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Here is a handful of short interview responses from Theo Van Leeuwen regarding the field of multimodal compositions. His first response here addresses concerns about having "created a monster" given the versatility of the subject and the many "holes" that still remain to be filled in research.

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Suggestion One - Mode of the Week

There are a variety of vehicles of expression available, especially online. As the expert creating "guidelines," your multigenre project could be based on some specific mode or vehicle of expression weekly. This could be themed, or students may choose freely what they want to express within the mode/platform. A balance of independent and collaborative work could be established week to week - where some weeks the students are expected to work on projects independently and other weeks collaboratively. Either way, students may collaborate as 'editors' of each other's work - offering constructive feedback.

Suggestion Two - Multigenre Blog/Website

Website platforms lend themselves well to multimodal/collaborative projects. What Tasheena an I have developed here is an excellent example, where despite physical distance - we are able to work collaboratively on this padlet project which incorporates color scheme, columns, visual rhetoric, images, memes, videos, comics, etc.

Benefits & Downfalls

Benefits:

Communication/collaboration at a distance. Digital multigenre projects, especially those internet based platforms, allow students a good balance of working independently and collaboratively, regardless of proximity to one another. If I were to develop a project like this when I was in high school, I likely would have had to find the time/means to actually go over to a friend's house in order to put together a project.

Versatility. There are almost unlimited options for how we may communicate information or develop projects multimodally or digitally - and the means to do so are only evolving/expanding.

Downfall:

The common concern that is present along most multimodal compositions, especially digital, is accessibility. Personally, I pay a subscription fee for my current use of Weebly as a platform for my own multigenre blog. Paid subscriptions or even access to the digital tools/internet is not universal and therefore limits accessibility to some students. As instructors fostering equity, we would need to provide accommodation necessary for underprivileged students.

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Multigenre projects often lend themselves well to collaborative effort and, therefore, more diverse types of engagement in communication.

For Petrucha, this means that he develops a story and relies on an artist to visually communicate that story to accompany the words.

Van Leeuwen discusses the role of the "expert" in multimodal compositions, advising that "in areas where  a certain degree of individuality and choice, or of spontaneity and creativity, should be seen to be maintained, expert advice will generally be preferred over the enforcement of rules and will be called 'guidelines' or 'best practice models' (134).

For multigenre projects, the "expert" can be both teacher and student, where students (with diverse experiences and expertise) may serve to "guide" one another on different aspects, modes, or genres - and everyone can collaboratively serve as multigenre editors of a composition.

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Voices From the Field: Gunther Kress Explains Multimodality

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Voices From the Field: Gunther Kress Explains Multimodality

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This a nice interview where Kress explains the function of multimodal composition. Within the first minute, he addresses the restrictions of print text alone, advising that multimodal compositions are developed by a desire to "communicate" and through "a sense that one mode alone won't do it."

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Suggestion One -- Meme Poetry

A single meme could be approached as a piece of poetry that may allow students to analyze all those underlying expressions of the meme and why the meme was created as a substitute for expression through words alone.

The survey information from ypulse tells us that memes are used in place of language for those feelings that people (and students) have a difficult time expressing in words alone. This is reminiscent of what an undergraduate professor of mine said regarding poetry - that poetry is an "attempt to say in words what cannot be expressed in words" (acknowledgement to Dr. Bill King).

Suggestion Two - Create Your Own

Memes have a wide range of complexity, but the basic principle is an expressive photo accompanied by a few words to describe the function of what the photo (or series of photos) represents. Creating your own can be accomplished either digitally with the use of laptops/devices or "analog" with a handful of magazines that could serve as resources for cut outs that could be turned into memes.

Suggestion Three - Meme Narrative

A creative alternative to the way that memes are typically used to express one idea, students may attempt to develop a deeper story through a series of memes.

Benefits & Downfalls

Benefit: Students are encouraged to think more deeply about an aspect of visual rhetoric that is applicable to their daily lives - a type of communication in which they are engaging daily. This would offer some level of analysis of the form an function of how and why this substitution for traditional print text is effective.

Downfall: Technology appears to always be a mitigating factor in multimodal compositions which brings forward a concern of accessibility. Also, students might be reluctant to engage in analysis of memes in the classroom because it blurs the boundary between a type of communication they engage in for personal pleasure vs. assignment.

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Theo Van Leeuwen analyzes his own university webpage and the combination of modes (graphics, photos, columns, etc) used in just one examples and writes:

"... these are manifestations of a new writing which integrates writing and image in new ways and increasingly blurs the distinction between the two" (132).

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In a survey study conducted by ypulse, they've investigated the uses of memes in communication among a focus group of 13-35 year olds that shows people send memes for humor and in place of things that they cannot express in words:

"... half of young consumers are sending memes to react to something in a conversation (or in comment sections), indicating what linguistic shorthand they’ve become. Notably, 36% say they send memes to show how they’re feeling, 35% use them as code to someone who will “get it,” and 28% send them when words can’t express how they feel. So memes aren’t just enhancing their language or acting as comedic relief (though that’s their most common purpose)—they’re also, in some cases, replacing words altogether for young consumers who gravitate to visual communication and continue to evolve it" (ypulse.com).

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Just one more (optional) source. I love this video for helping students break down advertisements. We first listen to the video with no images, decide what the message is, and then watch it again with video. Many are surprised when it turns out to be a Dodge commercial (lots of gasps and "you've got to be kidding me"s).

I was thinking this could also be a great example for still movie projects or a possible route for students participating in ad creation.

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CGI 3D Animation Short Film HD "POILUS" by ISART DIGITAL | CGMeetup

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If you need a break :) My (Tasheena's) favorite animated short film to explore with students.
This one touches me because of my knowlegde of WWI events, and literature I read in Dr. Ben Leubner's "Literature of the Great War" class a few years back.

