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Multimodal essays can deepen students' knowledge about writing and foster connections that humanize their learning.
In recent years, many of the world's most fraught issues-climate change, gender inequality, gun violence, police brutality, and systemic racism, to name a few-have been taken up by teenagers. Young people such as Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg, X González, and Amanda Gorman have raised concerns, organized protests, demanded accountability, and influenced public opinion. Often, these high-school-aged activists speak up for causes provoked by tragic life experiences, which only deepens the gravity and dignity of their responses.
The impact of young people whose voices influence their local, national, and global communities compels us as English language arts (ELA) teachers to reconsider how we teach the essay. In the real world, arguments are not made using a five-point essay template, but with rhetorical tools appropriate to the audience and the moment. Narrative and argument are not discrete modes; they are carefully interconnected. And compositions are not written for teachers and rubrics; they are delivered-sometimes written, sometimes spoken-in courtrooms and at inaugurations, in interviews and at rallies.
In this article, we share our discoveries from three years of centering students' voices through "This I Believe" multimodal essays composed by over 250 students from three high schools. Our goal in assigning these essays was to engage students to make choices as writers that would empower them to speak for issues that matter to them. Using Mariselas, Katie's, and Bhakti's work and reflections (students' names and work used with permission), we describe how composing with voice and image led to humanizing essays that fostered connections and learning.
SCHOOLS, STUDENTS, AND ASSIGNMENT
As ELA teacher colleagues, we collaboratively designed and implemented a "This I Believe" multimodal essay unit over a three-year period at two public schools in Northern Virginia (Bryant Alternative High School and Thomas A. Edison High School) and one in Salt Lake City, Utah (East High School). At Bryant, the tenth-grade students Liz taught included students with behavioral issues, teens who were pregnant or parenting, and adult English learners. Amber's students at Edison were tenth- through twelfth-grade peer tutors at the writing center; they composed their essays in an elective advanced composition class. Liz later adapted the project for eleventhand twelfth-grade students at...