CHAPTER 4: English Language Arts Curriculum, Wide-Awakeness: The Aesthetic Purposes of Multimodal learning, Literary Theory and Writerly Texts

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Guidelines for both elementary and secondary teaching provides some consistent views about literacy education (NCTE n.d.a, n.d.b). Although profound differences exist between elementary and secondary English Language Arts (ELA) instruction, both coalition conferences endorse multimodal teaching and learning. “The arts of language (reading, writing, speaking, and listening),” the position papers posit, “are inextricably related to thinking” (NCTE n.d.a, n.d.b). Learning in the English language arts occurs as a reflective practice, and as meaning construction “from experience, including encounters with many kinds of print and non-print texts” (NCTE n.d.a, n.d.b). The purpose for employing multimodalities in ELA teaching and learning are primarily due to the meaning-making experience. Teachers should aim to develop a student’s capacity to interact with and engage with an “interplay of meaning-making systems” so that they can build fluency with “multiple ways of knowing” because multimodality are “co-dependent on each other.” As the NCTE (n.d.c) guidelines state for young children (elementary level) in particular, “Young children practice multimodality literacies naturally and spontaneously. They easily combine and move between drama, art, text, music, speech, sound, physical movement, animation/gaming etc.” ELA teachers have a responsibility to use multi-modal learning, specifically combining the arts with reading and writing to ensure that they build relevancy for students. Many young children and young adults live and negotiate multimodalities in their everyday lives, which helps them to see the intricacies and uses of different types of texts and knowledge production. The over-reliance on high stakes testing can limit the type of literacyrich experiences students are accustomed to and need in the school environment.