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CGI 3D Animation Short Film HD "POILUS" by ISART DIGITAL | CGMeetup

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Have you heard of silent film festivals? Check out this website to learn more about the International Youth Silent Film Festival!

Also, check out their Facebook page to watch a video of this years finalist films: https://www.facebook.com/IYSFF

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international youth silent film festival

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Make Silent Film is the official website of the International Youth Silent Film Festival.

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Benefit: Students are continuously engaging as consumers and producers of videos. Having students participate in video-making activities in school helps them think critically about the videos they are producing and the work that goes behind what they consume. Students also will further their writing skills and thinking skills as they engage in these activities.

Downfall: Not all schools or students have the technology to engage in these activities. Access to technology is a serious problem in many households and schools across the nation.

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Suggestion One--Poetry videos:

Lori Ayotte and Cathy Collins suggest having students pick a poem (Robert Frost, Shel Silverstein, Walt Whitman, etc.) and create an Animoto video using music and images to make the poem come to life and show their interpretations of the poetry. I suggest doing this in conjunction with contemporary poetry as well. (2017)

Suggestion Two--Advertisements

Have students come up with a new "product," write a script, then film a commercial promoting this product. They can use their phones (or other recording devices). There are many free apps that can help them piece their ad together (i.e. Videoshop).

Suggestion Three--Short Films

Have students script, perform, and record either an adaptation of something they read, or their own original story.

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The average person spends five hours a day watching videos (movies, tv shows, tiktoks, youtube, etc).--U.S. News

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Van Leeuwen New Forms of Writing, New Visual Competencies

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Van Leeuwen New Forms of Writing, New Visual Competencies

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"Who needs rules and enforcement when the same can be achieved by offering choice?" (134)

"A colour is never just red--it is always characterized by being red and dark or light and plain or textured and luminous or not" (132)

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Lori Ayotte and Cathy Collins Using Short Videos to Enhance Reading and Writing in the ELA Curriculum

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Lori Ayotte and Cathy Collins Using Short Videos to Enhance Reading and Writing in the ELA Curriculum

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"By Putting images to lines in the poem, students would understand imagery. By choosing a song, they would hear the musicality of the poetry. Students also had to decide on an atmospheric mood through the music and pictures; hence, tone." (21)

"Student choice played an important role." (21)

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Stefan Petrucha On Writing (And Reading), the Graphic Novel

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Stefan Petrucha On Writing (And Reading), the Graphic Novel

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Stefan Petrucha has a unique perspective as both a published novelist and graphic novelist.

"Graphic novels are there to be read. Is it the same as reading prose? No. Better? Worse? For my money, it depends entirely on the graphic novel or the prose. As for Nancy Drew and Beowulf [...] I prefer to think that rather than people not having to read them, now more people can." (63)

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On Writing (and Reading) the graphic novel

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Jessi Thomsen: Comics, Collage, and Other Things with Crayons: The Power of Composing with Images

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Jessi Thomsen: Comics, Collage, and Other Things with Crayons: The Power of Composing with Images

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"Images have the power to construct students' realities and identities, so it's essential for students to develop strategies to 'reveal and rewrite' with both images and words." (55)

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comics collage and other things with crayons

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Want to hear more from Kittle and Gallagher? Check this web series out! I love them both--they are brilliant.

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Round Three

Following the recent publication of their latest book, 4 Essential Studies: Beliefs and Practices to Reclaim Student Agency (Heinemann, 2021), Kelly and Penny eagerly embark on a new series of video chats that focus on the ideas and people making a difference in literacy education. Be sure to visit their Padlet for additional resources related to each discussion.

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Following the recent publication of their latest book, 4 Essential Studies: Beliefs and Practices to Reclaim Student Agency (Heinemann, 2021), Kelly and Penny eagerly embark on a new series of video chats that focus on the ideas and people making a difference in literacy education.

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I am sure we are tired of hearing me (Tasheena) drone on and on about graphic narratives. So, instead of doing that again, here is a video of two very well known and respected ELA teacher-scholars: Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle. Gallagher who is hesitant about reading the genre himself, and Kittle who has dived in and is finding herself fascinated. This is more reading focused, but hopefully appealing to gather other perspectives outside my own. (They do a writing activity at the end of this video as well).

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Benefit: In addition to interacting with words every day, our students also interact with images as both consumers and producers. Composing images in a classroom setting will give students critical thinking skills and the power to empower themselves as they maneuver their own identities and reflect on their own realities (Jessi Thomsen 2018)

Downfall: Because the composition of comics calls for more visual space than space for written text, there will be less writing in this project. (However, a benefit to this so called "downfall" is that students will have to be wiser with their word choices, much like in poetry).

Another downfall is that many schools and administrators still frown upon the art of graphic narratives. In many schools engaging in this activity will require some defense. Lucky for us, there are dozens of scholars who have already defended graphic narratives for us--all we have to do is a little research to familiarize ourselves with the conversation.

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Aaron Boyers and I have created this Padlet with multimodal scholars in mind (articles are posted at the end of this padlet). We hope to provide you with clear information on multiple modalities that can be composed by yourself and by your students. We hope you find this information helpful!

--Tasheena Erickson

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Suggestion One:

Have students i.d. themselves as writer or artist then pair students up to collaboratively create a comic (one as writer, one as artist). Or, if there are more artists or more writers, groups of three could collaborate too. (Inspired by Petrucha 2008)

Suggestion Two:

Have students find images online or cut out images to piece together comic panels and write their own dialogue.

Suggestion Three:

Have students both write a mini comic (i.e. 4 frames) where they both draw and write the comic.

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Often the author and artist are two different people (Petrucha 2008)