Starting the Project: Examining the Literature

Growing influences of multimedia technologies have produced a shift in what counts as texts and what it means to be literate (Ajayi, 2009; Jewitt, 2005; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001). In the 21st century, literacy is no longer understood as just the ability to read and write; it is now viewed as the ability to construct and understand the different possibilities of meanings made available by differing textual forms associated with diverse domains (Ajayi). Further, requirements to use technology in learning are rapidly moving into school districts, and the Common Core Standards, which 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted, have spects of media and digital literacies woven into the various subject curricula (Council of Chief State School Officers & National Govenors Association, 2010).

When digital literacies projects have been implemented in elementary classrooms, the results reported have been largely positive. Vasudevan, Schultz, and Bateman (2010) found that reimagining the composing process through a multimodal approach allowed students to draw on personal experiences, widening the possible range of “successful” student identities within the academic context and increasing student engagement. Bogard and McMackin (2012) used audio recording and movie making in writers’ workshop in one third-grade classroom. They found that the affordances of recorded oral rehearsal improved revision practices and allowed students to develop personal narratives that were authentic as well as complex.

Taking the existing research as a guide, this article describes multimodal composition activities used within an auto-/biography unit for 14 fourth- and fifth-grade ESL students in a pull-out ESL program at one suburban elementary school located in the southeastern United States. Students in the study come from varied socioeconomic backgrounds and represent four home languages, including Spanish and Arabic. In an effort to draw on students’ funds of knowledge (Moll & Greenburg, 1990) and strengthen connections between home and school identities, the authors, who were both ESL teachers at the time, decided to present their students with an opportunity to engage in telling their own stories through multiple modalities. This article presents findings from the project at the first author’s school, where she was also the teacher of record. Throughout the project, the authors observed student interactions and involvement, gathered student-created materials, and formally and informally interviewed students to elicit feedback.

Beginning the Unit: Exploring the Genre

Students were first introduced to biographies as a genre. Our purpose in this was to familiarize students with the ways life stories are told in text. One of the first texts we discussed was a biography of John Muir, as the book was available through our leveled-readers collection. Following this, additional model biographies were presented and discussed with students. While reviewing biographies together, the control over learning was gradually released to the students.

The culminating project invited students to research and visually present a biography of a famous person of their choice. The students searched and read articles and books available in the classroom and online. While researching online, it was critical for us to demonstrate to students how to locate what they needed and ensure that the information source was reliable. Small group conferences and whole class discussions were used to address concepts like plagiarism and the critical evaluation of websites. At the completion of their research, students shared and discussed their findings, playing a critical friend role for their peers by questioning and summarizing each other’s work. Finally, students chose to present their projects using either poster board or VoiceThread, including facts, important dates, a timeline of achievements, and images found online.

Creating Autobiographies: A Story of One’s Own

As they finalized their biography projects, we began introducing autobiographies to the students. By inviting our students to share their experiences in their own personalized ways, they drew on their funds of knowledge and, in so doing, deepened their engagement and sense of belonging in the school.

To begin, letters to parents and disposable cameras were sent home so each student could capture some of the most important things, people, events, and places in his or her life. After the pictures were developed, students shared their photos in storytelling circles (Martínez-Roldán, 2003). The storytelling circles allowed students to share and ask questions in a comfortable environment. Then students carefully selected a few pictures based on criterion they established, and these, together with detailed captions, were included in an autobiographical poster. Finally, students loaded digital copies of their photos onto a classroom computer and began designing a digital presentation with VoiceThread. This allowed them to tell their stories using pictures, text, drawings, and oral comments.

Conclusion

At the end of the unit, students’ reactions gathered via video interviews suggested that going beyond biographies to include personal stories helped second language learners to make meaningful connections between home and school literacy practices. Not only did the students consider the whole unit, and particularly the opportunity to operate a camera and take pictures, to be “fun,” they also acknowledged the fact that using personally-relevant images facilitated their thought process when it came to composing autobiographies. Furthermore, students’ final projects showed that this practice helped improve composition and oral language skills, as students were engaged in authentic storytelling and peer feedback through multiple revisions. By drawing on their personal stories as a basis for digital storytelling, students were engaged in multiple ways of meaning making and afforded the opportunity to express themselves through both new and traditional literacy practices. Sharing personal stories in a school setting, while a sensitive undertaking, is also a worthwhile endeavor and may bring students’ two lives closer together.

References

Ajayi, L. (2009). English as a second language learners' exploration of multimodal texts in a junior high school. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(7), 585–595.

Bogard, J. M., & McMackin, M. C. (2012). Combining traditional and new literacies in a 21-st century writing workshop. The Reading Teacher, 65 (5), 313–323.

Jewitt, C. (2005). Multimodality, “reading,” and “writing” for the 21st century. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 26(3), 315–331.

Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication. New York: Oxford University Press.

Council of Chief State School Officers & National Govenors Association (2010). Common Core State Standards Initiative. Retrieved from: http://www.corestandards.org/resources

Martínez-Roldán, C. M. (2003). Building worlds and identities: A case study of the role of narratives in bilingual literature discussions. Research in the Teaching of English, 37(4), 491–526.

Moll, L. C., & Greenberg, J. B. (1990). Creating zones of possibilities: Combining social contexts for instruction. In L.C. Moll (Ed.), Vygotsky and education: Instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology (pp.319–348) .New York: Cambridge University Press.

Vasudevan, L., Schultz, K., & Bateman, J. (2010). Rethinking composing in a digital age: authoring literate identities through multimodal storytelling. Written Communication, 27 (4), 442–468.

Natalia Ward is a PhD student and a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Natalia has worked as an English as a second language teacher in K–12 public school and homeschool settings.

Amber Warren is a PhD student and associate instructor in the Literacy, Culture, and Language Education Department at Indiana University, Bloomington. She also serves as a coordinator for the EFL/ESL Peace Corps & Master's International Program in the department. Her prior experience includes teaching in K–12 and workplace settings in the United States, Thailand, and South Korea.