Semester of Graduation
Fall 2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctorate of Education
Department
Secondary and Middle Grades Education
Committee Chair/First Advisor
Jennifer Dail
Second Advisor
Darren Crovitz
Third Advisor
Beth Marks
Abstract
The 2025 Georgia English Language Arts standards indicate that teachers will be moving away from a monomodal approach to literacy learning to include students’ construction and evaluation of multimodal texts in grades 9-12. As such, this qualitative case study explored 39 Honors American Literature students' experiences with constructing multimodal arguments. The study sought to understand students’ perceptions and attitudes of creating an argumentative multimodal composition, including their attitudes toward each stage of the composing process: planning, drafting/designing, revising/editing, and publishing. The context was a suburban high school, and the research and data collection took place over 12 weeks. Data types included analysis of three Reflective Journal Responses and Designer’s Statements, along with one-on-one interviews with selected students, one from each of the mediums submitted: a comic, edited photo, infographic, newspaper article, original song, poster or collage, social media post, structure in the form of a legal case file, and video. The findings of the study revealed students’ experiences composing multimodal fostered their sense of agency, helped them cultivate risk-taking behaviors, engaged them in meaningful feedback loops, and ultimately expanded their critical thinking skills.