Rich Library: Multimodal
Overview
Providing access to a variety of multimodal texts that align with the interests of learners allows them to practice digital, information, and Critical Literacy. Because adolescents are exposed to increasingly complex print and digital texts in and out of school, offering these texts that include audio, images, music, and video content can provide opportunities for students to apply their strategies to engage with these texts. Allowing students to use multimodal texts collaboratively can also make them more meaningful, but it is also important to provide adequate scaffolding for students to be deeply engaged.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch how this eighth grade teacher uses a variety of digital tools -- PBS Kids, Nearpod, Padlet, Tellagami, Google Drive, and Kahoot -- to support student learning and collaboration on a lesson about Vocabulary and mood. She explains her thinking and reasoning behind why she chose certain resources for different aspects of the lesson. Towards the end, the students reflect on the lessons and how the different tools and modalities supported their learning experience.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Learning Management Systems like Canvas can help teachers and students create multimodal resources for a variety of topics. Starting at 4:49, watch how a page can include text, videos, and a variety of other online resources to support digital literacy.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Physical Space Strategies
Exposure to natural light is beneficial to the students' health and can increase their alertness and Attention.
Having private or semi-private spaces where students can go to support Self-regulation and individual deliberate practice.
Creating student-driven, flexible learning spaces involves setting up the classroom to support the desired learning outcomes for each activity.
Multiple display spaces promote collaboration by allowing groups to share information easily as they work.
Multiple writing surfaces promote collaboration by allowing groups to share information easily as they work.
Decreasing extra audio input provides a focused learning environment.
Providing texts in braille, large font, and with text-to-speech allows learners with visual needs to access content.
Reading materials of varying complexity and levels are necessary for all students to experience success.
With figurative language and creative sentence structure, poetry supports the development of a deeper understanding of the different ways language makes meaning.
Books on social and emotional learning (SEL) topics, such as developing empathy and productive persistence, help teach these skills.
Providing ways for students to adjust sound level supports individual auditory needs.
Providing ways for students to meet their individual temperature needs supports Attention and Self-regulation.
Spaces that are structured, organized, and clean provide increased room for collaboration and active learning.
