Category Archives: Reading Review Blog Post

For the last week, I have been reading the articles that I found on multiliteracies. I chose to read those that are teacher’s sharing of their experience in teaching multiliteracies in the classroom. As I was reading the articles, I questioned myself: the “multiliteracies” lessons that other teachers had done, sounded familiar and seemed to be what we had been doing on a daily basis without labelling it as “multiliteracies” lessons. For example, when we read stories to primary classes, we would direct students’ attention to the illustrations of the book (visual). We would also use multimodal format in teaching literacies. That led me to ask another question: Is “multiliteracies” a new pedagogy in literacy teaching, or only a “new term” for a basic but old pedagogy?

During my research, I also noticed that most of the work were done in between years 2010 to 2012. This raised my other concern: are there any recently published work on multiliteracies?

I searched online again but did not have any luck in finding recent academic work on the topic. Yet, I came across the name Kathy Hibbert a few times. Dr. Hibbert is a professor in the faculty of education at the University of Western Ontario. Multiliteracies is one of her research interests. I found and followed her on Twitter, moreover, I had visited her blog (The Salty Chip Blog, http://thesaltychip.edublogs.org) as well as the Canadian Multiliteracies Collaborative website (http://www.saltychip.com) that she had initiated to provide a platform for teachers to share ideas and learn collaboratively. On her blog, there are links to other website regarding “multiliteracies,” but the “Centre for Multiliteracies” and the “Multiliteracies Project” are no longer existed. There is a link to the “Emergent Multiliteracies in Theory and Practice” website which still exists, still, the works posted on the website were from year 2012 or prior. I had also checked on the Canadian Multiliteracies Collaborative website. Unfortunately, after I had registered and logged in, I found the lately post was done in 2012.

The research process up to this point was quite disappointing, but at the same time, raised the alarm if this is a current educational matter that I should focus on for my inquiry project. The BCTF (BC Teachers’ Federation) report on “multiliteracies” was one of my research result. I read it last and I agreed totally to the union’s view on it. The report includes a summary of a “Multiliteracies collaborative research project” done in partnership of the BCTF, UBC, and the Vancouver School Board. The report concludes, and I quoted from the report, that “a considerable number of teachers were engaged in multiliteracies pedagogy that they had initiated as autonomous professionals in response to student’s needs, local community composition, and with an awareness of technological, communication and media changes in society at large.” (p. 17-18) Multiliteracies is already existed in our practices because we, teachers, would modify our teaching according to the student’s needs and change in the world, not because we all have read and studied the “Multiliteracies Pedagogy.”

In conclusion, I am going to put a period on my research in multiliteracies. I am still interested in using multimodal format in teaching literacies, and perhaps, that would be my focus in my next inquiry.

References:

British Columbia Teachers’ Frederation. “Understanding the concept and evolution of the Multiliteracies literature since 1996, with a consideration of its relevance to a Canadian teacher union engaged in a Multiliteracies collaborative research project.” Web. 26 Sept. 2015.
http://www.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/Issues/21CL/MultiliteraciesNaylor.pdf

Barton, G., & Unsworth, L. (2014). Music, multiliteracies and multimodality: Exploring the book and movie versions of Shaun Tan’s ‘The lost thing’. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 37(1). Web. 26 Sept. 2015

Biswas, Shampa. “How to Teach Multiliteracies?” The Canadian Journal for Teacher Research, 3 July 2014. Web. 26 Sept. 2015.
http://www.teacherresearch.ca/blog/article/2014/07/03/245-how-to-teach-multiliteracies

Dallacqua, K., Kersten, S., & Rhoades, M. (2015). Using Shaun Tan’s work to foster multiliteracies in 21st-Century classrooms. The Reading Teacher, 69(2), 207-217. doi:10.1002. Web. 26 Sept. 2015

Emergent Multiliteracies in Theory and Practice.
http://multiliteracies4kidz.blog.yorku.ca

Hibbert, Kathy. Website: http://www.kathyhibbert.com

Main, Kristin L. (2011) “Mapping Multiliteracies onto the Pedagogy of K-12 Teachers.” University of Toronto. Web. 26 Sept. 2015
https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/27590/1/Kristin_Main_PhD_thesis_2011.pdf

Natalie Cooper , Lori Lockyer & Ian Brown (2013) Developing multiliteracies in a technology-mediated environment, Educational Media International, 50:2, 93-107, DOI: 10.1080/09523987.2013.795350
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2013.795350

The Salty Chip Blog. Website: http://thesaltychip.edublogs.org

The Salty Chip: A Canadian Multiliteracies Collaborative.
Website: http://www.saltychip.com

When researching on “multiliteracies”, the first resource I would think of is the New Learning Online Website (www.newlearningonline.com). I was introduced to the term “multiliteracies” as the videos on the website were required resources for one of the LLED course I studied. As my inquiry focuses on the “how”: how to teach “multiliteracies”, I watched the video series “Multiliteracies in Actions” again to see examples of activities primary teachers used in class to foster multiliteracies.

Multiliteracies – Videos

http://newlearningonline.com/multiliteracies/videos

Thereafter, I googled the word “multiliteracies” and found a few academic articles with a focus on the practice of teaching multiliteracies in the classroom.

