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According to the Digital Promise website, multimodal instruction is “Instruction in multiple formats allows students to activate different cognitive skills to understand and remember the steps they are to take in their literacy work. Instruction can be given using text, visuals, gestures, or audio to facilitate retention in Short- and Long-term Memory.”

I started my post with this definition because this is the first reading that I have done for this week. I have not read the FYC and GCP chapters yet (and am realizing that was not the best choice), so I honestly wasn’t sure what multimodal instruction was. I understood that it had to do with varying formats and presentations, but I didn’t quite understand the depth that it went to. I thought that I understood it until I watched Professor Cole’s video for the week, where she explained that it is not simply creating digital worksheets. Clearly, I had a lot to learn and needed to start with a basic definition.

The most important part of this pedagogy that I took away is that its purpose is to provide a learning environment for all learning styles. It is extremely learner-centered.

Looking at “Integrating Multimodality into Composition Curricula: Survey Methodology and Results from a CCCC Research Grant,” a theme that is common to a lot of other topics caught my attention: lack of preparation.

This article focused on a survey that was put out to professors and students to research the way that multimodality was realistically acted out in the classroom. Although this was not the focus of the story, I was surprised by the amount of confusion.

At the time of the survey, different professors explained that “they hadn’t agreed on a single definition that would support pedagogical applications of multimodal composition” (69).

“One hundred percent of the teachers who responded (n=42) to how they learned the technologies they needed to teach multimodal composition were primarily self-taught” (73).

“The definition and practices of multimodal composing may still be emerging and are most probably shaped by a constellation of factors, among them the accessibility of professional development opportunities, technology support, institutional incentives, instructional materials, and hardware” (79).

It is not okay that teachers are not provided with accurate support to carry out what is expected of them. How can we create a multimodal classroom when teachers aren’t even fully aware of what that means?

Going back to the beginning, the entire focus of this is on meeting individual learning needs. If we want to do that well, we need to do the back work.

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This is an incredibly condensed and simplified explanation, but I thought it was helpful!

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I loved how Fraiburg’s text, “Composition 2.0: Toward a Multilingual and Multimodal Framework” combined the topics that we discussed last week with what we are currently learning about.

As I said in my post for Anderson’s text, Multimodality is all about meeting learner needs. It is important to remember that is not just in regards to providing different modes of communicating, reading, and writing. In addition, it is about what you bring into the classroom.

In regards to multilingual practices, the following quotes from Fraiburg’s text were interesting:

We should “[partner] with speakers of other languages in local and global contexts. Forming partnerships also means working closely with multilingual writers in our classroom… Incorporating our students’ multilingualism into the classroom could help move them from deficit positions by (re)locating them as experts in their own language with knowledge and experience that they can share and contribute to the class” (111).

I love how Fraiburg was even willing to take a moment away from the topic at hand to discuss how multilingualism can and should be incorporated.

I also think about the ways that multilingualism can boost multimodality in the classroom instead of distract from it. Perhaps students from different cultures may have unique ideas and perspectives that they can bring into the class to provide more modes of learning.

For some reason, this article had me thinking of career day in elementary school- when a local fire fighter or doctor would come in and do a show-and-tell for the kids. Those volunteers are viewed very highly by the students and seen as complete experts whom the students look up to. In the same way, providing our multilingual students with access to authority could help them gain agency.

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The closing comments of Abby M. Dubisar and Jason Palmeri’s “Palin/Pathos/Peter Griffin: Political Video Remix and Composition Pedagogy” had me wondering if we are keeping our students in too tight of a box:

“Ultimately, we hope this study has shown that “our students have a much richer imagination for what we might accomplish. . .[with political remix] than our journals have yet to address” (89).

After reading the studies conducted over the assigned project for this Composition course, it appears as though the professor was hesitant to assign the project- would the students know enough about technology? Would they go too far with it? Will they understand the lessons they are trying to get across? Clearly, the students were more than capable to tackle this unique project.

This taught me a lesson to never doubt my students. Noted, I do teach mainly ninth grade classes in the middle of a pandemic. I should probably not be throwing extremely difficult and overwhelming assignments at them. Nonetheless, I should not question if they can handle new forms of multimodal assignments. If it fails, it fails and we move on. But more than likely, they will conquer it.

