Week 7 Informal Blog Task

Reflect on the implications of this session for your future practice on relevant sources

In creating the multimodal text, there were many possibilities for its use within the classroom, not only in explicitly teaching children how to use and create multimodal texts but also to support all areas of the curriculum (Poole, 2001). As suggested by Medwell, Moore, Wray and Griffiths (2012) although electronic texts share features that are key to printed texts they also have distinct features which make new demands on the readers and writers. Therefore the first implication for my practice is to develop my knowledge of electronic texts as well as printed.

Another factor is that multimodal texts are increasingly becoming more embedded in children’s current popular culture such as through film, computers, ipad and eBooks (Lambirth, 2003). With this in mind it is becoming more apparent that children need to be able to read, communicate and represent knowledge through multimodal texts to be literate and function efficiently in a digital work (Futurelab, 2010).

A further point of multimodal texts is that they can support and enrich other areas of the curriculum (Futurelab, 2010). In literacy teachers can create a multimodal text to support reading during guided or shared reading or children can create their own as part of a writing project. This would require them to think about audience, purpose, visual, textual and structural elements (DfE, 2013). For ICT multimodal texts require children to be able to use ICT and develop digital literacy skills to be able to understand them and use them (Futurelab, 2010).

In conclusion, the implications for my practice include developing my knowledge and understanding of multimodal texts so that I am able to use and teach children how to use them efficiently (Medwell et al. 2012). The second is to plan for their use in classroom activities whether for whole-class or small group activities.

Bibliography

DfE (2013) The national curriculum in England Framework document Nottingham: DfE accessed from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/260388/MASTER_final_national_curriculum_11_9_13_2.pdf

Futurelab (2010) Digital literacy across the curriculum a Futurelab handbook Bristol: Futurelab

Lambirth, A. (2003) ‘”They get enough of that at home”: Understanding aversion to popular cultures in schools’ Reading 37(1) pp.9-13

Medwell J. Moore G. Wray D. and Griffiths V. (2012) ’14 Electronic texts’ from Primary English Knowledge and Understanding London: Learning Matters Ltd.

Poole P. (2001) Primary ICT Handbook English Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd.