Effective pedagogy should be multimodal, adaptable, and inclusive. I achieve these objectives by engaging students with audiovisual material and offering numerous opportunities for low-stakes participation. As a graduate of a large university with a diverse student base, I observed the benefits of various pedagogical approaches, from lectures to group work and to discussion, and that students learn in diverse ways. As a result, while I engage students in fruitful group discussions about the writing process or their interpretations of film clips, I also design lesson plans with lectures, group activities, and student production of writing or audiovisual compositions. Additionally, I encourage students to participate in online discussion environments to bring the voices and ideas of students who are more reserved in class sessions into those spaces. Many instructors are adapting their lesson plans for online audiovisual settings during the COVID-19 pandemic, and one silver lining amidst the terrible circumstances is that these instructors have become aware of the merits of audiovisual online pedagogy. Research institutions are ideally situated to develop adaptive learning environments for diverse student populations working together to learn from, interrogate, and make meaning with theoretical material.
To facilitate the goals of multimodality and inclusivity, I structure my composition courses to emphasize engagement and production of both audiovisual and alphanumeric textual media. These practices are informed by Gunther Kress (2000; 2003), Lankshear and Knobel (2003; 2011), and Shipka (2011). In particular, Kress reevaluates English curricula and the different paths to literacy, asking what kinds of communication skills young people will need in order to thrive, and answers this question by arguing that both text and images are critical to modern literacy. He argues for the inclusion of images as well as text in composition education, as the two modes accomplish different compositional goals, and states that images will begin to replace text in many communicational contexts. As Lankshear and Knobel and Shipka highlight, this becomes more accurate each year since Kress’ writing, with memes, emojis, and modern video communication tools. As a result, my upper division Advanced Argumentative Writing course required students to produce a persuasive audiovisual essay, considering audience and rhetorical appeals. Furthermore, in other writing classes, I assign an audiovisual Public Service Announcement, for which students go outside or elsewhere on campus to film during and after class; in-class presentations of these videos lead to unique discussions of rhetoric, editing, and compositional choices. I also provide myriad opportunities for students to work together and within the classroom to work towards Bruffee’s (1993) collaborative work environment. For example, I developed interactive writing activities for which students perform Word Jenga together, cutting wordy, passive, and indirect phrasing to observe how multiple revisions can continually improve writing. With my Advanced Argumentative Writing students, I implemented a lesson plan about logical fallacies and the necessity of continually providing evidence to prove claims. My writing feedback also repeatedly pushed them to achieve higher levels of specificity and clarity. Furthermore, to start my Masters of the Modern Moving Image course, I lectured on cinematography and editing practices that evoke specific audiovisual rhetoric to help students engage in group discussion and interpretation of rhetorical filmmaking choices.
In my future courses, I will further integrate audiovisual media compositions in the classroom in order to show how different media can encourage diverse forms of participation and provide a platform for success for students who grapple with traditional, text-based educational material. I will continue accommodating students who learn composition skills through interactive and group-based writing activities, as well as audiovisual engagements. I will also continue using my classroom as a space to research the intersections of media ecologies and composition studies. I plan on expanding a recent project, “Film in the Composition Classroom: Moving Away from the Film Supplement,” collaborating with new students and learning about their experiences with media in composition and humanities classrooms prior to and within collegiate courses. The aim is to provide a wider brand of pedagogy that meets the needs to diverse students, rather than forcing them through a narrow educational funnel to make a traditional, text-based mold for composition. I plan to continue making my students feel included in interdisciplinary conversations that use new platforms and methods to approach the topics and materials covered by my courses. Students should leave my classes able to think critically, write confidently and skillfully, and engage deeply with and produce media.