Moving on to an entirely different point- I was so intrigued by the topic of this article. Any time a title talks about Putin and Peter Griffin together, I am immediately confused and a read is necessary.

I did enjoy the way that the offers talked about the cultural context of political video remixes. I had never thought of them as a genre on their own until I read this article. Honestly, perhaps I took them too lightly to see the actual composition that it took to create them.

I have typically been scared of political remixes. Although I am (typically) able to see through them to the truth (or know enough to do my research), I am nervous that others are not. That has been confirmed when my own Father has sent me clips from the “Hillary4Prison” YouTube account to convince me to change my vote. Even when I find these videos funny, I have been hesitant to give them much screen time because I do not support some of the action that they are causing.

This article, however, helped me to see them in an entirely new light. These videos are a means of communicating and creating. They should be taught and talked about, especially since that is the way that a lot of our students communicate in modern times.

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I found this chapter of GCP, “Fully Online and Hybrid Writing Instruction,” to be entirely applicable giving the situation that we are currently in. Not only is this course itself an asynchronous course, but we are all, as teachers, fully familiar with the art of asynchronous and synchronous learning during the time of COVID.

Looking back on my experience of async/sync learning, I had honestly never heard of those concepts until I started grad school in the Spring of 2020- right when COVID hit. I had only done in-person learning and trainings throughout the rest of my career, so it is important to make a preliminary note that asynchronous work is not necessarily easy work. Often times, it can be even harder than synchronous. It takes more motivation and focus as well as time-management. You have to be pretty independent, even when you do have a wonderful professor.

Speaking of professors, I appreciated the below section on what it means to be an asynchronous professor:

“Doubtless, asynchronous teachers must engage their students interactively often and thoughtfully. The difficulty for many online teachers is that they have learned their craft in traditional classroom settings where they can talk to their students about assignments and content, looking to facial and body cues for interest and comprehension. In the purely asynchronous setting, however: ‘Though many writing teachers may have the skills to communicate content and assignment instructions to students online, few have the sophisticated communication skills necessary to connect with students interpersonally, to build trust and rapport in unfamiliar virtual environments’ (Sapp and Simon 478’” (200).

Clearly, these professors are not taking the easy route. They are not posting stale comment and Word documents for students to complete. They are not submitting empty grades. They are not sitting back enjoying time at home while not teaching.

Instead, they are having to reinvent the career that they have known for so long. They are researching new tools, spending time experimenting, lamenting the exciting new trick that completely fell through, and preparing everything behind-the-scenes so that it appears simple and clear for their students.

Professor Cole is a perfect example of this. Her weekly videos, interactive syllabus, easy-to-navigate course page, and much more show how she has been spending time learning the art of asynchronous courses. She has found ways to make the course interactive, even when I live all the way in Pennsylvania!

Education is definitely shifting and I am curious to see the ways that asynchronous courses and work options continue to take off over the next few years!

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During my Senior year of college, I TA’d for my advisor in her Young Adult Literature Class. My main assignments were grading, tutoring, editing, and teaching a few lessons, but my biggest challenge was when she provided me with the opportunity to spearhead the final project for the course. She was considering having her students experiment with making a Podcast, which including writing, researching, conducting and interview, and using new audio technology from our tech department. This was the first time she was doing something like this, and it was clearly the first time I was doing anything like that.

I had never experienced this before- the person whose knowledge I placed very highly questioning and figuring out a new teaching method. She was no longer an expert.

This anecdote is why the fourth principle of New Media, “New media replace expertise with exploration and engagement,” caught my attention (182).

“Teachers must abandon the notion that all expertise must flow from the front of the classroom, particularly when it comes to technology. Even those who are considered experts… cannot expect to master every single program or application, and many of the platforms associated with new media lend themselves to (and indeed encourage) collaboration” (182).

Sure, I had seen teachers and professors admit weakness or learn something from a student before. But it was not until I watched my advisor, Kerry, literally sit side-by-side with the students and figuring out this new media that I realized the power in that action.

I think the students in that class had a greater respect for Kerry after that moment. It allowed them to see her not as a “perfect educator,” but as a student herself.

