Functional, Critical, Rhetorical: A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies in the Composition Classroom Presentation

Abstract

This pedagogical paper will address the FYW hallmark of introducing students to different forms of college-level writing by demonstrating the three-assignment structure of my ENG 100 course at UHWO which approaches composition through the lens of Stuart Selber's multiliteracies. Selber argues that the process of developing computer literacy involves a progression from functional literacy to critical literacy to rhetorical literacy. In my ENG 100 course, I apply this idea of multiliteracies not to computers, but to understanding, analyzing, and reacting to the ideological and hegemonic media messages our students encounter every day. As such, students progress through a series of three major assignments. First, I ask students examine themselves as media consumers, addressing Selber's functional literacy through a media snapshots essay in which students examine their own beliefs, ideologies, and assumptions in the context of a creative piece about five to six meaningful interactions with media. Second, I address Selber's critical literacy by asking students to rhetorically analyze an advertising example in order to determine what the advertisement is doing, how it is doing it, and—ultimately—why it matters whether consumers accept the version of reality for which this particular advertisement argues. Finally, I foster students' rhetorical literacy by asking them to work in groups to choose a hegemonic media message that they find troubling and to create a multimedia campaign that offers their own counter-hegemonic message tailored to a specific audience and offering a very specific call to action. By considering themselves as media consumers, then as media critics, and finally as media producers, students develop all three levels of Selber's multiliteracies in terms of media interaction while also learning to compose with various recursive processes in a variety of forms of college-level composition.This pedagogical paper will address the FYW hallmark of introducing students to different forms of college-level writing by demonstrating the three-assignment structure of my ENG 100 course at UHWO which approaches composition through the lens of Stuart Selber's multiliteracies. Selber argues that the process of developing computer literacy involves a progression from functional literacy to critical literacy to rhetorical literacy. In my ENG 100 course, I apply this idea of multiliteracies not to computers, but to understanding, analyzing, and reacting to the ideological and hegemonic media messages our students encounter every day. As such, students progress through a series of three major assignments. First, I ask students examine themselves as media consumers, addressing Selber's functional literacy through a media snapshots essay in which students examine their own beliefs, ideologies, and assumptions in the context of a creative piece about five to six meaningful interactions with media. Second, I address Selber's critical literacy by asking students to rhetorically analyze an advertising example in order to determine what the advertisement is doing, how it is doing it, and—ultimately—why it matters whether consumers accept the version of reality for which this particular advertisement argues. Finally, I foster students' rhetorical literacy by asking them to work in groups to choose a hegemonic media message that they find troubling and to create a multimedia campaign that offers their own counter-hegemonic message tailored to a specific audience and offering a very specific call to action. By considering themselves as media consumers, then as media critics, and finally as media producers, students develop all three levels of Selber's multiliteracies in terms of media interaction while also learning to compose with various recursive processes in a variety of forms of college-level composition.