reading response 1

In all three articles the authors examine notions of the mulitimodal ways of making meaning in relationship to multiliteracy pedagogy. In the first article (intro to book), Cope and Kalantzis provide an historical overview of the beginnings of scholarship in the area of multiliteracies. They describe discussions among a group of scholars during which they considered differences in culture and national experiences that inform literacy pedagogy. The outcome of their discussion they bottled into one word -- multiliteracies -- a word which includes linguistic diversity, as well as culture, social and cognitive diversities. They make two overarching arguments: 1) that there are many channels of communication; and 2) that there are many ways of communicating.

The second and third readings continue this discussion by troubling common arguments that literacy pedagogy privileges reading and writing. Both articles make claims that meaning and making meaning is multimodal, and that humans draw on all available designs to inform the production and reproduction of meaning. All of the arguments are founded on the recognition and value of linguistic, cultural and social diversity, and take into account theories of change.

Both article address application of theories of multiliteracy pedagogy, but the New London Group provides interesting definitions of four kinds of pedagogies: situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing and transformed practice. The discussion of these available pedagogical designs is interesting to me as a teacher, especially the last two. I'm pondering which of four is most pronounced in my own teaching. Hmmm.... Obviously the last two have a higher status in the world of academia -- and in my own "lifeworld" (which, as they argue, is not always transparent), but the world I come from (my lifeworld as a child) is more comfortable with the first two. Because these lifeworlds are not always distinguishable, I am given the opportunity to try to make more obvious what my practices as a composition teacher are versus what I would like them to be.

Cope, B. & Kalantzis, M. (2000). Multiliteracies: Literacy learning and the design of social futures. London: Routledge.