Furthermore, it gave them more freedom to learn and to experiment. They were not held to some (unreal) belief that they cannot mess up because of her perfect standards. She was learning too and wanted to watch them experiment to help her learn.

Furthermore, the students seemed to learn a lot more about the content that they were recording. They were excited about this new media and the lack of a final paper.

This was a great experience for me in regards to new media. New media is not only beneficial due to the varying assignment styles, but it is beneficial in helping teachers and students learn new roles in the classroom and learn to work together. It gave everyone more agency and freedom.

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In the chapter “Beyond Text and Talk: A Multimodal Approach to First-Year Composition,” author Jody Shipka addresses the way that they bring multimodality into their classroom. As Shipka broke down the way that they run their class, they spent a significant amount of time discussing the major assignments that they conduct in class. One of these is Blackboard conversations. Blackboard is a platform very similar to D2L. Shipka requires students to post on Blackboard as they work through any projects or assignments:

“I believe strongly that students who are able to see… the ideas, tools, techniques, and strategies their classmates employ while working on major projects benefit tremendously, both in terms of understanding that there is more than one way to accomplish a task and in thinking about how the adoption of similar tools, techniques, or strategies might potentially impact their own work” (226).

To begin with, I connected this section back to our study on plagiarism. Plagiarism is so engrained in us that, at least for me, it almost feels wrong to know what my classmates are doing for their work and how they are doing it- let alone taking ideas from them! The opposite is true, however. It is so incredibly powerful to learn alongside peers. When one student helps another, that newly learned student can help so many more- including themselves. I love that Shipka encourages students to know what is going on in their classmates’ work instead of staying isolated.

So, what might this look like in a classroom?

I honestly got to thinking that I do not do this enough. I do not allow or provide space for students to teach each other and learn from each other. The only time that my students interact with work that is not their own is during a peer review. I place a peer review at the end of the writing process, where there is no room for the reviewer to learn for themselves.

What if, instead, I inserted peer check-ins throughout a project? As students come up with topics, they bounce ideas off of their peers. As they begin to write, they can go to their peers for inspiration. Sources, technology issues, it is limitless!

Now I do realize that this is not really multimodality. I promise that this would not be the end of the line, but merely a starting point for experimentation in this realm.

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This chapter argues that any course taught at an institution can also be taught online. Of course, it can't be taught in the same exact way. And that makes sense. I think we've all probably learned that first-hand in whatever distance learning situations we've found ourselves in the last few years. Part of the shift of a course online involves a change in pedagogical purpose. Hewett explains that contemporary, in-person writing courses are focused on producing drafts of an essay-type assignment that is then edited and critiqued by classmates and teachers. An OWI is a bit different: "While OWI can employ these pedagogical strategies, it requires a different type of student work than occurs in other, content-based online courses (e.g., history or math). The disciplinary purpose of teaching writing drastically affects online strategy choices because significant amounts of interactive writing and reading are needed to teach writing as a skill, process, product, and content" (198). In other words, OWI students have to be willing to develop writing skills through doing their research and reading examples and instructions provided by their teachers to make up for that in-person feedback and real-time constructive criticism. Hewett goes on to say, "pedagogical purpose should account for feedback and interactivity processes." To me this means that the online course must still have some sort of interact element, otherwise student writing will suffer and students themselves won't receive a full writing course experience. To be honest, the best example I've seen of those is at MSU. Our instructors design interactive pieces in each course so online students still have a fruitful writing experience. When I think back to all of the writing courses I've taken, I've gotten the most out of the interactive parts, whether it be with the teacher or classmates. That is what's helped me grow in my own writing process.

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I found section 3 on page 181 about "Internet Time" really relatable. When teaching writing, we can't pretend that the Internet doesn't exist. And we certainly can't pretend that the function of blogs, websites, and social media don't give a writerly voice to pretty much anyone. As this chapter points out we can often "overlook the dynamic conversations that are taking place online" (182). The solution offered is something I continue to struggle to balance in my own classroom: "we should be having these conversations with students rather than pretending they're not relevant to the writing classroom. Making space in our classrooms for this kind of work requires us to negotiate among the different paces implied by our institutions and our technologies, and this can mean preparing our students to move with ease from 'class time' to 'Internet time'" (182). I think this notion is important, and when dealing with high school students it's important to remind them that "Internet time" is not for using the Internet like they use it at home. We have to get them thinking of the Internet as another realm in writing, which is not necessarily easy. My students are always mind-blown when I point out to them that they write every day online. I think I need to remind them now that beyond that, other people are also writing online and we have to think about that in our conversations. It's almost as if writing is now something that is always changing and never really stays permanent. And beyond that, our definition of an author may need to change. Can everyone be an author? I can see my students struggling with this question.

