The Multimodal Approach

After reading many articles on the benefits of using a multimodal approach to enhance the quality of writing, I decided to implement a couple of the approaches I had read about, in the classroom to see what would happen.

Multimodal Learning This link explains the multimodal approach in detail if you are interested. 

I had read that :

1.'Words and Pictures are Better than Words Alone. People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone (Mayer, 2005). Words include written and spoken text, and pictures include static graphic images, animation and video. The use of both words and pictures lets the brain processes more information in working memory (Sweller, 2005). Mayer (2005) tells us that narration and video is much more effective than narration and text. 

2.'Multimedia Learning is more Effective When it is Interactive and under the Control of the Learner. Not all students learn at the same pace. Research tells us that when learners are able to control the pace of the presentation they learn more. Multimedia presentations are more effective when the learner has the ability to interact with the presentation, by slowing it down or by starting and stopping it. This pacing can also be achieved by breaking the presentation into segments; shorter segments that allow users to select segments at their own pace work better than longer segments that offer less control (Mayer, 2003).'

Which brought me to this question. 

How can I recreate this in the classroom?

The Literacy Shed was my first port of call and I came across a short video made by WWF where a chimpanzee sent into space during the space program in the 1960's as an experiment returns to Earth and all it's changes through the eyes of a stranger. 

'Words and Pictures are Better than Words Alone.'

IT'S NOT A PLANET, IT'S OUR HOME

We watched it as a class twice and then we  started our collaborative padlet which worked really well. (See the discussion on my last post.) 

I made the link available to each tamaiti to rewind and stop and start when they wanted to so this made them in control of the presentation. 

'Multimedia Learning is more Effective When it is Interactive and under the Control of the Learner.'

After completing this process some amazing creative writing emerged. We shared along the way and discussed giving feedback and suggestions to each other. My next post will present some of the results.