Multiliteracies Musings

Alexandria Procenko
Feb 4, 2017
2 min read

One of the required classes this year was called "Multiliteracies". This quickly became one of my favourite classes mostly because of the engaging instructor, but because it was fun every single week! I made an observation this week, after I had to present a multiliteracies lesson to my peers, that even though we do a similar activity each week, every single person is always engaged. The activity we do is essentially using a variety of tools and media to "show what we know" about a certain topic. We've been doing this since the first week of class, but are still enjoying it! It's taken me a while to figure out what multiliteracies is exactly, and I still may not be right, but I think I have some idea. To me, multiliteracies is not something you need to add as a component of your lessons, it is something that should be hidden within a lesson. It should be a part of the lesson without being its own separate component, but should be something that is integrated into your lessons.

So here is what I think multiliteracies is.

Multiliteracies is a way of teaching. It is providing students with multiple ways of accessing, interpreting, and creating information. Teaching multiliteracies is a necessary skill in which our students need to become adept at so that they can “cope with the realities of the technological world” (Biswas, 2014). The New London Group (1996) defined an aspect of multiliteracy as using different forms of communication, including written, visual, oral, or dramatic (as cited in Rowsell, Kosnik, & Beck, 2008, pg 110). Information is being communicated in more ways, in more places, and at more times than ever before. Students are being bombarded with information constantly, whether it is in school, watching TV, using the internet, and even just from conversation with other people. Our students need to be able to navigate this never-ending stream of information, they need to be able to decipher this information, and they need to be able to create information in the endless ways possible today.

Using a multiliteracies approach in my teaching will help bridge the gap between what can be called traditional literacy and the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s learners. It is not good enough to be able to write a well-worded essay anymore. I need to present information to my students in multiple modes so that all can access it; with so many methods of communication, there are endless ways I could teach the same thing. Students need to be able to decide whether an internet source is credible, how to use pictures to help them understand something, know where to go when they have a question, and know what to use when they want to create a product of an idea.

Multiliteracies is a multi-faceted new literacy that need to be incorporated into the education of today and tomorrow's students.

References

Biswas, S. (2014, 07 03). How To Teach Multiliteracies? Retrieved from The Canadian Journal for Teacher Research: http://www.teacherresearch.ca/blog/article/2014/07/03/245-how-to-teach- multiliteracies

New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92

Rowsell, J., Kosnik, C., & Beck, C. (2008, June). Fostering multiliteracies pedagogy through preservice teacher education. Teaching Education, 19(2), 109-122.