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I really liked the tool kit approach to writing mentioned in this chapter: "Rather than attempting to isolate and individually treat the various tools and support one employs while carrying out a particular action, a 'tool kit approach' focuses on the complex mix of tools--or, as they are often referred to by Wertsch, mediation means--to which people have access" (215). Part of the appeal of this idea for me means that students can use their strengths in a multimodal setting, whatever that might mean for each individual. This also means that there's no one "right" way to create a writing assignment: "a tool kit approach to composing asks students to consider the array of tools, supports, or mediational means they use throughout the process of completing a particular task or objective; say, for instance, while completing a linear, argumentative, research based essay for a FYC class" (215). I think it's important for students to realize that they possess multiple tools and that they do not just have one thing they're good at for one project or assignment. Some might feel like they'll fail on everything else because it's asking for something different than what they like to do or what they think they're good at. I see that defeat in my students a lot when they think they're really good at one type of assignment and not another. If they think about their skills as a tool kit, then they might be able to see how their strengths can be made to fit multiple tasks.

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It was really fascinating reading about how the idea of new media changed and evolved in this article, especially since a lot of the years covered were ones where I was in school myself. I particularly appreciated the two different types of conversations about new media: conversational and definitional. Werner explains, "by first reviewing conversations about new media and then exploring the ways scholars define new media, I have situated rhetoric and composition's scholarship on new media within two distinct areas: the types of conversations in which it is appropriate to discuss new media (conversational categories) and the ways that we understand new media when we read about it and discuss it (definitional categories)" (729). I think this explanation stuck out to me because new media makes sense as something that is experiences differently in discussion versus understanding. When we talk about new media in academia, it comes with an action; how do we use it in our writing and writing instruction? However, in order to be open to that conversation, we have to understand what new media is and understand the context in which we discuss it. As someone who worked in communication before making a change to teaching, the word "media" has many different meanings and purposes to me. Understanding the different modes new media functions in can help students better use it to their advantage, whether they're using media in their writing, or reading/researching it for a writing project.

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I loved this article! Anytime you bring politics into the classroom things can get a little dangerous. I am by no means an expert in politics or how our government operates, so anytime students start to go to the political in discussions I try to approach their comments and questions with an intent to inform and not to exploit my own political views. Easier said than done of course. This article also spoke to me because I like to use videos as much as I can in class just to break things up and keep students' interest: "Students are largely already consumers of such texts and bringing parodic, pop culture texts into the classroom can provide bridges between students’ multiple literacies. Doing so potentially brings a variety of challenges and opportunities for discussion to the writing classroom. Students may not be accustomed to drawing on popular culture knowledge for academic work; as a result, teachers may need to engage classes in conversations about ways in which remixed texts make use of popular cultural artifacts. In particular, we suggest teachers encourage students to reflect about which popular culture references are most likely to resonate with their audiences and accomplish their rhetorical goals" (88). I feel like this quote perfectly sums up the article and my own experience with remixing in the classroom. I recently did a week on satire with my 9th graders and we watched a few SNL video clips so they could get an idea of what political satire looked like. They loved it and loved analyzing the videos in class, but by the end of the week when they were required to write their own parody about something in the world they really struggled. I have students with a wide range of abilities in that particular class and it was very clear that they struggled with the assignment because they didn't have a sense of pop culture, or at least not the same pop culture I'm familiar with. I run into this with my film class a lot too. I will have to stop myself a lot from assuming my students know important backstories to movies and directors that happened before their time, or might not be on their radar because they're not a film buff like me. I think clear instruction and communication really helps in these situations.

