Digital Storytelling in a Place-Based Composition Course

• Published in: Journal of adolescent & adult literacy 2013-12, Vol.57 (4), p.307-318
• Main Authors: Chisholm, James S., Trent, Brandie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescence; Adolescents; Case Studies; Case study; College/university students; Colors; Composition skill learning; Computer Literacy; Early adolescence; Education policy; Educational Policy; Elementary school students; Evaluation Methods; FEATURE ARTICLE; Fluency; Geographic Location; Grade 10; High School Students; Instructional technology; Linguistics; Literacy; Modes; Narrators; New literacies; Perceptions; Place based education; Qualitative; Reading instruction; Secondary education; Secondary school students; Semiotics; Sociocultural; Story Telling; Storytelling; Video Technology; Visual literacy; Writing (Composition); Writing instruction; Writing strategies; Written composition
• ISSN: 1081-3004; 1936-2706
• DOI: 10.1002/jaal.244

Although the study of place in the fields of composition and education has a long and compelling history, the concept has taken on increased importance in today's digital landscape. As perceptions of places shift, we're challenged to understand how and which places shape who we are. Due to its potential power to leverage student choice, personal experience, and reflections on identity and to meet the assessment demands of contemporary educational policies, we designed a 10th‐grade composition course around the concept of place. In this case study we describe how one high school student—Riley—engaged with the concept of place over the course of an academic trimester. Multimodal analyses of Riley's digital story illustrate how she engaged in a 21st century literacy practice that demanded her fluency beyond reading and writing print texts to consider how multiple layers of meaning were recast across linguistic, visual, and aural semiotic modes. FREE author podcast