AED 408, Spring 2014

Inquiry II: Reflection on Multimodal Project

Part I: Reflections on your experiences with inquiry I

Reflect and write about your experiences during inquiry I, regarding your close textual analysis of
multiple passages and the production of your group multimodal representation of these analyses.
Please label each section of your inquiry with the categories provided, and please speak to the
questions provided in well-organized paragraphs. Please cite course readings as needed, putting
the authors last name(s) and the date of the article or book, and the page number if you quoted.
Group Organization:
How did you decide how to organize yourselves?
What participation structure(s) did you form?
What roles did each person play within those participation structures?
What were the affordances and limitations of the organizational structures you used to
mobilize for this project?
Writing Process
What did your brainstorming, drafting, revising, and editing processes entail?
What was particularly effective about these processes for your final product?
What other processes might have been helpful?
Literacy Practices
What did your individual and collective literacy practices entail as you read, analyzed,
and produced these texts?
Did you have any moments where you invented a new literacy practice that had a
profound impact on the project you were able to produce? Explain.
Frameworks for Reading/Interpreting Literature/Texts
What did you learn about the frameworks provided in class regarding social location,
race, privilege, racism, sexism, Patriarchy, heterosexism, etc.?
How did these frameworks inform your understandings of these adolescents and of the
identities they were navigating and constructing for themselves as they learned to read
and write?
What identities as readers, researchers, writers, scholars, people, men, women, African
Americans, Germans, Nepalese, etc. were they navigating and constructing for
themselves?
Literature/Texts
What did you learn about the design of literary texts?
What did you learn about the art of storytelling?
What did you learn about the identities these adolescents were representing and how and
why they made the language choices they made to represent their identities in particular
ways?
What did you learn about the purposes and audiences of these adolescents?
Multimodal Analysis/Interpretation
What did you learn about the affordances and challenges of capturing the stories of these
adolescents with multimedia?

How did drawing upon multimedia influence your analysis and understandings of these
stories?
How did designing for and having an audience influence your analysis and
understandings of these stories?
Which modes or combinations of modes did you find to be particularly effective in
representing their individual or collective stories?

Language
What did you learn about language?
o What did you learn about the languages of these adolescents and how they
changed over time?
o What did you learn about what these adolescents could do with language?
o What did you learn about what you could do with language through multimodal
analysis and how multimedia compared with just words?
Themes/Story/Symbols
What was the story/argument you intended to convey with your multimodal project?
How (what literacy practices/writing processes) did you arrive at this story/argument?
What themes or symbols supported the orchestration of this story/argument?
Do you feel your audience understood the themes, symbols, and argument you were
making?
Adolescents, Adolescent Literacies, and Reading/Writing Pedagogical Design
What did you learn about these adolescents in particular and their acquisition of
language, reading, writing, and research over time, across significant literacy events?
What kind of literacy practices, frameworks, motivations, questions, and social
circumstances fostered their desire and ability to learn how to read and write?
What kinds of languages and cultural practices and insights into the world and their
circumstances were they learning as they learned to read and write?
What kinds of identities were they researching and acquiring as they learned how to read
and write?
What kinds of teaching of reading and writing helped them find the courage to overcome
tremendous obstacles and to expand their literacies?
Who were their teachers and what did they do for them to help them with each significant
literacy event?
You as a Writer
What did you learn about yourself as a reader, researcher, and writer?
What new identities as a reader, researcher, and writer did you acquire with this project?
What new understandings of your writing processes and your writing desires and goals?
What did you learn about your ability to communicate yourself and your analyses and
interpretations to yourself, to your group, and to your audience?
Part II: Reflections on Your Emerging Teaching Goals
Drawing on your experiences with this project and on your readings and notes from
Mirror Images and from supplementary articles, what are your goals as a teacher for
each of the following components of writing pedagogy:
o Frameworks for relationship building with adolescents: What did you
learn about the key components for you of relationship building with
adolescents? How will you work to earn their trust and respect? How will you
use writing and reading to get to know your students, their cultures,
backgrounds, questions, desires, and experiences? What did you learn about
what obstacles you might have to overcome because of your own cultural
background, social positionings, and languages in building these relationships?
What ideas do you have for how you can face these obstacles?

