"I have no story to tell": exploring the multimodal literacy identities of adolescents

Abstract

Adolescent students’ participatory and multimodal experiences outside of school are often at odds with entrenched in-school literacy instruction that tends to privilege print-based over other forms of communication. This research study documents the multimodal literacy identities of students in a Grade 8 classroom as they explore storytelling through different modalities. Drawing upon pedagogical documentation and critical discourse analysis research methodologies, five specific inquiry questions are investigated: 1) How do students already engage in multimodal literacy practices and analysis outside of school? 2) What strategies do students have for making sense of multimodal texts and how do they identify and discuss different modes of communication? 3) What assessment evidence can be gathered to show how and if students transfer and enhance meaning across ensembles of modes, and how can this assessment evidence be gathered in contextually relevant and respectful ways? 4) Is there evidence to suggest that students demonstrate an increase in deep or critical thinking about multimodal analysis after the instructional-learning cycle? 5) If students are allowed to voice their own stories in different modalities, what impact will this have on the classroom community and their personal literacy practices and identities? Results of this qualitative study contribute to closing the established gap between adolescents’ in-school and outside of school literacy practices, while offering pedagogical support to Manitoba educators as a new provincial ELA curriculum is introduced that advocates a multimodal literacy education environment.