Multimodal Texts

This week we will be doing something a little different in terms of how our upload will be. As a result of having only three of us in the group now, the leader schedule had to change. Tabitha and I have both decided to be co-leaders with this week’s post. Consequently, I will be uploading my thoughts and questions on the Blinded manuscript and Tabitha will be uploading her thoughts and questions on the Boche document. Next week, I will be the leader as was decided in the first schedule.

Moving on, this week we will be discussing multimodal texts and multimodal texts as it pertains to literacy and video gaming. IRA The Reading Teacher , Reading Games: Close Playing with Multimodal Texts discussed how “literacy strategies can be adapted for “reading” and playing video games—games that embed disciplinary content in multimedia texts.”  I found myself thinking about video game usage in the classroom and thought about how I never really used video games in the classroom as a form of learning but have incorporated multimodal texts. Through the use of the computer I showed videos that had great sound and some had captions and clickable words. Students were really engaged and enjoyed viewing them.

Do you use multimodal texts with your students? If so what have you used and how has it helped your students?

In this article different forms virtual and digital games were mentioned. The different categories these games could fall in could be fantasy, role-play, and simulation environment games and they can be played with numerous players at a time. As the article says, “Within these “synthetic” worlds, children engage in a variety of economic, social, and cultural activities relevant to the physical world.” As a result of games having different aspects or features like sound, words, pictures, and moving parts they can then be considered multimodal texts and I think can be very beneficial if they are used correctly.

Have you or do you use games in your classroom? If so, what do you use them for and how have your students responded to them?

Another thing to consider is that a game can be made up of a number of features and can engage students in online participatory culture. However, when playing these games students may not always want to learn the game by reading the instructions thus demising their learning opportunities as IRA pointed out. Do you agree?

Have you or your students ever done this? Why do you think we “jump the gun” when learning new games?

I have discovered through this reading that it is important that the games used in the classroom have matching goals and curricular concepts as well. With this done literacy content can be taught using games and then they cannot be considered “non-academic.” In addition, students can engage in close reading as these games can be seen a “texts” and close viewing through a screen walk done by the teacher, which is the equivalent of a book walk, just in a digital form.

What are your thoughts on implementing games in the classroom setting?