Multiple
Literacies and Multimodal Texts.
The
use of a Power point to create a story, allowed me to experiment with the font, images and sound for an overall aesthetically
pleasing end product. UKLA (2005), explain that teachers should incorporate
such technical devises into literacy because children already have gained a
wide experience from multimodal texts outside school, and therefore should be
using their knowledge to further understanding in literacy and to engage and
make links with relevant tools that they access every day.
UKLA (2004) express a further advantage for multi modal texts,
as writing alone can not show a child’s entire strengths. The choice of
background, positioning of characters and font all play a part in adding to the overall theme
of the story, and allow children to make explicit links to the written text to
emphasise points that may be ambiguous through writing alone. An example of this, is
that I used the images, in my multi modal text, to portray the landscape as a
fairy tale setting, which I did not remember to describe in the text. The
choice of colour also allowed me to show my characters mood, in a more emotive way as I could make use of my inference and deduction skills, and link to previous images I have seen in books or on screen.
Brooks-young (2007) provides a point that the use of auditory
tools on multimodal texts, allows literacy to appeal to different learners, who
struggle to express their thoughts through writing, in particular boys. He
explains that allowing children to record and listen to their voices,
encourages them to understand the importance of stressing certain parts of
words, and is particularly useful in helping children understanding the effects
of punctuation.
However, UKLA (2005) accept that multi modal texts can not raise
attainment in literacy merely on their own, but when used in conjunction with
purposeful questioning and cross curricular links, it encourages children to
think about the choices they made, and make links with texts they have read or
hear, and their own in order to justify their choice. UKLA (2004) explain this
will allow children to become critical writers, as eventually teachers will not
need to scaffold children with questioning as the children will automatically
be making the links as to why they are making specific decisions about word
choice or colour of a background, without conscious effort.
Bibliography
Brooks-young, S. (2007) Digital-age for literacy teachers:
Applying technology standards for everyday practice. Washington: ISTE
publications.
QCA/UKLA (2004) More than words: Multimodal texts in the
classroom London: QCA
QCA/UKLA (2005) More than words 2: Creating Stories on page
and screen. London: QCA
I found your quote from Brooks-young (2007)really interesting on the use of auditory tools in understanding punctuation. I wonder how this would look in the classroom and how the transition would be made into writing.
ReplyDeleteI have seen this used in school, with the lower ability literacy group. They used a tool which recorded their group stories and ideas on the carpet, so that they could use them as reminders when they went back to the table to write. It was interesting to note that the children commented on the way they spoke and suggested ways to improve their pronunciation. It would be interesting to see if such tools help children with EAL, improve their speaking.
DeleteI agree that when children listen and record their stories it can be beneficial to their literacy development. I saw this on my last placement the children used microphones to record their stories, this enabled them to: see how they can use their voice for emphuasis , hear where they needed punctuation or where they needed to edit their story . The microphones also seemed to act as a source of motivation as all the children wanted to record their story to be able to share it to the class . This seemed to encourage them to use their vocal skills when reading their stories.
ReplyDeleteYour experience is very similar to my own, which I have explained to Jessica. It would be interesting to know if you observed such tools used with children with EAL, and if it helped with their speaking?
DeleteMicrophones are a great way to work out want you may want to write or to collect ideas. And i agree with Annabelle, using them to find where punctuation and grammar is necessary is brilliant. The only concern could be following through with using the microphones and turning that into a written peice of text as it is initially planned. A question occurs, is it completely necessary to transcribe your words into writing, or is it enough that they have created literacy without written words? I guess it would depend on the learning outcome?
ReplyDeleteYou have raised an interesting limitation that I did not consider. I think that it may depend on the purpose of the writing, so if it is assessed then the child may need to write their story, however will the use of recording their stories limit their ability to eventually write? I assume that it may be dependent on a balance of using both recording techniques.
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