What are Multiliteracies?
I am adapting the term multiliteracies from Kelli Cargile Cook's article "Layered Literacies: A Theoretical Framework for Technical Communication Pedagogy." Although Cargile Cook is speaking about literacy from the perspective of the technical communication classroom, I believe her ideas about multiliteracies are very applicable to the composition classroom as well. In her article, Cargile Cook explains that "as technical writing courses have become more complex during the twentieth century, so too have their pedagogical goals. No longer are basic literacy skills of reading and writing the primary concern of such courses. Today, technical communicators need to be multiliterate, possessing a variety of literacies that encompass the multiple ways people use language in producing information, solving problems, and critiquing practice" (5-6). Clearly, as more composition instructors embrace multimodality, their classrooms are also becoming places where basic literacy is not the only concern. Students must leave the composition classroom with a variety of literacies and skills if they hope to be successful writers across the university and in the workplace.
In order to help students become multiliterate, she argues that instructors should develop a "layered literacy framework" (8) that encompasses six key literacies students should possess: basic, rhetorical, social, technological, ethical, and critical. In the drop-down tab "Integrating Multiliteracies into the Classroom" I explore how these literacies can be fostered in the composition classroom.
In order to help students become multiliterate, she argues that instructors should develop a "layered literacy framework" (8) that encompasses six key literacies students should possess: basic, rhetorical, social, technological, ethical, and critical. In the drop-down tab "Integrating Multiliteracies into the Classroom" I explore how these literacies can be fostered in the composition classroom.