Pedagogy, curriculum and assessment : multimodal practices that engage students with and in learning

In classrooms, where students are taught to understand and create multimodal texts, a shift is required in the discourse through which curriculum, pedagogy and assessment are realised (Bernstein, 1990, 1996). In such classrooms, students perceive themselves as knowledgeable and capable learners who view themselves positively as literate participants contributing to knowledge-building in the classroom. Written, spoken or multimodal texts, including print and digital texts, feature in the language, literacy and literature strands of the Australian Curriculum: English (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), 2012, p. 5). Across the three strands literacy and being literate are related to representing and understanding meaning in a range of modes and contexts, a perspective that can be understood as socio-cultural (Street, 1998). If, in response to recent pressure, the narrowing of the English curriculum restricts literacy learning to the decontextualised learning of phonics and language-based skills associated with rote learning, drill and repetitive practice (Luke, 2010), the result may be further disadvantage, or disengagement from learning for students who live in poverty or come from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Students strive and thrive when teachers challenge the pedagogy of indifference and create classrooms where instructional practices assist students to think hard (high cognitive), get actively involved (high operative) and connect emotionally (high affective) with content and classroom practices (Zammit & Sawyer, 2018). In such classrooms students perceive themselves as participants in learning, school and education. While achievement of curriculum outcomes is important in tracking the progress of individual students and attending to their different needs, it is not the only consideration that should drive pedagogic decision-making. This chapter draws on research undertaken in two Year 3 classes and one Year 5 class where multimodal and new literacies practices were embedded in the classroom. This included explicit teaching about the design of multimodal texts, with Year 3 focusing on radio commercials, advertising brochures and mini-documentaries about animals and Year 5 focusing on picture book key modal resources such as shots, oral expression, selection of mood in sentences, as well as the technological affordances of different apps. It describes the instructional practices that provided opportunities in the Year 3 and Year 5 classrooms for students to develop semiotic understandings in association with the use of tablets and the ways these practices reinforced engaging messages for students.