Literacy in the Plural: Multiliteracies Enlivened during the Pandemic

Critical and situated engagement with literacies offers educators an important, documented pedagogical tool that has the potential to increase elementary students' understanding of issues of equity, while developing their empathy, self-awareness, and critical consciousness. What we don't know is how literacies can be used during a global pandemic to support students' socially, emotionally, and intellectually. This ethnographic research study sheds light on one racially, linguistically diverse fourth grade classroom and what happens when the teacher uses literacy events to engage students during the COVID19 pandemic. Using critical engagement and multiliteracies theories, I present and analyze data from classroom observations, audio recordings, fieldnotes, screenshots, and interviews. Findings indicate that engaging in multiliteracies during the pandemic supported student engagement, connection, and agency. I argue that these findings have implications for in-person teaching. Specifically, when classroom teachers approach literacy events from a multiliteracies framework, new instructional spaces are created to support students to be cognitively and socially available for learning.