Honouring ESL students' lived experiences in school learning with multiliteracies pedagogy

TLDR

The growing use of technology in schools challenges traditional teaching methods, prompting a need to explore how digital texts can share students' literate lives. The study aims to examine how teacher Marnie uses multiliteracies pedagogy and multimodal approaches to elicit ESL students' lived experiences, while also presenting the resulting digital storytelling project. Marnie implemented a multiliteracies pedagogy and multimodal approach, using situated practice and overt instruction to deepen students' understanding of a novel about life and death. The study found that intentional MLS steps enabled students to critically frame content for a digital photostory project, resulting in transformative learning.

Abstract

The increased presence of technology in school communities and children's lives poses a challenge to traditional teaching and learning tools. The present case study examines ways in which a classroom teacher, Marnie, conceptualised the use of a multiliteracies pedagogy (MLS) and a multimodal approach to elicit the lived experiences of her English as a Second Language students. Marnie's pedagogical approach was used to enhance her students' understanding of a novel with themes centred around life and death. The findings indicated that through her intentional implementation of pedagogical steps within the MLS framework, such as situated practice and overt instruction, the students were able to critically frame the content used in the creation of their digital photostory project and, as a result, have a transformative learning experience. This article has a two-fold approach: sharing of the digital storytelling project of students' experiences alongside a description of Marnie's instructional practice through the framework of multiliteracies. Presentation in this manner divulges an in-depth exploration of the pedagogical approach in which the literate lives of students can be shared through digital texts.