Multiliteracies

I find the multiliteracies theory to really put into words the major switch in mindset that education has been going through. For many teachers, as a student we learned the “old school” way but are teaching in a completely different format than how we went through school. Multiliteracies is centered around design, social purpose, diversity, multimodality, and pedagogy. Multiliteracies teaches us that it is not about “filling in time” or getting through the curriculum, education is about transforming students as learners, workers, and citizens. All students come to us with different skill sets and backgrounds and it is our job as educators to purposefully differentiate instruction for students to give them individualized instruction. We need to pay attention to each student as an individual and make choices about their education based on the student, NOT based on an instructional sequence. Multiliteracies wants educators to make the mindset switch from Literacy in the singular, which encompases learning a lot of rules, spelling, and grammar to multiliteracy which focuses on student backgrounds along with the dialects and languages they come to school with. An example of this in the classroom is that we rarely are engaged with texts that are JUST text! We are looking at magazine articles, watching videos, and engaged with presentations. I would like to incorporate more student projects where they are not just engaging in these types of materials but creating them.

Critical Literacies

Critical literacies allows for students to be active in their learning. The critical literacies theory stresses bring up real issues in the classroom, discussing things that are going on in the world or in the community. Students are encouraged to look for issues in the world such as justice or pain. This theory teaches students to be active participants in their community and to learn to read and write in ways that are meaningful to their lives. An example I saw in my school this year was the 6th grade class took on a project of something they wanted to change in the community. One group of students chose recycling. They wrote letters to our principal as well as other leaders in the community (such as the director of the little league baseball organization in town) in areas they thought recycling could be better utilized. They found an issue they were passionate about and used their writing to spread a message for change.

Cognitive

The cognitive process theory relies heavily on what we know about the human brain and its function. Working memory, transcription skills, self regulation, and motivation are highlighted and shown how they work together in this theory. Cognitive theory focuses on modeling and giving students feedback in order to help the writing process. Peer editing and collaboration are also seen as beneficial and important in this theory. Teachers need to be giving students feedback and allow students to utilize peers for support during the writing time. Students should be sharing with a peer throughout the writing process and not just at the end. This can be difficult for some teachers to allow talking during the writing workshop time but it is important that we set proper expectations and teach students how to stay on task and give peer feedback throughout the writing process, allowing them to talk through their ideas, drafting, revising, and editing. Giving students the chance to write with a purpose and have choice in their topic increases motivation in students. It is important that teachers are making writing meaningful for their students. If a person has a deep knowledge of a topic it is going to be a lot easier to write about. If a writer is familiar with a certain task i.e. writing a science report, this knowledge in long term memory will free up room in working memory to focus on other aspects of the writing process.

Sociocultural

Sociocultural theory considers writing practice within their social, cultural, and historical context. These insights connect to a student’s identity and culture. Sociocultural theory pushes educators to think about writing in schools in much more broad and complex ways as it is not a one size fits all for the students in your classroom. Students come from all different kinds of cultures and backgrounds and it is important for teachers to celebrate that in writing. Teachers need to provide opportunities for students to write, build communities in their classrooms, embed writing in academic practice, connect writing to reading and speaking, provide students with a broad range of texts, recognize and value students writing practices and allow students to create their identities as writers over time. In schools, we can utilize a wide variety of mentor texts that all students in our classrooms can connect with. Even if we do not teach in a school with a very diverse population, exposing our students to other languages and dialects is a non-negotiable.

There are many similarities and differences in these theories. Critical literacies and sociocultural theory both talk about social issues. They both believe in giving students their own voice and allowing students to focus on the content rather than the grammatical aspects of writing. The cognitive theory is more focused on the brain and the writing process of how all of those things come together. Multiliteracies really focuses on the 21st century student and addresses many of the ways that our world is changing and how teachers need to make sure they are changing along with it.

In my classroom I feel as though I fall mostly between the multiliteracies and cognitive approach to writing instruction. As a first grade teacher, I want to see students engaged in the writing process. I do a lot of modeling, as talked about in the cognitive process theory and give students a lot of feedback on their writing. I also feel as though I utilize many aspects of the multiliteracies theory. I am passionate about giving students choice and making their work meaningful. I also work very hard to differentiate for each of my students and meet them where they are to help push them to where they need to go. I utilize mentor texts and my own writing as tools to help students with their writing.

I would like to expand my teaching of writing by utilizing more aspects of multiliteracies. In switching grade levels this past year, from fifth grade to first grade, I feel as though I lost a little bit of this aspect of my teaching. I utilized a lot of multimodal projects when I taught fifth grade, and I would like to spend some time thinking and researching ways that I can utilize this concept more with my first grade class. I know that my students are very comfortable with technology and with the ever changing world that we are in I belive I need to utilize these skills and continue to give them multimodal choice in their work. I know this is not something I would do with every writing piece, as my students still need to work on foundational skills, but it is definitely something I could incorporate throughout the school year. I would also like to bring in the peer editing aspect of the cognitive process. I think the mindset change of wanting the room to be silent vs. having students working together and collaborating is something that I can sometimes struggle with. When I walk past other classrooms and see students working quietly at their seats I sometimes feel as though that is what my classroom should look like as well. However, I really believe in the power of collaboration and I want to work to teach my students how to appropriately collaborate with each other and be confident knowing that I am doing what is best for my learners!