To redesign task #1, I chose to create a spoken word poem. I have had colleagues do spoken word poems with their students, but it is something I have never tried myself or with my own students. I decided I would give it a try and go through the experience as a student would.
Click HERE to listen to the spoken word poem and see the bag images.
Click HERE to read the poem lyrics.
Task #1 was about introducing ourselves to the class through our bag and what the items from the bag told others about ourselves. To redesign the task, I started by brainstorming all the roles, traits and experiences that help to define who I am, and then compared them to the items that were in my bag from the first task. Many of the items from my bag were in some way represented by my brainstorming, but many other parts of what defines me was not included in my bag at all. I struggled at first with what to do to redesign this task. My go to response was a video, but I wanted to really focus on the audio component of this task. I decided to take my brainstorming about myself and wrote a poem about who I am. I then recorded the poem in the form of spoken word poetry. I was going to only submit the audio poem, but then decided to include images of the parts of the bag that I felt were represented by the parts of the poem. By creating the poem, it allows the listener to learn much more about me and who I am. The poem allowed me to extend the conversation and go much deeper about who I am as compared to task 1 when I only spoke of the physical items in my bag. The poem has allowed for a narrative that goes with the items and tells others about who I am beyond what they can see.
As the New London Group (1996) suggests, redesigning is “neither a simple reproduction… nor is it simply creative” (p. 76). Redesigning changes the task and the result is something new. The redesigned “is the unique product of human agency: a transformed meaning” (New London Group, 1996, p. 76). The poem in this task is completely transformed from the bag assignment in task #1. While some of the items from my bag in the original task loosely link to part of my poem, the poem is a completely new entity. Writing the poem allowed me to introduce myself in a different way. I was able to rely less on physical, public side of me and share more of my private life and thoughts. By redesigning the task and changing the semiotic mode, the meaning has changed.
I have been brought up in a culture in which reading and writing are generally thought of as literacy. There are cultures, however, where that is not the case. The idea of multiliteracies “focuses on modes of presentation much broader than language alone” (New London Group, 1996, p. 64). I found it fascinating that the New London Group (1996) spoke of “sci-fi visions of information highways and impending future where we are all virtual shoppers” and that “new communications media are reshaping the way we use language” (p. 64). While information highways and virtual shopping have become the norm, so much can still be said about new communications media reshaping the way we use language. With emojis, tweet, posts, tik tok videos, snaps etc., our language and literacy is being redesigned and multiliteracies are becoming the norm.
References
The New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review 66(1), 60-92.