Making sense of multiple literacies: Exploring pre‐service content area teachers' understandings and applications

Abstract

Abstract Over the past decade, numerous literacy researchers have investigated the multiple literacies of adolescents. Connecting with adolescents' multiple literacies, including digital texts and high interest print‐based texts, holds promise as a way to build bridges to subject area content and academic literacies. Although pre‐service content area teachers are required to take a content area literacy course in most US states, little has been written about whether those courses include a focus on multiple literacies or what pre‐service teachers understand after learning about multiple literacies. In this study, the author analyzes student work from three semesters of a content area literacy course to find out what the students learned about multiple literacies and how they applied the concept of multiple literacies to developing content area lessons.