"Walking a Thin Line": Exploring the Tensions Between Composition Curriculum and Students' Lives as Digital Writers

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2020

Publication Title

Journal of Language and Literacy Education

Volume

16

Issue

2

First page number:

1

Last page number:

20

Abstract

Tensions between high school writing curricula and students’ lived literacies persist in spite of burgeoning research in multimodal composition. Drawn from the second iteration of a multi-year formative experiment, this narrative explores the dissonance stemming from the meeting of these two worlds in a project titled Digital Self Portrait. This conceptual article includes one 10th grade student’s digital multimodal project titled “Offline,” which was created on social media. “Offline” demonstrates how students can draw on various lived literacies, or resources and experiences, to successfully navigate digital writing in ways that mirror school-sanctioned writing outcomes. The second half of the study explored the change in pedagogical practice that occurred when the teacher learned to trust her students to take ownership of writing in all of its forms. In addition, as the teacher who partnered in the project reconsidered her instructional practices, this study explored how she reconceptualizes students' ownership of their own writing across many multimodal forms.

Disciplines

Educational Technology | English Language and Literature | Secondary Education

Language

English


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