o Frameworks for writing: What is writing, where does it come from? How is
it connected to storytelling? What kinds of language practices and writing tools
are available for writers to make sense of their identities? In what ways are
writers researching cultural practices and their identities as they read and write?
o Frameworks for the writing process: What are writing processes? What is
the range of writing processes you encountered in your group? How do we come
to determine what processes work for us as writers? What role do collaborative
writing, feedback, and research play in the honing in of productive writing
processes?
o Critical analysis of texts: What does it mean to critically research and analyze
texts? What role does critically analyzing multiple texts play? What is critical
literacy? What does it look like to enact critical literacy when reading,
researching, and writing? In what ways can critical literacy be life saving for
adolescents?
o Writing Purposes: What are meaningful writing purposes for adolescents?
How can we help students find their own writing purposes and take ownership of
their own writing?
o Critical Frameworks: What kinds of frameworks support adolescent analysis
of texts and writers they may not have met before?
o Language Acquisition: How do adolescents acquire language and new
identities over time? How can you support their language acquisition as they are
reading, researching, and writing texts?
o Smaller Writing Assignments: What kinds of smaller, scaffolded writing
assignments support adolescents in gaining confidence as readers and writers?
o Group Work/Peer Evaluation: What kinds of group work and peer
evaluation support adolescents in gaining confidence, voice, knowledge, and
language?
o Teacher Conferences: What kinds of positioning of student writing and
reading supports adolescents in gaining confidence as readers and writers? What
kinds of feedback support students?
o Assessments: What kinds of student, peer, and teacher evaluation and
assessments support adolescents in gaining confidence and competence as
readers, researchers, language users, and writers?
o Multimodal Writing: What do you think a project like this would offer
adolescents?

Writing Guidelines and Grading

To write this inquiry, please make sure to do the following:
Separate each part and address each of the questions listed under each section.
After addressing each question, re-visit your writing to look for themes, powerful
insights, and emerging questions that are arising for you.
Then, revise your writing, paying attention to any arguments or questions that are
coming up for you regarding writing and the teaching of writing before completing Part
II.

Grading Procedure
You will be graded on the following:

The depth of your reflections and analysis, drawing on specific examples, using course
readings, your life experiences, and your experiences with your multimodal project.
The logic and significance of the organization of your ideas within and between
paragraphs.
Your sentence structure, style, diction, and grammar usage.

Standards Addressed
Genre
Study

Score/Level

2.4
Candidate
Attitudes:
critical
thinking

2.4 Engage in few

practices designed
to assist students
in developing
habits of critical
thinking and
judgment

2.4 Use practices

designed to assist
students in
developing habits
of critical thinking
and judgment

2.4 Design and

implement
instruction and
assessment that
assist students in
developing habits
of critical thinking

3.2.1
Candidate
knowledge:
influence of
language
and visual
images on
thinking and
composing

3.2.1 Demonstrate
a lack of
understanding of
the influence that
language and
visual images
have on thinking
and composing;

3.2.1 Use their

understanding of
the influence of
language and
visual images on
thinking and
composing in their
own work and in
their teaching;

3.2.1 Create
opportunities and
develop strategies
that permit
students to
demonstrate,
through their own
work, the
influence of
language and
visual images on
thinking and
composing;

3.2.2
Candidate
Knowledge:
inquiry,
reflection,
expression*

3.2.2 Show
infrequent use of
writing, speaking,
and observing
throughout the
program as major
forms of inquiry,
reflection, and
expression

3.2.2 Use writing,

speaking, and
observing as
major forms of
inquiry, reflection,
and expression in
their coursework
and teaching

3.2.2 Create
opportunities and
develop strategies
for enabling
students to
demonstrate how
they integrate
writing, speaking,
and observing in
their own learning
processes

3.2.3
Candidate
knowledge:
composing
process

3.2.3 Exhibits
infrequent use of
the processes of
composing to
create various
forms of oral,
visual, and written
literacy;

3.2.3 Uses
composing
processes in
creating various
forms of oral,
visual, and written
literacy of their
own and engage

3.2.3
Demonstrates a
variety of ways to
teach students
composing
processes that
result in their
creating various

Genre
Study

Score/Level
students in these
processes

forms of oral,
visual, and written
literacy

3.2.4
Candidate
knowledge:
Variety of
audiences
and
purposes*

3.2.4 Uses writing,

visual images, and
speaking for a
variety of
audiences and
purposes

3.2.4
Demonstrates,
through their own
learning and
teaching, how
writing, visual
images, and
speaking can
effectively perform
a variety of
functions for
varied audiences
and purposes;

