Digital and Multimodal Literacies and Student Motivation

  Introduction The theme of this blog is to examine the relationship of digital and multimodal literacies and the potential impacts on student engagement and motivation.  In my previous posts, I have explained how digital and multimodal literacies can be used to support motivation in early and adolescent learners, as well as how they can help struggling readers.  This post will strive to give examples and ideas of how to use and support digital and multimodal literacies in the classroom for a variety of learners from studies conducted by researchers.  E-Books and Digital Readers As previously mentioned, digital texts can provide a range of accessibility functions for students to have more positive experiences with reading.  In a case study with a class of second graders by Larson (2010), it was found that by allowing students to have autonomy with the e-readers and texts that the students were engaged and more motivated in the reading practices.  In thi...

Introduction In previous posts, I have discussed the impacts that digital and multimodal literacies can have on early and adolescent reader development.  I have also introduced my implementation plan for using digital and multimodal literacies with my fifth grade reading intervention students, while focusing on the effects of the lessons and activities on their individual motivation and engagement in literacy practices. In this post, I will discuss digital and multimodal literacies and their relationship to the motivations and engagement in struggling readers.  Accessibility and Success In a study by Anderson (2018), it was observed in a classroom of diverse third grade readers how the effects of e-readers can be positive for student engagement and motivation in literacy activities.  This case study found that students were able to use their e-readers to easily access texts that suited their interests and abilities.  This support of autonomy allowed students to i...

Introduction In my previous post, I shared my implementation plan for engaging my students in inquiry using digital and multimodal literacies.  This post will explain some of the resources that I chose to use for my implementation plan.  I teach at a first-year one-to-one school, meaning, all of our students have devices, whether they be a tablet or a laptop.  We are also a school that utilizes Google Suite for Education.  This allows each student access to an email account and the different tools and features that Google has to offer.  For my implementation plan, I chose to stick with these Google tools and features for ease of use and to hopefully prepare for the chance of teaching remotely during the pandemic.  I will be sharing the following resources:  Google Jamboard, Kiddle, and Google Slides.  I hope to use these resources in my plan to help my students to guide their questioning, understanding of resources, evaluating resources, synthes...

  Introduction     Previously, I have talked about the role of motivation on reading development for both beginning and adolescent readers, and how digital and multimodal literacies can be used to support literacy skills.  This week I will share with you my plan for implementing digital and multimodal literacies in my very own classroom.  I hope to begin these lessons in the coming weeks and will share with you the outcomes and challenges of my plan and teaching with digital and multimodal literacies. My Classroom     I teach in a rural Oklahoma Title I school as a reading interventionist.  I serve grades kindergarten through fifth grade in a small group setting with targeted instruction guided by their reading screening, progress monitoring, and diagnostic assessments.  I plan to use the QUEST Model (Dobler and Eagleton, 2015) to implement teaching with digital and multimodal literacies with my fifth grade reading intervention group. ...

Introduction Last week, I discussed early reading development and motivation and how digital and multimodal literacies can both help and hinder our young readers.  In this post, I will mention the impact of motivation on reading in adolescent readers.  Adolescent readers are those who have transitioned from building foundational literacy skills and learning to read, to reading to learn new concepts and for leisure.  I will conclude this post by exploring research that includes digital and multimodal literacies that affect adolescent readers and their reading development.   Adolescent Readers and Motivation According to Hinchman and Sheridan (2014), motivation is one of the key factors of reading that should take focus in the classroom because of research findings that indicate a transition in motivation for adolescent readers. These authors determine that this is caused by a performance-oriented learning climate, such as the focus on grades, and the percepti...

    Introduction      This week, I will discuss the impacts of digital and multimodal literacies in early reading development and motivation.  For the purpose of this week’s topic, I want to differentiate that early reading development will include ages ranging from infancy to third grade, and both emergent and beginning readers. Early Reading Development, Motivation, and New Literacies Early reading development is crucial to later success in both reading comprehension and reading motivation.  Schwanenflugel and Knapp (2016) express that learning to read begins at infancy in the home.  They also state that factors such as oral language such as the quality and quantity of conversations that children engage in with their families and supported and stimulating play experiences impact early literacy skills.  However, they also mention the impacts of screen time on children’s reading development.  Schwanenflugel and Knapp cite a study that ...