Multiliteracies in ELA Classrooms

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• TMD // Jul 18th 2013 at 10:15 am

  Dear Andrew, Stephanie, and Jacqueline,

  Thanks for presenting the multimedia project encouraging student examination of action in narrative. The Stockton text is engaging and the student artifacts from Stephanie’s class were outstanding; it is clear from those few examples that students must have enjoyed the project.

  I did wonder, were students exposed to a number of plot models, or only the one? As I noted earlier in the class, I do think is important to situate use of Freytag’s Pyramid carefully. This model is designed by a 19th century theorist in view of Greek and Shakespearean tragedy. It is not a given that all plots follow such a model and, indeed, it was not conceived in the first instance with prose in mind. The structure and nuances of fiction are rather different than drama, with opportunity for description and narration that tends to be less present in drama, which focuses on dialogue; so it is important that students engage with the model as a theory proposed by one scholar, and that they are invited to consider other models or to devise their own. Rather than having them rewrite stories to fit Freytag’s model, might it be beneficial for them to propose models that better fit the stories they encounter? Thinking beyond print narrative, what are suitable plot models for narratives we encounter in game spaces, cinema, social media, etc? Scholars like Bernstein, for example, have proposed a number of plot models for “multisequential” narratives in online spaces here (Bernstein, 1998): http://www.eastgate.com/patterns/Print.html . As well, my colleagues and I have written a bit about modelling narrative here (Dobson, 2011): http://visiblelanguagejournal.com/web/abstracts/abstract/interactive_visualizations_of_plot_in_fiction . All this is not to say one shouldn’t use conventional narrative models; it is merely to say that we need to acknowledge and make students aware of the fact that such models are theoretical, reflective of particular world views (in Freytag’s case, a western knowledge framework of storytelling), and may be challenged.

  The “character sketch” was a fun activity as well and could be an interesting catalyst for discussion about character. It is a variation of the “Round Robin” story often used in classrooms, whereby one student writes an opening to a story, folds down the paper so only the last couple of lines can be viewed, passes the paper on, and so on. Students are generally highly engaged by this sort of writing activity, just as we were engaged by the drawing activity.

  In terms of the assignment as outlined in the syllabus, I suppose the element that is missing is your own completion of a project and your reflection on your own process. (When we spoke in class I thought your group would be undertaking a project similar to what Stephanie’s class did rather than presenting a project her students’ completed.) Your second project, however, is a large one requiring extensive setup that has given you opportunity to get involved in production as a group; I very much look forward to participating in your QR game tomorrow!

  Thanks again for your thoughtful contribution and presentation.

  Best regards,

  Teresa

  ___________
  Works Cited

  Bernstein, M. (1998, May). Patterns of hypertext. In Proceedings of the ninth ACM conference on Hypertext and hypermedia: links, objects, time and space—structure in hypermedia systems: links, objects, time and space—structure in hypermedia systems (pp. 21-29). ACM.

  Dobson, T., Michura, P., Ruecker, S., Brown, M., & Rodriguez, O. (2011). Interactive Visualizations of Plot in Fiction. Visible Language, 45(3), 169-191.

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