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One of the big wonderings I have had in learning about multimodal projects is how to assess them? It seems that this is not the easiest question to answer. I liked the approach that Sarapure shared in her article. She used metaphor and metonymy to score student collages. Now, I have to be honest I understand metaphor but had no clue what metonymy was until reading this article. I think I can chalk that up to teaching English as an additional language rather than English or composition. I liked how she shared student collages and how they could be assessed based on how well they interpreted the quote using both metaphor and metonymy or where they fell short on either.

Using metaphor as an assessment in a multimodal project could maybe work in my classroom. But I think I couldn't tell them that their projects would be assessed on how well they used metaphor. It's not that I don't think they could understand what a metaphor is its just that they don't have enough English to understand what it is and how to use it. However, as I think about it the students could create a paper collage perhaps on the topic of strategies for learning English or future goals. They could write strategies or goals and then find pictures that represent them. Could this be metaphor? I think it could because in the article metaphor exploits similarity and substitution. I could share examples of collages where pictures show a similarity to the words, i.e. goals or strategies. I could assess how well they used pictures to represent their goals or strategies without ever directly explaining what metaphor is. For this type of paper multimodal project I don't think metonymy would work. I could see it working potentially in a podcast. But, I am not sure since metonymy is outside of my comfort zone and I am not 100% sure that I fully understand what it is.

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So, I have been looking at the DA projects. I have to say that I am very inspired and the wheels have been turning in terms of how I can do my project. I have not really taken the time to reflect on how I want to present my project but, I do know what I want to do. I think the project that spoke to me the most was Lisa's project. I think I was drawn to it because she teaches English to a population similar to mine. The only difference is that she teaches academic English. I have done this in the past. However, what I teach now would be considered survival English. It is not until students reach higher levels that it becomes more academic to help prepare them for our credit institutions.

I really like how clear and uncluttered Lisa's website is. I also really enjoyed the infograms. I had no idea how to make those, so I will give that a try in the future. Since I am a very visual learner this website appealed to my learning style. I also liked how she included her students' voices in how they felt about podcasting.

I think what touched me the most was listening to the students' podcasts. These are my students. They have similar stories. I was especially moved when I listened to Amina's story. I could hear and feel the emotion in her voice and it really brought her story to life. Students have shared stories with me verbally or in writing but, there was something about podcasting that made it so much more personal. There was a greater impact because of the voice. I felt her emotion and sadness when speaking about the loss of her father. When I listened to Jelued's podcast the sounds she included brought the story to life. The gunshots stopped me in my tracks as I imagined how scared she must have been.

I haven't seen much PD in our district on using Podcasts but I think that with a deeper dive into some of the resources provided that I could try this in my class. I think that my students would enjoy it.

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My students' first multimodal paragraphs.

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So, I have been reflecting on the multimodal readings we have done and in particular the multimodal composition and the CCSS. It got me thinking back to when I was doing my bachelor's degree at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. I was taking a multicultural education class in my last year. The professor had us write a journal, mine was handwritten and we were able to decorate it any way we wanted. I decorated the front of mine with different faces that I had cut out of magazines. At the center I put the face of an older indigenous woman from Guatemala. She was the biggest picture in the collage. Everyone else was around her. I did this intentionally because I wanted her face to be seen. It was also a representation of multiculturalism. I hung on to this journal for many years and I thought I still had it but sadly couldn't find it. I don't remember what I wrote in it. I only remember the faces. I suppose you could call this my first multimodal project because as Ball mentioned meaning is made not only in the writing but also in the visuals. Although in the late 90's I am not sure that was identified specifically as a multimodal project. I haven't done many projects like this since then expect for ENG 900 and a TSL class I took in this program. I suppose my inquiry journal is also multimodal since I have added a visual with this last post.

I think these projects are fun and very creative but until this morning (the next day after writing this post) I was struggling to see how they might fit into my EAL classroom. My job as an English language teacher at the beginning high level is to teach my students to write a simple paragraph about a topic that they are familiar with. I need to submit samples of their work to my department chair to show that they have met or not met this SLO. But, I think I was stuck on the digital component of a multimodal project and thinking that I would have to have my students create a project using technology. This would be challenging since my students range in age from 18-79. Not all my students have the same digital literacy skills and then there is the issue of equity in access to technology. Even though we go to the computer lab once a week for an hour, I don't think it would necessarily be enough time to do a digital project.

Even though my students need to learn to write a paragraph that doesn't mean that we cannot do other projects in class that are multimodal or even have the paragraphs become multimodal. I can get out of my teaching students to write a paragraph box and I have in the past. I just forgot. When I looked at the Ball article again, I realized that multimodal projects could be posters, flyers, brochures and books. They didn't necessarily have to be done digitally. As I started thinking about the plethora of classes I have taught in my career I went back to an offsite class that I taught. It was multilevel with three distinct levels, beginning, intermediate and advanced. I used three different levels of a series called Step Forward. I dug up the multilevel activity book for some ideas and I was reminded about some of the multimodal projects that I did with my students. A sample of the activity is shown in the picture. For this activity/project students worked in groups of 3 to 5 students. Dalton pointed out in her article that often multimodal projects are done in groups. The students needed to make a book about lessons in learning English and they could make it any way they wanted. This is an example of a multimodal project because students work in groups and they are writing a book that can include pictures (the visual component) and the written word. I got away from these projects because I started using another textbook but I am thinking now that I can adapt some of the multimodal projects in the Step Forward multilevel activity book with my students now. This could totally be creative because students can make a paper book but could also use technology to create a book. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier.

