Multimodal Texts
This blog post reflects on my personal experience with
creating a multimodal text, as well as examining the different uses for
multimodal texts in the classroom, whilst considering the benefits and the
negatives of using multimodal texts within the classroom.
During the seminar, I created an interactive book using
PowerPoint, for children to drag the words into a sentence in the centre of the
screen, and then complete their writing below as indicated. A clip of this is
shown above. When creating this I had a year 5 or 6 class in mind, as quite
advanced IT skills are required to make a coherent story, and also the aim is
to retell a well known story, which I feel is a difficult skill for the younger
years to master.
Before being shown how many different uses there are for
PowerPoint, particularly relating to literacy, I had no idea of the vast range
of opportunities that it presents. As learning about multimodal texts was
engaging for me, I can imagine that their use in the classroom will engage
children more, as they can use bright colours, and gain a sense of ownership of
their work, particularly if they are creating a text themselves.
Multimodal is the term given to a text which incorporates
more than one medium for conveying a message (Bezemer and Kress, 2008). An
example of a simple multimodal text is a storybook which incorporates pictures
and writing; a more complex multimodal text can be seen in a website which
allows audio effects, writing and pictures. Within the classroom, it is
important to widen children’s understandings of different types of texts,
particularly with a culture that is constantly growing in terms of technology
(Bezemer and Kress, 2008). Personally, I think that the use of multimodal texts
in the classroom should be promoted, so that more teachers are aware of them,
and how easy they are to use – this was demonstrated to me during this weeks
seminar.
Walsh (2010) highlight the importance of teachers using
multimodal texts within literacy, as it provides a current and forward thinking
approach to teaching. However, Walsh (2010) goes on to identify that in some
cases, there are dangers of teachers who use multimodal texts as apposed to
traditional books, lessening the importance of the ‘rich, imaginative and
cultural knowledge’ that we get from books. This is why teachers have to be
aware of all the pros and cons of using multimodal texts before they do so.
Like any other resource that you use in the classroom, you have to ensure that
it is appropriate, suitable and beneficial for children’s learning.
Overall, the use of multimodal texts in the classroom has a
multitude of benefits ranging from the ease of access, to an emphasised
engagement from children, however they have some dangers, which teachers need
to be aware of. Like anything new, if we are taught the correct way of using
it, then this could be a really great tool to use within future primary
practice.
Bezemer, J. and Kress, G. (2010) Writing in Multimodal
Texts: A Social Semiotic Account of Designs of Learning, Written Communication, 25(2), pp. 166-195.
Walsh, M (2010) Multimodal Literacy: What does it mean for
classroom practice? Australian Journal of
Language and Literacy, 33(3), pp. 211-239.
I like your idea of the multimodal interactive book. I do think that for Year 5/6 it may not challenge them enough and not offer the oppertunity for more abstract representation. But for younger children it would be great.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I said for the older years is that this is just a simple demonstration. The children would be asked to form the first sentence using the words around the edges and then continue the story typing out normally as indicated in the above screenshot. Another reason I thought the older years would be more suited is because you can adapt this to be more challenging; use this as a starting point, and then ask children to create their own stories.
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