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Dr. Cole mentioned the concept of "annotated memes" in her video overview this week which reminded me of a former classmate in a grad class at UST where he created a syllabus for a class called "meme theory". I remember when he initially came up with the concept, I was skeptical, but his final presentation showed us that studying memes in an academic setting was actually very informative. The concept of a "meme" is just a way of describing something that evolves and takes on new meanings as it gets passed through society, which is a totally academic concept. Students love when I give them the assignment to make memes related to whatever text du jour we're reading, but then they're shocked when I tell them they actually did some pretense intense literary analysis to GET the meme.

Anyway, I feel like the readings this week from GCP are almost out of date for how much online education has grown since the beginning of the pandemic. Hewett writes, "...the OWI committee believes that the most fundamental principle for OWI is one of maximum access. Accessibility in OWI has been long ignored, spurring necessary study into usability testing and how to include students who have been excluded from both onsite and online settings," (207.) Nothing like a pandemic to force society to accept access to online learning as an essential function, am I right? A few years ago, my district started presenting ideas for how to incorporate Hybrid learning into our curriculum (since we had 1:1 chromebooks by this point) but it was all very hypothetical. Once the pandemic started and schools shifted fully online, I couldn't believe how quickly we all had to move to make sure every function public schools performed for communities was still being met. Now that we've had some experience with online learning, my district suddenly has a flourishing and entirely online Virtual Academy (VA). I volunteered to teach one of the first English options for VA and I will say, it rocks. Granted, not many people wanted to teach VA the first time it was officially offered, so they sweetened the deal by giving us more prep time during the school day. Can't complain about that!

When I think of the differences between my in-person writing course and my online writing course, there truly are not many differences except that I don't monitor the online students while they're working like I do with in-person. While the chapters on hybrid/new media from GCP this week focus on how to adapt in-person to online studies, I've found it's very useful to not do that. I need to view the class from the online scope and sequence in order to offer it effectively. I think high school educators were taught more about how to control behavior problems in the classroom rather than how to produce good writing skills, and with online, my only focus is asking what they can produce.

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Shipka writes, "...my tasks routinely specify for students something about the content of their work and leave decisions about the final form of and context for that work up to the students," (224.) Truly, this type of teaching is what keeps me excited about the field of education.

This past summer, I attended some professional development offered by English professors at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities where the professors basically told us that the way we've been teaching analysis and composition forever is no longer the only option for success in communication fields. Amongst the shock and awe in the audience, I was overjoyed. Apparently, people just aren't getting English degrees the way they used to, which is likely because university-level writing and assessment of writing has not been adapting to the 21st century. Students simply do not see the value in studying English as a major because there is not a ton of real-world applicability and I get that. The U of M's answer to this is to offer exactly when Shipka is writing about in chapter 8: creativity in production. Multi-modal assignments and presentations are the English equivalents of working out except instead of your muscles, it works your critical thinking skills. The world is a better place when everyone can effectively communicate and this type of teaching does exactly that.

In my Intro to Lit freshmen course, this means they are only writing two analytical papers per text with a third being a more creative option. This is the first semester I've been able to implement a more multi-modal way of communication with my seniors and their written work and contributions to whole group discussion have drastically improved. They feel less pressure to crank out "perfect" papers and are much more willing to take risks. Part of this is likely because I've implemented labor-based grading in the course, but I also think the multi-modal style encourages students to push themselves in unique ways. Plus, it's easier for me to grade and I've found myself experiencing more joy with their projects hanging around my classroom.

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The History of Writing Technologies

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Metacognition Through Composing About Composition

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The Problem with Parody and Wrestling with Fair Use

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Rich Ideas About Human Communication

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Outdated and Obsolete

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This post is about both GCP Chapters...

I found it Ironic that the chapter “New Media Pedagogy” spent so much of its time explaining how it is futile to attempt to write about best technological practices within the teaching realm as everything runs on internet time. Then later, when reading “Fully Online and Hybrid Writing Instruction,” the entire chapter explains practices that feel somewhat outdated after the lightspeed jump we have made into distance instruction over the past year and a half. What is the best way to discuss New Media and online instruction within text? There must be certain practices that are objectively effective when heavily integrating technology into our curriculum. There was a section in “New Media Pedagogy” that referenced Prezi. It outlined a lesson plan centered around allowing students to use Prezi to make connections between sources. It could be seen as a new way to produce an annotated bibliography. While this is an excellent idea, in theory, Prezi tends to feel cumbersome in a classroom setting, if not a little outdated. Today, students prefer using shorter edited together video clips to connect disparate sources to be more effective in integrating technology into the classroom. One universal idea I took away from these chapters was that it is a good idea to think about how one should weave new media into classroom instruction. This will actually be one of the focuses for the unit I am writing for my portfolio.

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Leslie inspired this response by bringing up the quote on page 213 about how we should teach composition in composition courses. Students should write about writing. I do not agree, or should I say I only agree with part of this statement. Back to my expressionist roots, while students can certainly be expressive when writing about writing (writing narratives, biographical writing studies…) it seems that writing about writing is a more clinical approach to a subject that students already have a tough time connecting to. As an expressive teacher, I believe that students must feel some investment in the subjects they write about to motivate them to continue writing. Many students in an FYC class will not feel connected to composition because they do not like doing it. If we force these students to write about writing solely, I believe that may drive many of them away from the subject.

Don’t get me wrong; I still believe that we should have students write about writing as they need to understand why writing is critical, but metacognitive assignments like this should only be half of the course load. Writing about the type of writing you are about to do in an upcoming expressive assignment about a subject you love is how I believe composition should be taught.

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This article speaks of multimodal instruction, but it is really speaking about differentiation and relatability within instruction. I also think multimodal composition begs the question, “What is composition?” Is composition only text-based? If so, what is text? Is text simply written words? Or does speaking count as text if it is recorded and edited? Referencing my response to FYC Chapter 8, if we only teach composition by teaching students to write about composition, does having students write about a movie count as students writing about composition? Wasn’t the movie composed using similar methods to composing a book or newspaper article? What is composition in the 21st century where anyone can compose a complex multimedia composition? The landscape requires teachers to familiarize themselves with all forms of composition and to include these forms within their instruction. The question is and will always be (for the evolution of composition is rampant) how?

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“...as individuals shape the tools, and in turn the tools shape the individuals. This move expands our notion of conversation; human actors are no longer in dialogue only with one another, but also with other texts and tools” Leslie brought this quote to my attention and I wanted to dig a little bit deeper into it as I find it aligns with my perspective on the world currently. Lets begin with the beginning half of the quote “...as individuals shape the tools, and in turn the tools shape the individuals.” I took the tools referenced here to mean the tools of composition, in my mind these tools in this age are mainly computers and smartphones, or any device that aids in composition in some way. These tools do in fact shape the individual. My girlfriend and I were talking about how we used to write stories as children before we had cell phones. We spent a lot of time writing for ourselves. Now that we do have computers and cell phones readily available we compose a lot using video and write text for others. Very few of most people's daily compositions are for themselves unless they make a conscious effort to do so. It's not that writing for oneself is harder, there just isn't as much space for it as there used to be. The second quote talks about human dialogue and how it is with other texts and tools. I would slightly disagree as I think the dialogue included all three of these things. The type of composing we do today is for others, and influenced by the tools and other texts. We are not necessarily always talking about our tools, but our messages are different because of our tools.

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I found this article to be somewhat reductive of digital composition. I know this article is older and in 2010 the type of digital compositions that we have today are more advanced but I struggle with the type of “remix” that is referenced in this article. I have seen some of these early remixes and they resemble a cross between modern day memes and video essays. To some extent they are attempting to prove a point or to parody something, but they lack the refined quality of some current day “remixes”. If you would like to see some, just open TikTok. Students today communicate using distilled versions of these remixes that reference such specific modes of humor or knowledge requiring those who view it to understand the context. Fortunately the contexts that these “remixes” are built on are available within the niche that they exist in. Meaning, if you are viewing a remix on YOUR social media and I stress “your” as each platform is unique to each individual's taste, the likelihood of you understanding these “remixes” is high. At this point meme culture is so rampant that it has become a language of its own. Just look at the “GIF” button attop your keyboard on your smartphone. You can have an entire conversation with gifs, essentially using the mode of remixing to communicate in real time. I think that digging deeper than just creating remixes is called for. These modes of communication are already becoming a part of the daily lives of so many students today, it would be a disservice to not use the spotlight on this type of composition. Let's talk about it.