STUDENT VOICE
Students were asked to rate their attitude towards reading on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being “I don't like reading and 10 being I really enjoy reading.
I thereafter asked for a reason for rating themselves in that way.
How do you prefer to get more information on a specific topic?
Text only
Text and images
Text, images and videos
Text, images, videos and speeches etc.
1.What achievement challenge are you considering as an area of focus in 2021 and why? Include in your WHY both evidence and your own passion/expertise.
I want to begin by stating that 2020 has been a year of unprecedented disruptions which left students and teachers greatly affected and I feel like justice was not done therefore I feel that I want to go back to my topic and spend another year working on the inquiry, ie how multimodal reading activities can lead to improved writing skills.
Braunger and Lewis (1997, p. 24) state that “writing leads to improved reading achievement, reading leads to better writing performance and combined instruction leads to a higher level of thinking than when either process is taught”.
2.What learnings from the 2017 - 2020 COL teacher inquiries have informed or inspired your thinking?
My inquiry in 2019 focused on vocabulary building through a spaced repetition programme to get boys excited about writing and raise student achievement. I must admit that those powerful strategies that I was so passionate about has made a huge difference in empowering boys,and will always be a part of my pedagogy.
Reading the success stories of other col teachers have also been inspirational in shaping my pedagogy.
3.How would your work support Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa?
My work would help to increase student engagement in order to facilitate learning, creating and sharing. I value the cultural background the student comes into class with and by combining that with effective technology, we could bring about greater empowerment.
4.Which elements of the extensive Manaiakalani research findings inform or challenge you as you think about this?
Wolf Fisher research found the area for improvement was reading across the cluster, and I feel strongly that the multi modal approach will help address this problem.
5. How would you like to be supported in 2021 as you undertake this inquiry?
I think the regular col meetups are great, but if more time could be allocated for group sharing, that would be very productive.
We would like the continued support of the management and BOT, as well as staff, where we have the opportunity to share our gems with staff,so that we can learn from each other.
How would you plan to support your colleagues in your school with THEIR inquiries and/or teaching in the area you are exploring?
I plan to continue with collaborative PLD at our team and whole staff meetings, where we can share face to face the strategies that worked/ did not work and also offer help and guidance to colleagues.
KAUPAPA MāORI PRINCIPLES
Considering that my target student group comprises Maori and pacifica students,it would be important to get the blessing of my maori parents demonstrating Aroha ( love and respect) for their culture by following the Kaupapa Maori principles throughout the implementation of my changed pedagogy. This would also stress the importance of kaupapa by working together with parents so that collectively we can raise student achievement.
The following principles have been selected from a list by Rangahau (1990) and I have deliberately decided to use a table to explain how these principles would guide my change. Furthermore, being a multimodal assignment topic, what better way than to use different modes of communication.
Table 1
STAKEHOLDER COMMUNITY
Having looked at several readings about the effectiveness of multi modal texts, I am more than convinced that I owe it to my students to change my pedagogy accordingly. I would therefore consider myself the first stakeholder. Due to the very nature of the way we share our professional learning, I would consider my colleague who teaches the same level as me(Y5/6) as an early adopter since we plan our lessons collaboratively. My input in planning a multi modal programme will benefit my colleague greatly. My group of Maori and Pasifica students would be the beneficiary of this change and hopefully the remainder of the class would comprise the early adopters.
It is said that you cannot kindle a light in others unless you have the spark within yourself. I therefore plan to implement this new change, and convince other colleagues on the staff of its value. The BOT therefore would be a worthy stakeholder.
I am hopeful that once the data is available to gauge the effectiveness of my changed pedagogy, other colleagues will find it encouraging to follow in my footsteps, hence bringing about change to the rest of the school population(early majority).
Being part of the COL, I am required to undertake an inquiry into my teaching and blog the process regularly. I am excited to share my new learning on my blogs, so that the greater Manaiakalani COL can benefit from my research findings about multi modality. The teachers in this COL represents the late majority.
Research 4 MULTIMODALITY AND METACOGNITIVE INSTRUCTION IN DEVELOPING TWO READING STRATEGIES by Sen & Towndrow.
learners who move across two or more modes have opportunities to invent connections between them, which can lead to richer and deeper understandings.
As the elements in a multimodal text come together, it is possible to create meanings that could not have been expressed in a mono-modal text alone;
different modes-such as images, gestures, written language, and spoken language-each play a unique role in how they help the reader make meaning.
(Gee and Hayes, 2011) state that multimodality is not new. They go on to
Explain, “People of all cultures have always used a range of ways to represent ideas and communicate meaning through speech, writing, image, gesture and movement, music and sound.”
