A presentation on how to plan and teach classes and courses using multiliteracies.

1. MULTILITERACIES: PLANNING AND
TEACHING CLASSES AND COURSES
La Salle University
School of Education Sciences
Yamith José Fandiño

2. Introduction

3. The characteristics of a Multiliterate
person

4. Origin of the Term Multiliteracies
• ‘A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures’ (New London Group,
1996).
Fostering multiliteracies seeks to prepare students for social futures in which they
actively participate and influence; that is, they are to be the designers of their
social futures.
The multi in multiliteracies refers to the range of literacies and literate practices
used in all sectors of life and how they are similar and different.

5. Origin of the Term Multiliteracies
The term text encompasses all the contents a person must be literate, which no
longer restrict to paper text but also with live (e.g., face-to-face) encounters and
electronic works.
The term context refers to any situations or media in which literacy is practiced.
To be multiliterate, a student must first recognize texts and contexts and second
modify literate practices or use them in new and different ways.

6. Implications for Pedagogy
• A pedagogy for multiliteracies must focus on the major areas in which technological and
socio-cultural changes have had an impact on everyday life: text, literacy, and critical
literacy.
Texts
Sociocultural
knowledge
Technological
knowledge
Literacy
identity
Strategic
mindset
Flexible
attitude
Critical
literacy
Analyze texts
Take
informed
decisions

7. IMPLICATIONS FOR PEDAGOGY

8. Understandings About Text
Aspects / Areas Definitions
Paper, Electronic, or
Live Texts
The platform by which it is delivered may be electronic (for example a mobile phone or
computer), live (person to person or a live performance such as a play), or paper (such as a
newspaper or book).
Semiotic Systems Understanding and interpreting the text’s sets of signs or symbols. These sets are:
1. linguistic (oral and written language),
2. visual (still and moving images),
3. auditory (music and sound effects),
4. gestural (facial expression and body language), and
5. spatial (layout and organization of objects and space).
Consciously
Constructed Texts
No text is neutral. All texts are constructed for a particular purpose—for example,
entertainment, procedural, economic, or political reasons.

9. Understandings About Text
Aspects / Areas Definitions
Actively Constructed
Meanings
It is the consumer of the text that actively constructs the meaning because s/he brings all
his or her social, cultural, and literate knowledge to the text, which will influence the way
s/he makes meaning of the text.
Several Possible
Meanings
A consumer might perceive different meanings at different times or in different contexts or
if using the text for a different purpose. Therefore, texts can have several possible
meanings to different consumers or to the same consumer at different times.
Intertextuality A text might parody the generic structure of another / The layout of a text might mimic
the layout of another type of text / A scene in a movie might draw on a scene from another
movie.
An important part of being multiliterate is understanding about intertextuality and
therefore looking for and making use of the intertextual links provided.

10. Understandings About Text
Aspects / Areas Definitions
Multimodal,
Interactive, Linear,
and Nonlinear Texts
Because texts are delivered by a range of platforms and may be electronic, paper, or
live, they will use a variety of modes and semiotic systems. Consequently they may
be engaged with in various ways.
Students need to be more strategic in the ways in which they use and interact with
them.
Continuing Change in
Texts
As technology and society continue to change, texts will continue to change. It is
impossible to predict the knowledge that students will need in the future.
However, it is possible to teach them basic knowledge, strategies, attitudes, and
behaviors that will enable them to deal with evolving texts.

11. Understandings About Literacy Identity
Teachers should see that literate practices are linked with social and cultural life and
experiences.
Cope and Kalantzis (2000) identify these different domains or identities as discourse worlds.
They suggest that students draw on two in particular to make meaning: the lifeworld (i.e.,
everything that exists outside school) and the school-based world.
Part of being multiliterate is being aware of one’s literacy identity as a set of resources that can
be used to complete a literate task.
If teachers help students learn to use their literacy identities, they will learn to reflect on and
combine and recombine their resources to complete tasks.

12. Understandings About Literacy Identity

13. Understanding about Critical Literacy
Students build their identities and futures in relation to the cultural texts they encounter. Then,
they need to interpret and explain texts connecting to their world and their place in it.
Teachers need to help students develop the skills to analyze a broad range of texts. Such analysis
includes:
(a) identifying a text’s origins and authority and examining how it attempts to shape their values
and beliefs.
(b) Being able to take an active and informed place in life as to avoid being marginalized or
discriminated.
(c) Seeing and experiencing the impact that critical literacy can have on their own and others’
lives.

14. Understanding about Critical Literacy

15. The Four Resources Model: Balancing the
Planning and Teaching of Multiliteracies.
• A multiliterate person should approach literacy as a problem-solving activity that involves
analyzing the context and purpose of the task, deciding on a plan of action, and identifying
and accessing appropriate resources.

16. Balancing the Planning and Teaching of
Multiliteracies: Code breaker.
• Code Breaker
• The practice of code breaking refers to a person’s ability to identify and use the semiotic
systems in electronic, paper, and live texts.
• That is, a student needs to be able to make sense of the marks on the page in the case of a
print-on-paper text, or the gestures, facial expression, pitch, tone, and volume in the case
of a live text, such as a discussion.
• Many texts are multimodal, drawing on more than one semiotic system. Therefore, the
practice of code breaking must also involve working out how the different semiotic systems
in the text work on their own and in combination with others.

17. Balancing the Planning and Teaching of
Multiliteracies: Code breaker.

18. Balancing the Planning and Teaching of
Multiliteracies: Meaning maker.
• Meaning maker
Meaning making consists of having resources and knowing how to adapt or recombine
them to make literal and inferential meanings of texts.
The main sources of meaning making are the student’s literacy identity (all previous
literacy, social, cultural, and technological experiences) and the context in which
the literacy activity takes place.
Some cultures and social groups access particular genres and practice literacy in
particular ways. This may mean that some people will have different resources to
draw on and will be more competent in some situations and less competent in others.

19. Balancing the Planning and Teaching of
Multiliteracies: Meaning maker.

20. Balancing the Planning and Teaching of
Multiliteracies: Text user.
• Text user
The focus of text user practices is the use of text in real-life situations.
Text user practices often require:
(a) the use of multiple modes (listening, speaking, reading, viewing, and writing) and
semiotic systems (linguistic, visual, auditory, gestural, and spatial);
(b) the use of multiple types of texts (electronic, paper, live) either simultaneously or
at different times during the task, and
(c) knowing about texts, their purpose, structure, and use.

21. Balancing the Planning and Teaching of
Multiliteracies: Text user.

22. Balancing the Planning and Teaching of
Multiliteracies: Text analyst.
• Text analyst
Text analyst practices involve the analysis of literacy activities and the texts used in
them in order to make informed decisions about how to behave and act.
An important part of being a text analyst is understanding how different literacy
practices and texts (live, paper, and electronic) are constructed and produced.
Being a text analyst means being an active and informed citizen and taking control of
one’s life. This occurs only if the text analyst takes action as a result of the analysis.
This action is called engaging in transformation. Having critically analyzed the
texts, the person should then consider the action to take as a result of the analyses.

23. Balancing the Planning and Teaching of
Multiliteracies: Text analyst.

24. Planning and Teaching with the four resource
model

25. Planning and Teaching with the four-resource
model

26. Reference
Anstèy, M., & Bull, G. (2006). Teaching and Learning Multiliteracies: Changing
Times, Changing Literacies. Delaware: the International Reading Association.