ERIC Number: EJ1159757
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1534-9322
EISSN: N/A
Bodies in Composition: Teaching Writing through Kinesthetic Performance
Butler, Janine
Composition Studies, v45 n2 p73-90 Fall 2017
This article calls on composition instructors to reflect consciously on how we can use our bodies kinesthetically to perform multimodal writing processes through gestural, visual, and spatial modes. Teaching writing through kinesthetic performance can show students that our bodies are being constructed via interaction with audiences, akin to the way our compositions are always co-constructed by readers. Gestures that embody multimodal composition can create an inclusive pedagogical space in which instructors and students interact with differences through various modes of communication. More specifically, I draw on scholarship on Deaf studies, embodiment, and multimodality to show that performance and composition represent embodied experiences in which we rhetorically negotiate multiple meanings and interpretations with our audiences. Textual vignettes throughout the article describe how I perform in the classroom to show students different elements of a nonlinear, multimodal writing process. I share five pedagogical gestures that illustrate kinesthetic strategies for guiding students through new rhetorical situations, genres, and media. I encourage instructors to continually adapt the pedagogical gestures presented here in interaction with students' embodied differences.
Descriptors: Writing Instruction, Teaching Methods, Kinesthetic Methods, Human Body, Nonverbal Communication, Deafness, Vignettes, Writing Processes, Writing (Composition)
University of Cincinnati. Department of English, P.O. Box 210069, Cincinnati, OH 45221. Tel: 513-556-6519; Fax: 513-556-5960; e-mail: compstudies@uc.edu; Web site: http://www.uc.edu/journals/composition-studies.html
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A