Written Communication Oct 2010

Rethinking Composing in a Digital Age: Authoring Literate Identities Through Multimodal Storytelling

Lalitha Vasudevan Columbia University ; Katherine Schultz Mills College ; Jennifer Bateman Mills College

Abstract

In this article, the authors engage the theoretical lens of multimodality in rethinking the practices and processes of composing in classrooms. Specifically, they focus on how learning new composing practices led some fifth-grade students to author new literate identities—what they call authorial stances—in their classroom community. Their analysis adds to the current research on the production and analysis of multimodal texts through an analysis of the interrelationships between multimodal composing processes and the development of literate identities. They found that by extending the composing process beyond print modalities students’ composing shifted in significant ways to reflect the circulating nature of literacies and texts and increased the modes of participation and engagement within the classroom curriculum.These findings are based on an ethnographic study of a multimodal storytelling project in a fifth-grade urban classroom.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2010-10-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088310378217
Open Access
Closed
Topics
multimodality multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (13)

  1. McDaniel (2025)
    Samirah X’s Sense of Audience: A Case Study on Black Teen Activism on Social Media
    Written Communication
  2. Cun (2023)
    Writing Storybooks as Storytelling: A Case Study of Two Families with Refugee B…
    Written Communication
  3. Curiel et al. (2023)
    Collaborative Translanguaging and Transmodal Literacies: Learning the Language …
    Research in the Teaching of English
  4. Reid et al. (2022)
    One Fourth-Grader’s Orchestration of Modes Through Comic Composition
    Written Communication
  5. Jackson (2022)
    Making Sense of Black Students’ Figured Worlds of Race, Racism, Anti-Blackness,…
    Research in the Teaching of English
Show all 13 →
  1. Mills et al. (2022)
    Virtual Reality and Embodiment in Multimodal Meaning Making
    Written Communication
  2. Höglund (2022)
    The Heartbeat of Poetry: Student Videomaking in Response to Poetry
    Written Communication
  3. Lam et al. (2021)
    Multimodal Voicing and Scale-Making in a Youth-Produced Video Documentary on Im…
    Research in the Teaching of English
  4. Ellison et al. (2020)
    Examining African American Girls’ Literate Intersectional Identities Through Jo…
    Written Communication
  5. Smith (2018)
    Composing for Affect, Audience, and Identity: Toward a Multidimensional Underst…
    Written Communication
  6. Anderson et al. (2017)
    Seeing Academically Marginalized Students’ Multimodal Designs From a Position o…
    Written Communication
  7. Anderson (2013)
    Contrasting Systemic Functional Linguistic and Situated Literacies Approaches t…
    Written Communication
  8. Shanahan (2013)
    Composing “Kid-Friendly” Multimodal Text
    Written Communication

Cites in this index (6)

  1. Ranker (2008)
    Composing Across Multiple Media
    Written Communication
  2. Hull et al. (2006)
    Crafting an Agentive Self: Case Studies of Digital Storytelling
    Research in the Teaching of English
  3. Hull et al. (2005)
    Locating the Semiotic Power of Multimodality
    Written Communication
  4. Hull (2003)
    At Last: Youth Culture and Digital Media: New Literacies for New Times
    Research in the Teaching of English
  5. Dyson (1988)
    Negotiating among Multiple Worlds: The Space/Time Dimensions of Young Children’…
    Research in the Teaching of English
Show all 6 →
  1. Perl (1979)
    The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers
    Research in the Teaching of English
Also cites 17 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.1086/448619
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  2. 10.3102/00346543071004575
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  15. Siegel, M. (2006)
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  17. 10.1598/JAAL.51.4.5
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CrossRef global citation count: 194 View in citation network →

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