Learning Log 2 - Module 4 - Learning from Multi-Modal Texts: a look at new literacies
Module 4 - Learning from Multi-Modal Texts: a look at new literaciesScenario:Choose a resource you like to start and then find multi-modes of text, forming a short collection. It can be any combination or grouping (picture book, (digital) novels, graphica, digital content, video, web tools) for example, but must be varied).Tie your grouping together with a short rationale of its theme, big idea, the literacies it addresses and what you can do with the resource. Reference some of the readings that influenced and challenged your understanding of multimodal texts.
Challenge yourself to explore here. Try to go beyond set themes and likely groupings. Make this personal.
Tie your grouping together with a short rationale of its theme, big idea, the literacies it addresses and what you can do with the resource. Reference some of the readings that influenced and challenged your understanding of multimodal texts.
Challenge yourself to explore here. Try to go beyond set themes and likely groupings. Make this personal.
Response:
One of my passions outside of school is the ocean and its creatures, and if we get right down to it, whales are what truly make me smile. I have kayaked with orcas, gone whale watching in both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, swam with whale sharks and camped on an island where humpbacks feed all night long. This passion only surfaced after moving out to Vancouver Island about 20 years ago. Yes, I had been whale watching with my aunt as a child in Tofino, but the true iteration of this passion is one from my adult years. As a teacher in Victoria (a long way from the oceanless Ottawa where I grew up), I feel ocean awareness, climate change and general understanding of how our actions affect the ocean and its inhabitants, is an essential part of my job. I am not a science teacher, and so have made more connections to this topic with students in language arts than anything else. I have created a unit of study around the novel “A Whale of the Wild” by Roseanne Parry, which had students read that novel and then research and write their own adventure story about a creature in the ocean. What I love about this novel is that it weaves whale and ocean education into the storyline so that readers come out of it with a solid base of understanding about orcas in the Salish Sea.
A new connection to this theme and this book is through visual and interactive means. Both graphic novels and choose your own adventure stories are making a giant comeback in pop culture today. According to Publishers Weekly, graphic novel sales are on the rise (Harper, 2023). Their popularity can be seen both in bookstores and in digital form. Choose Your Own Adventure novels, originally created in the 1970s, are also having a resurgence. Netflix has even put out a number of interactive shows that bring the viewer into the experience. An ”active", rather than passive form of watching TV, where the viewer gets to choose the next moves of the actors to get a different storyline each time. These formats hold high appeal to Middle School Students because they are engaging, either visually, or by stimulating a reader or viewer’s sense of adventure. Their format is simple, even while the topics within them might be complex or require critical thinking. These two forms of literature are perfect ways to understand and to demonstrate understanding of the impact of climate change on the ocean.
Grade 8 is an excellent grade to explore a variety of forms of literature and creative writing. The curriculum is set up to explore different forms and functions of text as well as how text and visuals are displayed. Among the big ideas in the Grade 8 Language Arts curriculum are concepts of being an engaged citizen, making connections to the world and seeing text as a source of creativity and joy.
Shveta Miller (2019) spoke to the impact that student graphic novels can have on empathy. “Scott McCloud explains that when drawings of characters in graphic novels are less realistic and more iconic, readers can more easily put themselves in the situations of the characters." This same logic, of course, can be put into other contexts, such as empathy for the ocean and its characters. By learning about a creature in the ocean, researching its traits and imagining what human force could have an impact on it, whether directly or indirectly, a level of empathy can be garnered by both the author and the readers.
Another potentially impactful way of learning about and expressing the impact of humans or climate change on oceans is through a student created digital “Choose Your Own Adventure”. Putting students in the driver’s seat, not only to choose but to create the choices available to their characters with regards to their impact on the ocean would also build empathy and understanding. To this end, my newest iteration of this theme, along with a district-led boat trip on the Salish Sea and a follow-up workshop about the impact of climate change on the ocean is to have students research and write their own digital “Choose Your Own Adventure” books about the different storylines a character (ocean creature or human) can go through and how different actions could have a different outcome. The Teacher Librarian at my school shared the following site with me to teach students how to create their own Choice Stories in Google Slides. Here is a video explaining how to do the same thing, but in Google Forms.
