From Archives to Activism: Building a Scaffolded Approach to Multimodal Composition
I started the semester with a desire to get students engaged in the materiality of writing. What I got out of the class, and this fellowship, was more than I could ask for.
I am not going to lie—it has been a difficult academic year. Studying reproductive rights and health is often difficult but important work. This year, and the Spring semester specifically, my students and I had to face the rolling back of fundamental health care rights, stripping of information from public health sites, and an increasing fear and doubt around the possibility of change. My Bacca Fellowship was a bright light in this rather bleak picture I have painted for you. The Bacca Fellowship provided me with more things than I can say, but here I will focus on two: a more targeted and hopeful approach to teaching reproductive rights and an invaluable community network of support.
I started the semester worried about the depth of my student engagement in multimodal assignments. In their final project of the semester, I imagined them writing policy briefs, engaging with fact sheets and infographics, but most of them ended up making Instagram slides. Nothing wrong with them, but I saw the potential for more. Part of this process was first giving up my expectations for students and meeting them where they were at—if they couldn’t engage with these other mediums, how could we make their social media engagement more thorough?
This depth ended up happening through smaller moves. I am sure my new assignments focusing on Duke’s incredible archives and zine making had some impact (and their reflections demonstrated that). But, more than anything, making transparent the materiality of their labor—physical printed out sheets, drawing mind maps, revising with glue and scissors—helped them engage with the multimodality of all types of writing and the implications of choosing any mode. The jury is still out on their final projects. They may all create Instagram slides again—but I can leave the semester confident that I prepared them to think about multimodality more thoroughly.
My fellow fellows spent time every month talking about one of my favorite things in the world—teaching. It was more than a time to debrief, though. It was a time to grow, share, and engage with other pedagogues who cared about their teaching. From each of them, I will take something forward to my future teaching environments—to keep it playful, to be mindful of student’s mental health, to reach out for help when I need it. And, to be honest, we all do.
IMAGE CREDIT: Hannah Taylor
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Hannah Taylor