3.2.4 Engages
students in
activities that
provide
opportunities for
demonstrating
their skills in
writing, speaking,
and creating visual
images for a
variety of
audiences and
purposes;

3.2.5
Candidate
knowledge:
creating and
critiquing
print and
non-print
texts

3.2.5 Shows little

knowledge of
language structure
and conventions in
creating and
critiquing print
and nonprint
texts;

3.2.5
Demonstrates
knowledge of
language structure
and conventions
by creating and
critiquing their
own print and
nonprint texts and
by assisting their
students in such
activities;

3.2.5 Uses a
variety of ways to
assist students in
creating and
critiquing a wide
range of print and
nonprint texts for
multiple purposes
and help students
understand the
relationship
between symbols
and meaning.

3.4.1
Candidate
Knowledge:
Writing
strategies*

3.4.1 Uses a
limited number of
writing strategies
to generate
meaning and
clarify
understanding

3.4.1 Uses a
variety of writing
strategies to
generate meaning
and clarify
understanding and
draw upon that
knowledge and
skill in their
teaching

3.4.1 Develops in
their students an
ability to use a
wide variety of
effective
composing
strategies to
generate meaning
and to clarify
understanding

3.4.2
Candidate
knowledge:
different
forms of
discourse***

3.4.2 Produces a
very limited number
of forms of written
discourse and show
little understanding
of how written
discourse can
influence thought
and action

3.4.2 Produces
different forms of
written discourse
and understand how
written discourse
can influence
thought and action;

3.4.2 Teaches
students to make
appropriate
selections from
different forms of
written discourse for
a variety of
audiences and
purposes and to
assess the
effectiveness of their

Genre
Study

Score/Level
products in
influencing thought
and action.

3.7.1
Candidate
knowledge:
research and
theory

3.7.1 Show a lack of

knowledge of the
major sources of
research and theory
related to English
language arts;

3.7.1 Use major

sources of research
and theory related
to English language
arts to support their
teaching decisions;

3.7.1 Reflect on
their own teaching
performances in
light of research on,
and theories of, how
students compose
and respond to text
and make
adjustments in their
teaching as
appropriate;

4.1
Candidate
Knowledge:
Selecting
resources

4.1 Show limited

experience in
examining, and
selecting resources
for instruction, such
as textbooks, other
print materials,
videos, films,
records, and
software,
appropriate for
supporting the
teaching of English
language arts

4.1 Examine and

select resources for
instruction such as
textbooks, other
print materials,
videos, films,
records, and
software,
appropriate for
supporting the
teaching of English
language arts;

4.1 Understand the

purposes and
characteristics of
different kinds of
curricula and related
teaching resources
and select or create
instructional
materials that are
consistent with what
is currently known
about student
learning in ELA

4.7
Candidate
Pedagogy:
language for
a variety of
purposes**

4.7 Demonstrate
infrequent use of
instruction that
promotes
understanding of
varied uses and
purposes for
language in
communication;

4.7 Engage students

in learning
experiences that
consistently
emphasize varied
uses and purposes
for language in
communication;

4.7 Integrates
throughout the ELA
curriculum learning
opportunities in
which students
demonstrate their
abilities to use
language for a
variety of purposes
in communications

4.10 Integrate
assessment
consistently into
instruction by:

4.10 Integrate
assessment
consistently into
instruction by:

Detail : Using a
variety of formal and
informal assessment
activities and
instruments to
evaluate processes
and products;
Detail : Creating
regular opportunities
to use a variety of
ways to interpret
and report

Detail : Establishing
criteria and
developing
strategies for
assessment that
allow all students to
understand what
they know and can
do in light of their
instructional
experiences;
Detail : Interpreting

4.10 Use
4.10
assessment in
Candidate
instruction by:
Pedagogy:
Assessment

Detail : Failing to
use formal and
informal assessment
activities and
instruments to
evaluate student
work;
Detail : Failing to
employ a variety of
means to interpret
and report
assessment methods
and results to

Genre
Study

Score/Level
students,
assessment methods
administrators,
and results to
parents, and others; students, parents,
administrators, and
other audiences;

the individual and

group results of any
assessments and
drawing upon a
variety of
information in these
assessments to
inform instruction;
Detail : Assisting all
students in
becoming monitors
of their own work
and growth in
speaking, listening,
writing, reading,
enacting, and
viewing;
Detail : Explaining to
students, parents,
and others
concerned with
education how
students are
assessed.