"A Multimodal Task-Based Framework for Composing"

Students learn by doing (291).

What I've always loved about the writing process is the organic, unexpected learning that occurs. There's something magical about what happens in the space between pen-to-paper or fingers-to-keys. Authors often talk about novels that "write themselves" or characters who take on lives of their own even as they're being written. Something unforeseen can occur in just the very doing of writing; things can be learned that can't be taught. Just as you don't really learn how to teach until you do it, or ride a bike or drive a car, some things in writing (and in life for that matter) are only learned whilst writing.

And sometimes, that process feels effortless, easy, and divinely-inspired.

And sometimes, that process feels impeded by impossibilities.

And then there's that moment I dread (though retrospectively love): where I recognize a different, better approach I could take to my destination point, one that requires some doing-over, restarting, and (seemingly) backtracking. I usually first meet it with a reaction not far from this:

...Followed closely with something like this

Shipka notes that especially in multimodal compositions, assignments that are intentionally "ambiguous" so as to allow student creativity and agency in the process, "this way of working can be time-consuming and frustrating, especially when the students discover potentials for enriching their work that may require them to set aside the work they have already begun and return to an earlier stage in the production process" (291). In other words, multimodal task-oriented writing is far from easy and comfortable; it may look like a series of "false starts" until you land on the winning combo. But as a writer who's faced this 2 pages into the 8-page paper, as a teacher who's realized this 5 days into a 3-week-unit, I know by experience those uncomfortable crossroads are where some of the greatest learning and breakthroughs take place.

And it doesn't even have to be as dramatic as that. Shipka aptly notes that "even those who make the smallest adjustments to their work begin demonstrating a more nuanced understanding of as well as a greater appreciation for the productive tension that often exists between knowledge and action, and understanding that often leads to greater communicative flexibility..." (291). So even for the student making minor tweaks and slight changes in their trajectory, even they are better for having worked through the process.

And again I'm struck by how life-like writing is, how beneficial this "deep revision" is for me and my students as a lesson applicable to all kinds of situations and relationships in life-- not just their compositions for my English class. For we hone and refine great characteristics in these uncomfortable and (sometimes) exasperating mid-journey moments: things like endurance, humility, patience, and commitment. And that's a far better lesson than any I could plan or map out for a 45-minute class period.