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I am really enjoying the Gunawardena article. I love learning about culture and learning styles. I am also reminded of how my culture may be unconsciously reflected in my teaching style. In fact, I am sure it is. Something that got me thinking was Gunawardena's study with Hispanic adult learners in a New Mexican community college. I was struck by the preference of Hispanic learners for a collaborative activities over competitive activities. That hasn't been my experience in my classroom. My Hispanic students love competitive activities and games. But something about that got me thinking. I am super competitive and is my competitiveness being reflected in the way I teach? When we play games there is always a winner and a nonwinner. Am I perpetuating this competitiveness? I have noticed that some of my Asian students do not want to participate in competitive games that require them to do so at the front of the classroom. One such game is fly swatter where the class is divided into two teams and one volunteer from each team comes to the board. The first volunteer to "swat" the correct word wins a point for their team. I am wondering if this is related to saving face if they don't win a point for their team. Of course, I never make anyone volunteer who doesn't want to. I want all my students to feel comfortable volunteering or choosing not to.

I do realize that this article does focus on online learning and as I think back to teaching online there were less competitive activities not because I didn't want to do them but doing them online was not possible. In this context I was less competitive and maybe this was more appealing to some of my student population. However, the minute I returned to the face-to-face classroom I created the competitive classroom. Is this a good thing? I am not sure. I suppose if it is healthy competition where students have the choice to participate then maybe it is not such a bad thing. But again, am I pushing my competitiveness culture on my students. Hmm...

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Luckily I was not teaching at the time Covid hit. I had just graduated from the University of San Diego with my second master's. This master's degree was in peace and justice studies. I decided to do this degree after I had served in Peace Corps Response. I am passionate about helping girls and women get an education and I had hoped that I could do this with my new master's degree. However, it just never worked out. I have tried twice to leaving teaching and somehow I always come back. I think it is because it is what I have always been meant to do. I also feel that there was a divine intervention that was directing me back to where I was needed most. After much reflection, I finally realized that I had been building peace in my classroom for my whole career as well as teaching women, who most often had no education, English. I was doing the work I wanted but on a smaller scale.

When I went back to the San Diego Community College District it was mid Covid and I was faced with teaching online and quickly learning how to navigate new technology. Like Rapanta pointed out in the article I had to rethink my role as an online ESL teacher. I couldn't just teach like I did in the face-to-face classroom. I also had to figure out how to keep my students engaged and focused since many of them were in their homes with babies, children, and other family members. They were not as Rapanta points out self-organizing learners. They were struggling because they didn't know how to learn online. That was evident when they dialed in from the supermarket or the park thinking that all they had to do was join the Zoom session. At this point, I think I was teaching ERT style thinking that I would for sure be going back to the classroom soon.

What surprised me even with all of the difficulties with access to technology and the clear lack of understanding of how to learn online was that I was beginning to really enjoy teaching online. After about a semester of teaching online I was given the opportunity to move towards OLT teaching. I was asked to write curriculum for a fully online vocational ESL class. That is when I learned how to design learning environments that were much more conducive to our students. I was also introduced to a plethora of technology that I could use to make the lessons dynamic, fun and interesting. Learning online was no longer temporary. It was now synchronous, asynchronous and students were taught how to be more independent in their learning.

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Today during class our level 6/7 (advanced, transitions to college) class came to talk to my students about reading to succeed. What was so interesting about this presentation was that it was multimodal. Fifteen students shared posters, paintings, stories and their voices to talk about the importance of reading and how reading helps you succeed. It was awesome! I don't know why I am/was so hung up on a multimodal project having to use technology. The presentation was so effective because students were given the opportunity to share how interpreted reading to succeed. This presentation today has really inspired me to have the students be creative and create books to represent some of the best ways to learn English.

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Something that struck me in the Selber article was the myth of equality through computers. That is, computers level the educational playing field. This got me thinking about my district. Before Covid there were no online classes for English as a New Language. We were of the belief that language learning was better done in a face to face classroom especially at the beginning levels. It wasn't until Covid that all of that changed. At first, I was apprehensive about teaching on Zoom but that quickly changed. I learned to love the flexibility of teaching online. I could teach from anywhere. That was awesome. But soon I realized that just because classes were online and are still online it may not be what is best for most of our student population. Our district does its best to help students get computers for free or low-cost. This is seen as creating equality because students get computers. However, the free computers that the district provides are limited. Not all students can get one. The low-cost computers still may be too expensive for our refugees and asylum seekers. And, if students do get a computer what happens when it is not working correctly or they don't know how to use it? Who is going to help them? Is this equality? I do agree that computers don't create equality in our classrooms.

There is also another issue. Many of our students don't have the means to have high speed Internet in their homes. They need this to make use of the computers they have received to attend their online classes. The district does provide a list of Internet providers that do offer low-cost Internet but even at $10 a month, it is too expensive. The list is great, but beginning students do not have the English skills to call and inquire about the Internet plans or read the information. So what happens is that students are stuck using their phones with whatever basic telephone plan they can afford. The result is students continually being dropped from Zoom class. Is this equitable? No.

Finally, Selber mentioned that computers are useful but making sure students have their basic needs met should also be our priority. Now that I am back face to face, I have access to a computer lab. I can take my students one hour a week. All the computers are new, have high-speed Internet and a plethora of programs to choose from. I feel taking students to the computer lab does equal out the lack of access at home. However, many of my students still do not have their basic needs met. They are living in shelters waiting to see if they will be granted asylum. Some are survivors of human trafficking and are struggling to cope with what has happened to them. These situations require more than just having access to computers. These students need help getting their basic needs met and a teacher who is willing to help them find what they need.