In Class Question

Question:

In the article “This was (NOT) an easy assignment,” we get examples of rhetoric students’ composition process as they struggle to create a multimodal text. What inspirations did you glean from these examples about how to prepare and guide students through this difficult process?

Answer 1:

The article showed me that student anxiety about creating multimodal texts is probably inevitable, due to the fact that most of them have not been offered such freedom of composing in prior English classes. I think that we, as composition instructors, need to talk directly and bluntly with our students about this anxiety, discuss where the anxiety comes from, and how we can work through it together with them. It seemed to me that a lot of the student anxiety stemmed from not knowing where to start with such complex projects. I wrote in my blog for this week that perhaps the student anxiety could be lessened by walking students through specific brainstorming/prewriting activities in class and allowing them to discuss their options with other students. That way that might be able to communicate their concerns/frustrations/anxieties with other people in the class who might be able to offer tips or solutions for them.

Answer 2:

I have taught a multimodal/multigenre assignment for a few semesters now and I always have students that completely freak out. They are just so entrenched in the process of producing alphabetic texts that any deviation is frightening for them. The fear and uneasiness seemed to be even greater when the project was individualized (i.e. one student = one project). Now, I have students do the project in groups and it’s amazing how they draw upon each others’ strengthens and have a greater sense of ease with the process when they can vent, collaborate, create, etc. with others. My role, other than offering a few suggestions for narrowing topics, possible avenues of research, etc. is quite minimal. I just let them run with it and address problems or concerns as they arise.

Questioner’s Response:

Respondents seem to focus on the issue of student anxiety when composing multimodal compositions, concerned most with how to alleviate that anxiety. Maybe this is result of my phrasing, focusing on difficulty. But I guess I thought of it more broadly than addressing anxiety.

Groups are likely a good way to approach such assignments and it allows for grouping the tech savvy with those who are not. The example of Amanda from the essay shows that social constructions of ideas were important for her development ideas. Groups would facilitate this but would also help illustrate the social constructivist aspect of communication.

Scaffolding of these assignments seems like something that is worth examining in more detail, which the first answer seems to address. I wonder if a large class could go through a process of brainstorm and idea development as a way to investigate individual brainstorming processes. In fact, an easy and quick resource like Animoto.com might make this large group modeling efficient and productive.