Research 2: Teaching With Multiple Modalities by Phil Wilder- Read Write Think journal
When we know about the learning style habits of our students, we can use multiple modes of learning to engage students in literacy activities in a meaningful way. We should not strive to put every mode in every lesson, but with multimodal resources, we can successfully hone their ability to learn.
We should strive to move away from the traditional practices of teaching with one modality (typically linguistic) for all students in a lesson. Instead, if we know that our students learn in different ways, then we also need to teach students to process information through multiple modalities.
Students should be encouraged to search for and use clips from news media, blogs, etc that replace traditional print, because these help to make comprehension of the text easier.
A good strategy is to rotate students to write for the class blogs so everyone has a chance to have their work on the class blog.
Try to get students to express themselves in as many ways as possible, visually, verbally and even musically.
Writing should not only be restricted to complete essays or recounts, but also include letters to friends, lists, personal learning statements, truth statements etc.
Research 1: Nobody Wants to Read Anymore! Using a Multimodal Approach to Make Literature Engaging by Riki Thompson and Matthew McIlnay(2019)
In this article, Thompson and Mcllnay highlight concerns about changing reading habits, and they address the role of digital media in literacy practices, and the problem of adequate access to reading materials. Having found their research a bit concerning, I started to look closely at how they suggested teachers reinvogarate students’ interest in reading. My take from Thompson and Mcllnay’s article are as follows:
In English language teaching (ELT) contexts, the use of visual texts produced positive outcomes, including increasing student participation, improving reading comprehension, inspiring students’ motivation and building confidence.
A panel of experts argue that the cause of the problem “is the way schools teach reading, with current instructional approaches relying upon outdated methods based on assumptions about learning (Wexler, 2018). Students who aren't interested should be assisted to connect rather than being alienated, and they should be made available materials, including ‘books from an array of genres and text types, magazines, the Internet, resource materials, and real-life documents’(Gambrell, 2011, p. 173).
By allowing choice, children won’t view reading as a boring activity that is forced upon them.
As a solution to the problem, they advocate for an eclectic mix of genres, formats and media, and attention to multiple communicative modes.
According to Ryu (2016): ‘Graphic elements can easily lower learners’ emotional and intellectual barriers because a “picture can say a thousand words”’ (p. 64).
In researching how multimodal reading activities can lead to improved writing skills, I came across this very profound relationship between reading and writing by Braunger and Lewis, cited in Anggrainy, S(2016) .
Braunger and Lewis (1997, p. 24) state that “writing leads to improved reading achievement, reading leads to better writing performance and combined instruction leads to a higher level of thinking than when either process is taught”.
This really gave me an important insight into the value of multimodal reading for writing and vice versa. Indeed a win-win situation, and with the introduction of multi-modal texts, this positive gain for students can only be described as accelerated learning.
Research 3: Multimodal Learning Strategies and Examples by Laney Kennedy (2019)
This article gave me a really in depth understanding of multimodal learning strategies and how students can accelerate their learning as a result of the level of engagement due to the variety of modes that students could use for meaningful learning.
Multimodal learning in education means teaching concepts using multiple modes.
Modes are channels of information, or anything that communicates meaning in some way, including: pictures,illustrations, audio, speech, writing and print, music, movement, gestures, facial expressions and colour.
One student might need as many visuals as possible, while another would swap a picture for a verbal explanation in a heartbeat. Other students need information in multiple formats for concepts to stick. This is why a multimodal approach to education is best.
The following figure clearly illustrates the four modes that students use most often to make meaningful connections.
Figure 1: VARK model Source: Kompas Muda
Visual learners learn best by seeing, responding to visual cues like images, graphs or charts.
Aural learners learn best by hearing, responding to auditory cues like verbal instruction, discussions or songs.
Read/Write learners learn best by reading and writing, responding to written cues like lecture notes, books and cue cards.
Kinesthetic learners learn best by doing, responding to tactile cues like movement, actions and real-life examples.
Kennedy (2019) concludes,“A multimodal learning style works most effectively with many communication inputs, or modes. A multimodal learner will thrive in a comprehensive learning environment that uses visual, auditory and kinesthetic inputs — both verbal and non-verbal — including videos, images, actions, real-life examples and hands-on activities”.
Having closely considered my school’s reading goal ie.
To increase the number of ALL students reading at chronological age and an emphasis on acceleration in Yrs 1 & 2 students as well as Maori students in Yr 3 - 8 to be reading at chronological age, I have come up with my Inquiry topic:
If I used digital technology to increase student engagement, would that lead to accelerated learning in reading?
Having baseline data is always the best way to begin my inquiry.
The following table shows 7 priority students from my Y5/6 class. Data included both March and June eAsTTle reading results, PAT comprehension data as well as PAT vocabulary data.
