Multimodal Literacy Narrative
Click here for the literacy narrative.
A multimodal literacy narrative is the first big project in my freshman composition class. It demonstrates students that there is not one literacy, but multiple literacies and that the students themselves already are experts in various literacies themselves.
To fully understand the work process involved in a project and the extent of work students are required to put into a project, it is helpful for an instructor to complete the assignment themselves.
Cooking and second language proficiency share many common traits. Both are sophisticated cultural techniques that need to be acquired and perfected, but in the end offer a unique way of expression and working creatively.
My Project: I aim to achieve the following rhetorical goals:
- The main goal is to focus on multilingualism (I discuss code-switching as form of multilingualism)--and emphasize the advantages of multilingualism.
- I include two different discourses--the language of cooking and a plain form of narrative to demonstrate the coexistence of different forms of literacy and to demonstrate my constant code-switching.
- I want to identify positive and negative literary sponsors in the course of every dish.
- Multimodality: the first aspect of multimodality in the cookbook is the interaction of visual elements and the text. The background picture is included as a direct cultural link to the text (where was I at this time in life?)--and to support the mood of the text. The pictures of the individual dishes directly correlate with the recipes. The recipes are real recipes that have a certain cultural relevance (in regards to national cuisines, 'prestige' of the dish)--and I chose them according to their complexity to mirror the steps in my narrative.
- This project exclusively used Microsoft Office programs: Word and Paint. I wanted to explore what these programs can do with my future career in mind. I do not expect office computers to provide special programs, but Microsoft Office should always be available. I wanted to see what these basic programs could do.