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“My Thoughts on Gun Violence”: An Urban Adolescent's Display of Agency and Multimodal Literacies
Author(s) -
Lee Vera J.,
Meloche Alysha,
Grant Allen,
Neuman Delia,
Tecce DeCarlo Mary Jean
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of adolescent and adult literacy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.73
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1936-2706
pISSN - 1081-3004
DOI - 10.1002/jaal.944
Subject(s) - situated , agency (philosophy) , multimodality , pedagogy , presentation (obstetrics) , identity (music) , psychology , focus group , sociology , social science , computer science , world wide web , aesthetics , medicine , philosophy , artificial intelligence , anthropology , radiology
The authors analyzed the multimodal presentation of one student in a seventh‐grade social studies class situated in an urban charter school in the Northeastern United States. The student researched a specific problem that existed in his community and located solutions using web‐based sources. The authors analyzed the student's classwork, focus group interview, and final project using Gee's critical discourse analysis approach to examine the use of language tasks. The student used text, design, visual art, and music to build relationships, identity, meaning, and purpose. The findings revealed that the project supported his development of agency, technology use, and multimodal literacies as he purposefully and meaningfully communicated with his audience about the issue of gun violence that impacted his community.