Writing as Creative Design : Constructing Multimodal Arguments in a Multiliteracies Framework

We propose that the perspective of multiliteracies frames writing instruction as the creative construction of meaning across various modalities, and we illustrate how that view might be instantiated instructionally by engaging students in the creative design of multimodal arguments. The background and key elements of the multiliteracies perspective are overviewed, as is relevant research linking it to multimodal writing and creativity. An instructional example of using digital tools to construct multimodal arguments drawn from our work in classrooms is provided. We discuss the challenges writing teachers face in addressing the conventional goals of writing instruction while integrating creatively rich, multimodal digital forms of expression into teaching, and we suggest research that might address those challenges. Keywords: multiliteracies, creativity, multimodal, composition, argument Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 4 For teachers of writing, the contemporary literacy landscape presents challenges, but also inviting opportunities. The goals for helping students develop proficiency in writing conventional texts remain. The implicit rationale for those goals is to insure academic success, future employment, and national competitiveness in a global economy (e.g., National Commission on Writing, 2003, 2004). Although given less emphasis, though presumably still important, is preparing students to engage in democratic citizenship and dialogue, particularly by constructing and presenting cogent and convincing written arguments. For example, in the United States the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in the area of writing reinforce attention to conventional genres such as developing informational texts and reasoned argument (Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO] & the National Governors Association Center [NGAC], 2010). However, these traditional genres and their attendant goals exist today within an increasingly post-typographic world where digital forms of communication now predominate (Crockett, Jukes, & Churches, 2011; Jenkins, Clinton, Purushotma, Robison, & Weigel, 2006). Writing in a digital world entails unique tools, forms, and genres of writing, suggesting new skills, strategies, and dispositions for reading and writing. That reality cannot be ignored. Yet, addressing it, especially given a continued commitment to conventional writing, is clearly a challenge. Nonetheless, as we argue here, the diverse affordances of digital tools, the multimodal genres they have birthed, and the expansive audiences they have generated offer engaging new avenues for creative expression that might be seamlessly merged with conventional forms of writing. Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 5 The revolutionary shift of literacy toward the digital is beginning to appear in curriculum development. The CCSS in the area of language arts again provide an example. One of those standards calls for students to gather information from print and digital sources, and another calls for students to collaborate and publish their writing online (CCSSO & NGAC, 2010). Yet, the gap between the literacy being developed inside of school and practiced outside school remains (e.g., Hutchison & Henry, 2010; Lenhart, Arafeh, Smith, & Macgill, 2008). A majority of adolescents are engaged in and adept at using digital media for writing outside of school, although more for social purposes than for developing the reasoned arguments necessary in academic and work settings and in exercising citizenship (Lenhart et al., 2008). Data suggest that they are less adept at associating digital tools with academic tasks (Purcell, Heaps, Buchanan, & Friedrich, 2013). Data also suggest that, although language arts teachers acknowledge a need to integrate new forms of literacy into their instruction and favor doing so, many of them equate integration with simply using digital technologies, rather than creating new instructional activities and adopting new curricular goals (Hutchison & Reinking, 2011). How do writing teachers contend with the challenges and exploit the opportunities of teaching writing given the current landscape that continues to value traditional goals of writing, while embracing digital forms of expression? We believe that focusing on creative construction of meaning from the standpoint of what has been termed multiliteracies is a useful way forward. Specifically, digital texts enhance creative construction of meaning by providing a wider range of affordances that are increasingly aligned with the literacy that students engage in outside of school and that are likely to move increasingly into the mainstream of written communication. At the same time, writing digital texts offers students creative opportunities to engage in modes of thinking and constructing meaning that develop and reinforce the conventional goals of Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 6 writing instruction, particularly those associated with academic success. In subsequent sections, we elaborate that view, focusing on the creative construction of what we call multimodal arguments. We also share our experiences working with middle-school students engaged in developing multimodal arguments to illustrate how such activities might encourage creative construction of meaning while simultaneously addressing conventional and emerging goals for writing instruction. Multiliteracies, Multimodal Writing, and Creativity Viewing all forms of writing as a creative construction of meaning requires a view of literacy that includes, but transcends, the relatively narrow symbol systems and technologies of conventional printed texts. Such a view is well established in the literature about literacy, if not in practice. Most prominently, a group of scholars, referring to themselves as the “New London Group” (NLG) because they met in New London, New Hampshire, outlined a new approach to literacy pedagogy that they called multiliteracies (NLG, 1996). Their overarching aim was to broaden existing conceptions of literacy to accommodate increasing social and cultural diversity and to acknowledge a wider range of modes for expressing meaning, focusing particularly on emerging digital technologies. These aims are particularly relevant to conceptualizing writing as the creative construction of meaning and specifically to constructing multimodal arguments. Some of the entailments of the NLG’s multiliteracies perspective, which we discuss in the following sections, are particularly relevant to the perspective we are offering here. Constructing Meaning is Multimodal The NLG (1996) proposed that a pedagogy based on multiliteracies must be multimodal including, but going beyond, the linguistic elements of conventional literacy. Thus, reading and writing must also acknowledge the visual, auditory, spatial, and gestural modes. The NLG Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 7 (1996) defined modes as a way of discussing meaning in “various realms” (p. 77). Subsequently, other scholars discussing multimodality have described modes as methods for making meaning (Albers, 2006), as genre (Hicks, 2009), and as sets of semiotic resources (Jewitt & Kress, 2010). Modes vary, and meaning is often constructed differently across those modes. Presciently, in light of the then only emerging digital forms, the NLG (1996) argued, “In a profound sense, all meaning making is multimodal. All written text is also visually designed” (p. 81). That view echoed Lanham’s (1993) argument that emerging digital forms inspire a visual, not a philosophical rhetoric, in which readers look at not through the visual representation of a text. Later Kress (2000, 2003), a member of the NLG, argued that the central role of written language may move to the margins as communication becomes increasingly visual and as mainstream communication moves from a page to a screen. Learners as Designers in a Digital Context The multiliteracies perspective sees the construction of meaning as being carried out by designers who employ multimodal tools in creating texts in a sociocultural context. Design is seen as “a sufficiently rich concept upon which to found a language curriculum and pedagogy” (NLG, 1996, p. 73). However, according to Cope and Kalantzis (2000) multimodal design “is . much more that the sum of linguistic, visual, spatial, gestural and audio modes of meaning. It also involves processes of integration and moving the emphasis backwards and forwards between the various modes” (p. 211). Put another way, design is an inherently creative act. The NLG (1996) recognized the link between design, creativity, and innovation by introducing the term hybridity referring to “multifarious combinations of modes of meaning cutting across boundaries of conventions and creating new conventions” (p. 82). Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 8 Digital texts personify the creative act of designing multimodal texts because their inherent affordances entail various linguistic, auditory, and visual media (i.e., they entail multimedia; see Reinking, 2005) that can be blended in infinite ways. However, the design of digital texts today extends beyond what the NLG might have imagined. For example, by 2009 adolescents already engaged with modes of media—music, television, computers, and video games—more than seven hours a day (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010). More recent data document that 95% of teenagers are online (Madden, Lenhart, Duggan, Cortesi, & Gasser, 2013), and 83% of young adults use online social networking sites (Duggan & Brenner, 2013). Alvermann (2008) argued that these shifts in the use of communication media suggest the need to examine adolescent literacy and how the literacies of students’ lives outside of school ma