Chapter 3: Composing Multimodal Assignments

Citation: Hess, Mickey. “Composing Multimodal Assignments.” Multimodal Composition: Resources for Teachers. Hampton Press, Cresskill, New Jersey, 2007. 29-37. Print.

Reading and Thinking         

Composing Multimodal Assignments provides teachers with a guide for designing multimodal works for classrooms. The practical approach in his work demonstrates for readers how much of an advantage it is to incorporate multimodality is in classrooms today by highlighting the strengths at the beginning of the chapter writing “one of the most important reasons to design assignments for multimodal composition is to expand students’ thinking about composition and how this complex set of processes works” Multimodal works combine several modes of communications, such as text, audio, visual into one medium, and online spaces. The trick is to provide enough support for the more traditional alphabetic texts students encounter in their classrooms alongside the multimodal projects to enhance their understanding of complex communications and how different modes operate and interact with one another. These opportunities for composing encourage play, creativity, experimentation… And yes, frustration, risk-taking–calling for a need to trust and for collaboration between teacher and students.  This is a way for students to experiment with identity and communication in a way that is otherwise not normally optional in academic settings.