“Language Is More Than Just Words”: Multimodal Explorations of Language and Identity in High School

• In Event: Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Multimodalities, Multiliteracies, Writing, and Identity

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the writings and reflections of students in a 10th grade Humanities classroom in a digitally-sophisticated public high school. This work considers how students engage technology in the pursuit of meaningful literacy experiences and the ways in which students take up the invitation to author their Language Autobiography in three different modes: (1) a written essay, (2) a digital story, and (3) a public mural. This paper deepens our understandings of how the opportunity for students to compose multimodal autobiographical narratives and view their peers’ autobiographies supports adolescents’ development as new media composers. The paper has implications for how we design writing and literacy spaces that create possibilities for adolescents’ current and future lives.

Author

• Molly Buckley-Marudas, Cleveland State University