Guidelines+for+Creating+Multimodal+Compositions

Herrington, Anne, Kevin Hodgson, and Charles Moran, eds//. Teaching the New Writing: Technology, Change, and Assessment in the 21st Century Classroom//. New York: Teachers College Press and the National Writing Project, 2009. Print. ** Suggestions for teaching multi-modal compositions (from Chapter 11, p. 192): **  · Think about the goals you possess for student writing and how the language you use is a reflection of them. Making a small move like using the word //compose// instead of //write// can empower students to think of themselves as multimodal composers, as individual who have a variety of rhetorical choices at their disposal.  · Know that it’s okay if you’re not familiar with all the technologies out there; many of our students are more familiar with them than we are, and we found that our students were often able to help each other work through technology-related problems.  · Know that high tech isn’t necessarily better. Some of the best projects we received involved simple cutting and pasting of clip art, magazine photos, and so forth.  · Know that your expertise about writing still applies. You should rely on that knowledge when responding to students’ projects.  · Provide students with a list of evaluation criteria as early as possible so they’ll know what your goals for the project are. You want your list to be broad enough that they will still apply to the varied modes your students will use.  · Stress to your students that technology doesn’t trump thought—that they are still charged with making meaning, not just with creating a flashy presentation.  · Encourage students to be creative where their ideas and technology meet—and be willing to be flexible about the quality of their images. Several of Julie’s students captured images of television programs by taking digital photos of them and then uploading those into their hybrid essays.  · Help your students understand their work as rhetorical, as an opportunity to consider how best to address their situation and audience using the most appropriate modes, regardless of what they may be.