Utilizing Digital Storytelling Tools and Thinking Routines for Cultivating Multiliteracies in Contemporary Classrooms

Abstract

Pedagogies that foster inclusion, diversity, and the celebration of difference are central in contemporary classrooms that are characterized by an ethnically diverse population with multiple learning styles and ranging abilities. A powerful and flexible venue for educators to address the complex literacy needs of all students is incorporating multimodalities into teaching that draw upon a variety of modes including visual, linguistic, gestural, oral, and spatial. The chapter offers theoretical foundations about the pedagogy of multiliteracy through digital storytelling and provides specific examples of tools and strategies such as thinking routines and story element creation tools that are framed within the Harvard's Project Zero's dispositional framework and the StoryLogicNet project. Using these frameworks and tools, the authors seek to contribute authentic examples on developing and advancing young students' multiliteracy skills for inside and outside the classroom.