Wednesday June 20

Before reading the assigned chapters, my initial concerns and questions did not revolve around the validity of thinking about writing from a multimodal lens, but rather the efficacy of using and applying multimodal writing. In public institutions where state and federal assessments are designed, and for the most part, focus on a students ability to read and reproduce written alphabetical responses to alphabetical texts, there seems to be little incentive for schools to promote the various modalities of writing. Furthermore, as our system moves closer towards performance based pay, what incentive do I as an educator have in asking students to produce in different modalities when I am solely being measured by / with alphabetical responses.

Palmeri briefly addresses some of my initial concerns in these first two chapters. “We must recognize that alphabetic writing remains a valued form of composing that we are institutionally and professionally mandated to teach” (Palmeri 8). However, these chapters asked me to reflect on writing, as a process more than a product, and within the process of writing there is definitely room and need for multimodal drafting / revising / producing. In my experiences these opportunities, whether with technology, or more traditional ways, really force students to slow down and reflect on purpose and intentionality of what they are producing. Which is a foundational part of being a critical thinker, and crucial in order to become a competent alphabetic writer. I am hoping that this class and further chapters offers ideas as to how to help students transfer skills they use to create something artistically to also be able to create something alphabetically and understand that the processes involved are fundamentally the same.

Producing thinkers that are literate in writing both alphabetically, but also with technology is paramount. That is one of the main reasons for me taking this class. A challenge for me is figuring out how to incorporate some of these ideas into classroom / school that for the most part is lacking in technology that is available for students to use. This initial chapter offered some great ideas in collaborating with art and technology teachers to reinforce the creative process.