For students who prefer a more graphic approach, I will give them the same assignment but they can use their imagination to create a graphic novel about a character (ocean creature or human) and their connection to the ocean and climate change. If they prefer to go digital, they can try using Storyboard That Comic Maker or Comic Strips on Canva
In my research about this topic, I have discovered some lovely digital graphic resources for my students to check out to learn about the oceans and digital graphics/choose your own adventure at the same time. This particular list is new and building and does not directly relate to researching the ocean or climate change. I have such a list elsewhere in my files. This resource list is meant for inspiration and learning about graphic novels and Choose Your Own Adventure style writing.
Graphic Novels or Digital Graphic Novels
EcoComics
https://www.ecocomicsdatabase.com/
A database of ecology/environment-based comics and graphic novels broken down by grade level and subject level.
Digital Graphic Novels with Global Goals Themes (and other resources)
Science Comics - Diving into Whales
https://www.amazon.ca/Science-Comics-Whales-Diving-into/dp/1250228387
This series takes a graphic novel approach to scientific topics. This particular graphic novel is all about… whales!
The Ocean is Broken
http://ocean.sutueatsflies.com/
A poignant digital graphic novel that explores the future of the ocean if pollution and garbage continues to go uncurbed.
Digital Comics
A collection of digital comics for inspiration.
The Whale Library
https://www.europecomics.com/album/the-whale-library/
A graphic depiction of a whale and a man who meet on the ocean.
French Language graphic novels with environmental themes:
L’essor des pionniers de l'assiette
https://www.yumpu.com/fr/document/read/60121824/rise-of-the-plate-pioneeerz-french
Les Aventures de Frère Terre
https://www.yumpu.com/fr/document/view/61767212/les-aventures-de-frere-terre
La Foret D’Anna
https://www.yumpu.com/fr/document/view/61767129/la-foret-danna
La Patrouille De Poséidon
https://www.yumpu.com/fr/document/view/60796730/poseidon-patrol-french
Digital Graphic Novels - How to and articles
Teaching Social Justice with Comics
https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/teaching-social-justice-with-comics/2013/09
Visual Storytelling and Environment
University of South Carolina - Graphic novels help teens learn about racism, climate change and social justice - reading list. https://sc.edu/uofsc/posts/2020/06/06_conversation_graphic_novels.php
Storyboard That Comic Maker
https://www.storyboardthat.com/comic-maker
Comic Strips on Canva
https://www.canva.com/create/comic-strips/
TedX Graphic Novel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAyEbgSPi9w
Choose Your Own Adventure or Interactive Storytelling
Netflix Interactive
https://www.polygon.com/22286070/netflix-interactive-shows-movies-ranked-choose-love-review
Weirdwood
https://reli.sh/games/project/weirdwood-manor-vol-1/
List of Choose Your Own Adventure books
https://imaginationsoup.net/best-choose-your-own-adventure-books/
Ditch That Textbook
https://ditchthattextbook.com/choice-stories-in-google-slides-how-to-ideas-for-class/
Pick-a-Path Story Resources
https://lwdtsupport.weebly.com/pick-a-path-stories.html
What Educators can learn from CYOA books
https://www.ascd.org/blogs/what-educators-can-learn-from-choose-your-own-adventure-books
How to Create Choose your Own Adventure with Google Forms - Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzAc7Dywpz4
Google EDU choose your own adventure
https://sites.google.com/tcea.org/level2/choose-your-own-adventure
Sources:
“Building Student Success - B.C. Curriculum.” Curriculum.gov.bc.ca, curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/english-language-arts/8/core. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023.
Harper , David. “Comics Retailers Navigate a New Normal.” PublishersWeekly.com, 3 Mar. 2023, www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/91678-comics-retailers-navigate-a-new-normal.html.
Miller, Shveta. (July 21, 2019). "The surprising benefits of student-created graphic novels." Cult of Pedagogy. Retrieved from: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/student-graphic-novels/
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