A Moment with Multimodality.

Multimodality in The Composition Classroom

As a student, I did not have much interaction with multimodality. Communication was mainly through reading and writing about the same. The resources available to me were pen and paper and the computer where I would type essays as required by the course and submit hard copies to the professor. My experience with multimodality was towards the end of my undergraduate study where one of my professors required the use of PowerPoint presentations in class. These had to incorporate a variety of media including video, sound, still images and graphics to communicate our understanding of various topics we had learnt in class. This was by far my favorite class. Multimodality in the classroom proved to be an important way of interpreting texts and creating meaning in ways I had not experienced before.

I am observing ENG 103: Rhetoric and Writing class. On the first day of lessons, the professor drew a simple two-dimensional structure on the whiteboard and asked students to “say what you see.” Interestingly, this plain three lined structure drew so much attention and discussion in class than I had imagined. Despite the simplicity of this activity, I saw the significance in integrating visual texts in the composition class.

         Using canvas, the professor provided the students with texts to read and provide feedback on during class. Most of these reading materials had images at the beginning. During class, the professor begun by asking the students to analyze the images on the article. (I personally had read the first article hardly paying any attention to the image.) This simple conversion of image to text was incredible. The students then answered a short quiz and eventually wrote a full paper based on these articles.

Introducing the second project of the class, the professor asked the students to carry out research in class using their computers and submit their findings in form of a website url through canvas.  I think the incorporation of technology in the classroom is important in achieving multimodality.

Looking Ahead.

The syllabus for this course emphasizes multimodality (especially visual and verbal). Looking ahead in my class, the syllabus includes interpretation and analysis of visual texts that the students are required to reflect and respond to using a variety of media. Looking at the goal of multimodality which, according to Selfe, is to “To teach students effective, rhetorically based strategies for taking advantage of all available means of communicating effectively and productively, to multiple audiences, for different purposes, and using a range of genres” (Selfe 9) I think the professor is doing remarkably well in incorporating multimodality in the classroom. This approach keeps students engaged in classroom activities since they are required to do different things; observe, read, speak and write individually or in groups.

Multimodality in My Classroom.

Personally, I would go further in the use of multimodality in teaching a class. For instance, I would create assignments that require presentations that use a variety of media such as written text, video, sound, graphics and still images. I would also include various writing projects that move away from reading and reproduction of the same information in writing to other modes like conversion of visual to text or vice versa, composition of audio texts and integrating various modes in the analysis and interpretation of a given text. With this, students will learn various ways of communicating for different purposes and audiences. Though it appears to be time consuming, multimodality is beyond doubt, an important aspect in a rhetoric and writing class. Teaching students how to communicate is one thing, teaching them how to communicate effectively in different contexts is a concept that deserves great attention. Students develop these communication skills more when exposed to multimodality.

Quote: “Aural and video compositions sometimes reveal and articulate meanings students struggle to articulate with words; audio and visual compositions carry different kinds of meanings that words are not good at capturing.” (Selfe Cynthia 4)