Lori Lockyer

Assessing multiliteracies in a multimodal environment

With Ian Brown, Peter Caputi, Jim Tognolini, Kellie Buckley-Walker

• Key concepts• Practical foundational work• Conceptual model of multiliteracies• Assessment considerations

Outline

Multiliteracies and multimodal

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• ‘New’ approach to literacy and literacy pedagogy (NLG,1996) accounting for:• Linguistically and culturally diverse, dynamic,

globalised society• Variety text forms emerging with developments

in ICT• Multiliteracies and multimodal are inextricably

linked• If our definition of what it means to be literate is

changing we need to change how we teach people to become literate.

Australian Curriculum…students become literate as they develop the knowledge, skills andDispositions to interpret and use language confidently for learning and Communicating in and out of school and for participating effectively in society. Literacy involves students listening to, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating oral, print, visual and digital texts, and using and modifying language for different purposes in a range of contexts.

What could this look like in the classroom?

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Analyse

ConstructDeconstruct

Conceptual model of multiliteracies

Searching for and identifying information

Interpreting the nature meaning and purpose of information

Using information appropriate for specific purposes

Separating information into smaller elements

Developing and generating products

Drawing together relevant information into a coherent whole

Selecting the mode of communication to share with an audience

Judging and critiquing the quality and accuracy of information

What about assessment?

• How do we know whether students are developing these skills?

• Current assessment practices may not be keeping pace with new pedagogies.

• Is it possible to design a ‘test’ for multiliteracies?

Measuring Multiliteracies: Aims

• Measure students’ ability to making meaning from/with a variety of modes in a multimodal environment

• Teachers can ‘diagnose’ and track the growth in students’ abilities over time

• Teachers can design learning activities based on students’ multiliteracy skills

Research Process

•Research Group•International Research Group•Expert teachers

Development of the Conceptual

Model• Expert teachers• Research Group

Development of Test Items

• 9 students from 3 schools• 10 students from a variety of

schools• Think Aloud Protocols and

Camtasia

Initial Testing

• 299 students• 12 schools in NSW• Tested on 3 occasions over 6

months

Internal Structure

• Expert teachers• Research Group

Investigation of Items

Online Multiliteracies Testing Environment

• Test in three parts increasing in complexity• Closed response, short

answer, product• Questions/responses

multimodal• Cover three different topic

areas

Findings – Higher order skills

Possible explanations and next steps

• Students do not find these skills as difficult as we thought

• Items are not written in a way that assesses these higher skills

• The rubrics need to be adjusted to reflect more clearly what students who achieve these skills are actually doing

• The model needs to be investigated• skills need to further defined• May be two constructs rather than one: input

(locating etc…) and output (creating etc…) OR deconstruction (locating etc…) and construction (creating etc…)

• Next steps: Focus on higher order skills: synthesizing, creating, communicating• How are they taught? How are they assessed?