Visualizing literacy: Building bridges with media

In this qualitative teacher-researcher one-year classroom study, the author focused upon the literacy strategies that four low-achieving writers used while creating and interpreting music video compositions. The students read a variety of musical and video texts as they composed their own music video project. The guiding question of this research was, to what extent do lower-achieving students engage with complex composition strategies, particularly when composing a video project in the context of a media-based language arts elective? The data indicate that the focus students demonstrated a number of complex composition strategies through their reading and composing of a video text. Implications for a broadened notion of composition and literacy instruction are discussed.