INTRODUCING WRITING BETWEEN LANGUAGE WITH THE USE OF MULTIPLE LITERACIES FOR ALL STUDENTS

Reading Pahl and Rowsell’s writing on “Conceptualizing Artifactual Literacies: A Framework” made me realize that students should be exposed not only to the literacy in the classroom, but also outside of the classroom. Pahl and Rowsell writes, “the literacy found in school is actually just one kind of literacy. Thinking about literacy in homes… gives a different feel for literacy”. As a teacher, combining these two domains of practice (School and Home) in the curricula, I believe would improve the motivation of my students to write. Also, moving from one Literacy to multiple Literacies would make learning more diverse in the classroom. Although I really don’t understand how “memories of objects are powerful pulls on identity”, and this is one question I would love to ask Pahl and Rowsell if I was to meet with them. I fully agree with the fact that drawing out objects from students “opens up their home experience and enables teachers to access communities that may not be visible within schools. I find myself involving my students in the use of artifacts in literacy learning, because I believe it would help to improve their mastery in the two domain of literacy practices, and also improve their writing skills.

Among the qualities that Pahl and Rowsell listed which defines Artifacts, I am more inclined to the third quality, “Embodies people, stories, thoughts, communities, identities, and experiences” because it is a clear definition of what a social-cultural classroom entails. The students are allowed to express who they are, what they like and express their language and culture. The example of the child who loves toy cars, which eventually spills into a story about cars reminds me of one my senior student who was asked to write a poem on any topic that interests him. At first, he had no idea on a topic to write about. But as we started discussing about his dream and what he wants to be in life, he expressed his love for cars and his dream is to be a mechanic. He then decided to write a poem on his love for cars, and he eventually was able to produce ten stanzas poem, which made him surprised and happy.

Encouraging the use of artifacts in essay/narrative writing is really a good way to make students engaged in the learning process, and also improve their writing skills. I remember when we visited Doc. Becky Shipe, at the visual arts studio, I was stunned to see that her dissertation had a mixture of artifacts and words in it, which made it look so unique and creative. The first thing that came to my mind when she was going over her dissertation was one of my students who finds it difficult to write an essay or narrative with lots of paragraphs, but she loves to draw. She draws to communicate how she is feeling, and she once told me that drawing is her best friend. I started thinking of how to bring out the creativity in her by introducing her to the multimodality literacy practice. Now, I am more confident that introducing this literacy practice could make this student more engaged and derive joy in her writing.

I think Pahl and Rowsell’s idea of introducing Artifacts to a Writing classroom is linked to Danling Fu’s book on “Writing between Languages”, although Fu, D is more concerned about the ELL students who are already writers in their first language and are learning to become proficient writers in English. She believes that “What they (ELL students) need while learning English is to make the transition from their first-language writing to English and from writing personal narrative to more formal academic writing” (pg. 5). She claims that ELL teachers need to provide their instruction with extra scaffolding for each student’s writing according to their literacy development level. More so, developing their first language as they learn English as a second language is a way to make the learning process faster. Danling Fu’s claims affirms Professor Rachel Toncelli teaching on how to make ELL students better learners and writers in the classroom, and also for teachers to realize that students first-language writing skills is a stepping stone to learning English.

Accepting the first language of the ELL students and introducing the Artifactual Literacy in the classroom boils down to creating a conducive environment that allows for voice and choice. This is what I as a teacher needs to understand and take to my classroom every day, in order for my students to achieve mastery in writing and all-round literacy. I feel equipped as a teacher with the necessary tools needed to develop my students in all aspects. Although, it is still overwhelming for me as a first time teacher, but it takes one step at a time to be the teacher who not only teach but care for the students.