Talking, Sketching, Moving: Multiple Literacies in the Teaching of Writing

by Patricia A. Dunn

College composition is failing on three we are not using all available means of helping students realize and use the power of written text; we are relying too much on linguistic pathways; and we are not taking full advantage of what students can teach us about other ways of knowing. In short, we're excluding people. Talking, Sketching, Moving offers a better alternative. Patricia Dunn makes the case for a writing pedagogy that draws upon multiple literacies and then gives numerous, detailed examples of how that theory can be translated into classroom practice. Challenging the assumption that written texts play an almost exclusive role in the production of knowledge in composition classrooms, her book foregrounds other, more intellectually diverse ways of oral, visual, kinesthetic, spatial, and social pathways. Dunn goes on to describe what she and her students learned when they experimented with Freire's "multiple channels of communication" and how it helped them gain the metacognitive distance they needed for writing and revision. Dunn is not the first person to encourage writing instructors to explore multiple literacies. But, with too few exceptions, those calls have been ignoreddue mostly to narrow assumptions about how people come to know, as well as a vested interest in promoting language-based epistemologies. Ultimately, Dunn urges compositionists to expect more of themselves and their students.

Genres: Teaching

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 26, 2001

Reviews

[Jennifer Brinkmeyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew! This lil book packed quite a punch. Dunn's argument is that "using multiple-channel strategies require[s] that all of us likewise 'embrace the chaos of discovery'...[to] help us rethink our purposes, broaden our epistemological assumptions, and refresh the methodologies supporting them." Get a whiff of that vocab, huh? Yup, she teaches college.

The first two chapters are for those who enjoy pedagogy. She talks about Paulo Freire and his work in Brazil teaching illiterate adults. She argues that Americans were quick to adopt his theoretical stance toward the hidden curriculum and its cultural currency, but were not so quick to embrace his practical methodology. In order to affirm the pre-existing intelligences of his students, Freire used multiple pathways to teach them ultimately to read and write. This is the center of her inspiration--Dunn would use alternative modes to help students develop confidence and skill with reading and writing.

The next couple of chapters, thankfully, give examples of the types of rigorous, multi-modal suggestions she has in mind. Here are the ones that were new to me (most of them):

Kinesthetic:
-Students have one piece of evidence on each of a series of index cards (this could be from their papers or a teacher's simulation). Working in groups, students decide whether the information will be arranged to support or oppose the topic at hand then orders the evidence accordingly. Groups can share out their outlines.
-Students walk through the organization of their drafts (forward for supporting info, standing still if stuck, moving sideways if starting a new strand). They can do this while reading their drafts aloud.
-Students construct a model of their current draft using Tinker Toys or Legos.
-Students bring in a writing with the paragraphs cut apart and mixed in a pile. One or more other students arrange the paragraphs into an order. Afterwards, they can talk with the original student-writer about why they did what they did.

Visual:
-Students "sketch, graph, or draw the organization of their papers so far, and/or an alternate organization. They could also visually represent a problem they saw in their papers or in the [research] they were analyzing." I liked it when a student graphed the level of interest he thought the audience would have at different points in the paper. Another student graphed what amount of the paper covered which topics--a cool idea for finding imbalances.
-Students write or sketch metaphors to describe the content or organization of their papers. Dunn also used metaphors to describe analysis and other reading/writing stances.
-Written peer responses on electronic drafts, especially using "insert comment" function can show students visually which areas of a writing generate the most response. (This isn't quite her idea, but my adaptation of it that I think would be more supportive at the h.s. level)
-After noticing that students were unwilling to cut the first "throat-clearing" paragraphs of an assignment, Dunn drew a visual on the board of a few pages, crossed out most of them, and circled the ending paragraphs to invite students to consider that they may not have known what they were going to say when they started writing.
-Students sketch or map a reading's main point or organization.

Oral:
-Students leave oral responses to reading assignments on her voice mail.
-Students discuss their plans/problems with an upcoming assignment.
-Peer responding: Student reads aloud piece to a peer and the peer tells the student what he/she heard being said. Student could interview peer with any concerns at the end.
-The peer could also interview the student-writer after hearing the student-writer read a draft aloud.
-Six-headed debate: Dunn divided the class into two groups after all of them had read two opposing essays. One group represented each author, his points, and his counter-arguments. 3 members of each side met in the middle for a debate moderated by the teacher using statements meaningful to the authors. They debated as if they were the authors. The others observed.

I appreciate that while she listed quite a few other multi-genre/project activities (e.g. puppet show, book jackets, etc.) she was mindful to say these should not be used simply to kill time or interact on a surface level with ideas. In fact, she even acknowledged that some students may automatically view these types of assignments as less rigorous/legitimate and that teachers must confront those misconceptions with high expectations and respectful tasks (as Tomlinson defines them). Throughout the book she was mindful of acknowledging and responding to rebuttals, particularly in a deconstructionist era of murky semantics and endless dichotomies.

Ultimately, though, a book must end (and so must this review!). In closing, I offer this rally cry from Dunn:

But dominant assumptions about language and learning in our writing programs may be greatly underestimating the intellectual potential of some groups forced to hear about "the great heuristic" (language) that just happens to cater to the talent and learning preference of the person teaching the course. If that doesn't bother us enough to change things, we should realize that we are unquestionably wasting the brain power and the potential insights of people who can visualize things we cannot, who can grasps concepts we cannot, who can solve problems we cannot. If we don't revolutionize learning for the sake of those founding in a stubborn, restrictive pedagogy, we should do it for ourselves.

[Peaches · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm late to the party with this one, so that's probably why I wasn't blown away. Though in 2018 arts-based practices are still less emphasized that other multimodal pedagogies, Dunn's techniques seem to rely mostly on students sketching repeatedly for visual arts. I don't think that all students need to have artistic skill, but I do think sketching is basic/repetitive if used throughout a course; however, whereas many arts-based advocates rely on theory and encourage readers to find their ways themselves, at least Dunn does provide examples from her own experiences!
My biggest takeaway from this book is how Dunn successfully argues that written word is one of the highest levels of communication, yet instructors of composition expect novice writers to do it fluently by the end of the course. Moreover, I never really thought about how privilege exists in the composition classroom because of the emphasis on written word, where depending on how students were raised and their educations, they may be at a significant disadvantage coming in. Dunn sees it as the job of educators to find ways to reach all students at levels where they can be successful, and this book has several suggestions.

[Maggie]

recommended in Liz's writing group

[Teri]

I am thoroughly enjoying this book because it reminds me to think hard about what constitutes literacy. Sometimes, I seem to hear myself in Dunn's words. Very exciting

[Cate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ideas for teaching writing and valuing multiple intelligences. The practical ideas for classroom action are great, and I want to reread the theoretical/framing chapters.