• Biswas, Shampa. “How to Teach Multiliteracies?” The Canadian Journal for Teacher Research, 3 July 2014. Web. 26 Sept. 2015.
  http://www.teacherresearch.ca/blog/article/2014/07/03/245-how-to-teach-multiliteracies

Comment: Biswas had quote Newman’s (2002) suggestion of the four component in teaching multiliteracies:
– Situated practice: Teacher-led activities to encourage meaningful learning of primary knowledge.
– Overt instruction: Teacher guides students’ exploration of
learning using different tools and techniques.
– Critical framing: Teacher facilitating critical analysis of information.
– Transformation action: Teacher helping students in transforming information into personal knowledge.
This article is a quick read, and I found the four component could possibly be my guide in lesson planning.

• Main, Kristin L. (2011) “Mapping Multiliteracies onto the Pedagogy of K-12 Teachers.” University of Toronto. Web. 26 Sept. 2015
  https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/27590/1/Kristin_Main_PhD_thesis_2011.pdf

Comment: It is a qualitative research of multiliteracies in teacher’s pedagogy. I
had a glimpse of only the abstract of the thesis, and I am interested in the teachers testimonies of their practice in teaching multilitereacies. This thesis is put into my reading list for later read.
I also did my research on the UBC library website, and found a few useful resources.

• Lotherington, H. (2011). Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: rewriting Godilocks. New York: Routledge.

Comment: This is a book located in the UBC education library. I have only read the summary provided by the publisher. It is a classroom-based, 5 years research on the pedagogy of multiliteracies. I am interested in this book because “Godliocks and the Three Bears” is my favourite story that I used regularly for drama and sound effect creation using music instruments. I am expecting to get new ideas through the testimony of the teacher’s trial and error, new ideas that would help me in re-designing my lesson to foster multiliteracies.

• Natalie Cooper , Lori Lockyer & Ian Brown (2013) Developing multiliteracies in a technology-mediated environment, Educational Media International, 50:2, 93-107, DOI: 10.1080/09523987.2013.795350
  Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2013.795350

Comment: It is a descriptive article on an educational program named “Making News Today.” The program starts with facilitating students in analyzing the presentation of news via different media types, such as television, print, online, etc. Eventually, the students were guided in producing their own news report. The table on page 6 shows a summary of activities in the program, and it works as a reference for me in my lesson planning.

• Dallacqua, K., Kersten, S., & Rhoades, M. (2015). Using Shaun Tan’s work to foster multiliteracies in 21st-Century classrooms. The Reading Teacher, 69(2), 207-217. doi:10.1002. Web. 26 Sept. 2015

• Barton, G., & Unsworth, L. (2014). Music, multiliteracies and multimodality: Exploring the book and movie versions of Shaun Tan’s ‘The lost thing’. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 37(1). Web. 26 Sept. 2015

Comment: The above two articles show the study of multiliteracies using Shaun Tan’s work, either using the book or the movie based on his book. The second article has exactly what I was searching for: an analysis of the music track and the influence of music on visual interpretation. I have never read Shaun Tan’s “The Lost Thing” and have not watched the movie. Therefore, I googled “Shaun Tan” and found his website (http://www.shauntan.net) which has the movie versions of “The Lost Thing” and some other books of his (http://www.shauntan.net/film1.html).

 
Throughout my research, I have found some other interesting articles focusing on the teaching of multiliteracies, and also articles on music & multiliteracies. However, I think I should stop here, or else, my blog post would be too long.

Since I was introduced to the term “multiliteracies”, I have been constantly looking out for opportunities to incorporate it in my music program. According to the website “New Learning: Transformational Designs for Pedagogy and Assessment” (www.newlearningonline.com), multiliteracies refers to two major aspect in nowadays literacy:

1. The variability of meaning making in different cultural, social contexts.
2. Multimodal communication using a variety of media such as audio, video, visual, gestural, spatial, etc.

In this 21st century, electronic devices are abundantly used. People communicate through emails, text messaging, audio messaging, and/or sending photographs or videos to each others. At school, we make sure that our students learn how to read and write. However, is that adequate for our students to communicate in this technological century? Please do not get me wrong, I am not saying that the ability to read and write is not important. In fact, it is the most important fundamental ability one needs to communicate with others. A person could not write or read text message or email if he or she does not know how to read and write. However, I think one would also need to have the ability to make meaning in multimodal communication. For example, understanding a person’s body gesture, or make meaning out of a person’s drawing. I have two children at home, they are very different in ways of communication. My 9 years old son likes drawing comics strips, therefore, you could find text as well as comic strips with conversation bubbles in his diary. My 6 years old daughter, on the other hand, likes taking photos and drawing picture. She asked for her own camera when she was 4, since then, she takes pictures of things that she treasures and places that she loves to go. As a parent (an adult), I do understand my children’s way of communication and would be able to make meaning of their contexts. However, I would question, how about their peers? Will they be able to understand by reading my son’s comic strips or looking at the photographs my daughter took?

Every year, teachers (including myself as an elementary core music teacher) have to write an overview at the beginning of the school year and submit to the administrator. Every year, I would slightly modify my overview so that students would learn the elements (beat, melody, rhythm, theory) through different repertoires and different ways. This year, as I was working on my overview, I tried to incorporate the new B.C. curriculum’s “Big Ideas” in my music program. Out of the blues, I had this crazy idea of throwing my “routine and regular” overview out the window, and commit myself in creating a brand new, unique music program that its goals are to teach the elements of music and to foster students’ multiliteracies through the study of composers’ masterpieces, dance or visual arts being inspired by music. I have presented the idea to my administrator and have her full support on it. I am given a projector along with an iPad and document camera to use in class, which allows me to use multimodal resources in my teaching. Now, I would inquire on HOW to teach multiliteracies in a music classroom.