Use the multimodal narrative as an opportunity to teach critical reflection.

However, if the audience was listening closely, there were practices that were left out of my narrative which also made certain implications.  Although both my audio and video projects focused solely on my family, neither of them ever mentioned my father.  This most likely implied to the audience that my father played no role in my artistic literacies.  That implication was a construction on my part.  Actually, my father was probably as influential on my music literacy as my mother and her family, but for the last eight years, my father has played a very different role in my life than he did the first 25, and I knew it would be too painful for me and other members of my family who would be my audience for these pieces to have him included.  I was also not ready to give him credit for any of the positive things that have come out of my life such as my love of music.  Therefore, I shaped my narrative in a way which would focus on the positive stories of my family even if they weren’t the entire story.

Students make these same choices when they tell relate their own narratives, but they often do not reflect critically on the choices they make.  The multimodal personal narrative assignment works especially well when followed by a traditional print essay reflecting on the experience.  However, don’t expect students to be naturally critically reflective just because they are using a new mode of composition.  Share with them your own reflections about multimodal essays you have composed and discuss openly your composition and revision processes.