or simply a mode of instruction?)

• What are possible strategies for achieving the learning objectives?

• How can students show their learning? Appropriate assessments?

• What resources are available? Differentiated Instruction?

• Room for student choice?

Fashion Design Unit

• Relevant PLOs (Textiles, grade 12)• A6 explain and use appropriate textile terminology• B1 demonstrate an understanding of

preconstruction procedures• C1 create textile items incorporating the elements

and principles of design• D1 investigate historical, political, and cultural

influences on fashion• Performance Task: Make a mini fashion design

portfolio. Students will present inspiration portfolios during informal peer-feedback sessions. Students will present final portfolio with complete looks to the class. Presentation time will be as needed.

• In-class curriculum will be supported by access to on-line resources via a teaching blog.

• Students have several choices of how to prepare and present their projects.• Projects can be done individually or collaboratively.

3 looks per student.• Terminology, construction procedures, elements

and principles of design, and historical, political, and cultural influences can be incorporated into visual or oral presentation. (Written definitions and reflections, presenting terminology with appropriate images, or speaking to images.)

• Project can be done in any way that meets the requirements. (Journal, scrapbook, poster, power point presentation, digital mood board, etc.)

• Several classes will be devoted to developing a variety of skills. (Drawing, designing using croquis, watercolour pencils, watercolour painting, using online mood boards, searching images online, etc.)

Measuring

• Assessment for learning at beginning of unit

• How do you learn best?

• When do you feel most involved in you own learning?

• Which way of expressing yourself do you feel best represents your knowledge and how hard you have worked?

• Do you think of yourself as creative? (Why or why not?)

• Are you interested in fashion design? What do you like or not like about it?

• What are you hoping to learn or explore in this project?

• Project assessment after unit

• Students will reflect on the same key points.

• e.g. Did you feel creative woking on this project? What were your favourite parts?

What can we expect to find?

Expectations

• Students will tend to prefer modes & literacies they have employed in the past.

• Students will tend to prefer similar modes & literacies to each other

• Students will explore alternative modes & literacies more where teacher guidance (scaffolding, instruction, feedback) is provided.

• Providing choice and scaffolding for mediums of expression will increase motivation and creative engagement.

• Actively integrating various modes of communication will deepen learning.

References

• Benson, S. (2008). A restart of what language arts is: Bringing multimodal assignments into secondary language arts. Journal of Advanced Academics, 19(4), 634-674.

• Casey, H. (2012). Multimodal learning clubs. Middle School Journal, 44(2), 39-48.• Cooper, N., Lockyer, L., & Brown, I. (2013). Developing multiliteracies in a technology-

mediated environment. Educational Media International, 50(2), 93-107.• Jewitt, C. (2005). Classrooms and the design of pedagogic discourse: a multimodal

approach. Culture & Psychology, 11(3), 309-320.• Loerts, T. (2010). Multimodal literacy and its impact on student empowerment. English

Quarterly Canada (Online),41(3/4), 24.• Matusiak, K. K. (2013). Image and multimedia resources in an academic environment: A

qualitative study of students' experiences and literacy practices. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(8), 1577-1589.

• Metiri Group. (2008). Multimodal learning through media: What the research says. Commissioned by Cisco Systems Inc. Retrieved from: http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/Multimodal-Learning-Through-Media.pdf

• Moreno, R., & Mayer, R. (2007). Interactive multimodal learning environments. Educational Psychology Review, 19(3), 309-326.

• Siegel, M. (2012). New Times for Multimodality? Confronting the Accountability Culture. Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(8), 671-681.

• Stein, P., & Newfield, D. (2006). Multiliteracies and multimodality in English in education in Africa: Mapping the terrain. English Studies in Africa, 49(1), 1-21.

• van der Meij, J., & de Jong, T. (2006). Supporting students' learning with multiple representations in a dynamic simulation-based learning environment. Learning and Instruction, 16(3), 199-212. doi:10.1016/j.learninstruc.2006.03.007