Bailey and Carroll on the Multimodal, Multigenre Research Project

This article is somewhat similar to the Vaughan and Fleischer piece in the way that it describes and explains how to put this project into practice in a classroom, including many details as well as previous failings. The overall goal seems to be making students able to "turn information into real knowledge that is meaningful to them" (78). Like the authors, I have found that the research I have conducted in my classroom has been forced and sometimes uninteresting to my students, which is why this project appeals especially to me. She explains that the research is grounded in topics that interest the students from the beginning with "real inquiry [by] students" driving the learning.

As open minded as I am about literacy in unexpected places, the author lost me a bit when she went into the idea that when we get information from a music video it's still "reading". Yes I agree when she says that "we make all kinds of connections all the time between what we are seeing and hearing and the events in our lives" but I would challenge this idea of making the term 'reading' universal to everything we do that includes making a connection. I think this objective should stand on it's own, which is something I've been exploring in my grade team this past year. I felt she undermined the actual reading and research process somewhat by grouping it with the reading of literature and information they would be doing in the project later. The skill set she describe while students "acquire a new multimodal way of thinking" and become more fluent in the "metalanguage of multimodality" is definitely explored through these alternative intellectual pursuits such as analyzing music videos, but I think this deserves it's own recognition, especially in conversation with the students themselves.

The later discussion of higher order thinking skill development made me write a huge "YES!" in the margin of my print out: I was along 100% with this train of thought: "because the students have to analyse all the information that they write on their note sheets, they practice and develop important critical thinking skills." This for me is a reason alone to do this project in my 5th Grade writing classroom next year as I have found this to be absolutely the biggest gap in my high schooler's skill sets.