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Multimodal Writing: Applying a Maker’s Mindset

Discover all the nuggets of wisdom from our Edpuzzle Twitter chat with Angela Stockman on how to incorporate makerspaces into the writing workshop!

How to Twitter Chat

Illustration by Edpuzzle Staff

Angela Stockman, author of Make Writing: 5 Teaching Strategies That Turn Writer's Workshop Into a Maker Space, recently engaged with the Edpuzzle Twitterverse, sharing her unique teaching strategies when it comes to modeling our writer’s workshops after modern maker spaces.

If you’re new to the idea of multimodal writing, you’re not alone.

Traditionally, we think of writing as a formulaic approach that results in a polished, heavily-revised essay on paper. With today’s digital platforms and a design-thinking mindset, we can transform that approach, combining different modes of communication–written language, spoken language, visual images, audio, and performance–which result in complex and sophisticated outcomes to convey meaning: websites, storyboards, books, podcasts, and blogs, for example.

We prioritize tinkering and design in maker spaces; isn’t it time we apply the same methodology for expression?

1. Encourage Resistant Writers

Getting started is just plain hard sometimes; writer’s block is real. But there could be more to it than that, as Stockman notes:

In other words, change our thinking instead of trying to change theirs and encourage students to challenge our preconceptions.

This could lead to natural conversations where students hear their own ideas out loud, and where we can work with them to find a starting point. In other words, talk matters.

And of course, getting hands-on is Stockman’s preferred approach: providing materials to make something with or to draw helps students visualize what they may not be able to say.

Finally, it helps to provide a model to follow. Why not look outside traditional writing to motivate resistant writers? (Think music, blogs, graphic novels, magazines.) What appeals to them about those items? Then get them to create something based on that appeal.

2. Design and Create Writer Spaces

Speaking of the untraditional, Stockman encourages teachers to consider the writing space as an essential part of the writing process–and to give writers as much control in that creation as possible. (We have artist studios…why not writer studios?)

Recognizing that writing is a physical task and doesn’t have to be confined to a desk is actually an exercise in equity, as is providing a wide variety of both digital and analog materials to physically construct an idea.

Similarly, Stockman encourages “bins full of mentor texts, shelves lined with multimodal models, interactive bulletin boards, and tools (writers) can use and return.” Why not ditch the desks altogether? How about creating a soft, comfortable Starbucks vibe in your writer space?

3. Tinker With the Writing

Notice we didn’t say “revise” the writing. Again, in adopting the maker space mindset, it’s essential to encourage students to redesign their writing.

Stockman finds that writers are “far more experimental with their ideas--far more willing to play with and better them--when they are able to…keep things loose and use mixed media” such as storyboards, sticky notes, collages, and even Legos!

Opt for the concept of play when it comes to writing; playing with writing is always the key aspect in redesign, even when helping another writer; for example, lifting a line from a story and turning it into a piece of their own.

If the idea of writing-as-designing is still a foreign concept, Stockman offers an incredibly useful and FREE resource that helps writing teachers see what tinkering with writing looks like.

4. Share With an Authentic Audience

The days of an audience of one – the teacher – are so over. When we establish genuine and real audiences to see and engage with student creations, it makes a world of difference.

To quote author and speaker Rushton Hurley, “If students are sharing their work with the world, they want it to be good. If they're just sharing it with you, they want it to be good enough.”

With that said, Stockman strongly encourages educators to find real people who can view and interact with student creations–to take them from the bulletin board and out into the real world.

Sharing a Padlet with other classrooms, adding book reviews for Goodreads, creating video essays, writing letters to the editor, and student showcases are just some examples, but Stockman’s current collection of resources is packed with markets, contests, and communities for young writers and designers.

5. Incorporate Video Lessons Into Writing Workshop

Remember, multimodal writing doesn’t have to be confined to actual writing.

As Stockman avows, use videos “as mentor texts or models for young writers and designers who want to compose similar things.” Specifically, check out this amazing stop-motion video that reveals character behavior more than the written word can.

Not all writers are created equal, but we can use the Edpuzzle extension to create differentiated writing workshops and assign students to a specific video based on their needs.

Additionally, you could try this gradual-release method: use Edpuzzle to record a think-aloud to show your students how you think while writing, embed reflection questions for them, and then set them free to start designing their writing.

Writing shouldn’t be a chore; it should be a way for students to creatively express themselves. However, we limit them when we limit expression to only writing. An approach to composition that promotes multiple modes of communication certainly favors a diverse group of writers.

To learn more about making writing, check out the hashtag #EdpuzzleReads on Twitter, watch this Edpuzzle Live Event, visit Angela’s Linktree, or purchase Angela’s book.