To foster my students’ multiliteracies and creativity, I assigned my first-year composition students to compose and represent a free verse poem using iPads and several apps. Developed by Apple Inc., GarageBand is a computer application that allows users to record, edit, and play audio clips whereas iMovie works for video clips (Apple Inc., 2016). Since free verse poetry allows students to express their messages (e.g., argument) in their unique style without fixed genre restriction, this particular digital composition activity motivates them to maneuver between genres and creatively represent traditional rhetoric in multimodalized form. The students reported that they has developed writing skills in different genres, critical thinking skills, and rhetorical knowledge, along with multiliteracies and creativity by using the apps to transform alphabetic writing into a multidimensional digital artifact.

The details of the multimodal composition activity are as follows:
1. Goals of lesson: Cultivating multiliteracies, writing skills across genres, and creativity
2. Class time: One 50 minute-long session for understanding and writing a free verse poem and another 50 minute-long session for demonstrating how to use the particular apps
3. Resources needed: iPads with GarageBand, iMovie, and Internet access
4. Procedure
Session I: Understanding and writing a free verse poem
a. Put students in a group of two or three and give them ten minutes to rhetorically analyze a couple of poems. I often use William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 because it is a good example of effective use of poetic devices and diction with unique voice. This activity will help students refresh their knowledge of poetry that they already acquired in their high school English class.
b. Let students share their group discussion with the class and then analyze the poems with the class.
c. Overview basic poetry types and techniques with a focus on free verse poetry.
d. Explain the rubric for poetry to the class (My rubric categories are clear message, unique voice, well-structured form, effective use of poetic devices and diction, and no grammar/mechanics errors).
e. Let students write a free verse poem and offer one-on-one help.
Note: This activity can be easily modified according to students’ writing skills. Instead of creating a free verse poem, composing self-introduction essay might be more appropriate for developmental students.

Session II: iPad
a. Give each student an iPad equipped with iMovie and GarageBand. My school library has dozens of iPads equipped with the apps. Students can access the iPads when the library is open. There is also a librarian designated for iPad instruction.
b. Demonstrate how to use the features of the apps.
c. Give students ten minutes to use the apps to compose texts, audio clips, and video.
d. Show them how to upload their work on the YouTube website.
e. Once students are familiar with the apps, discuss good and bad examples of multimodalized poems with the class.
f. Give them the following assignment:

Create a free verse poem on a topic of your choice working either solo or in a group of 2-4 people using GarageBand, iMovie, or both. An iPad with the apps will be provided for this assignment. Here are step-by-step directions for you:
1. Choose a topic.
2. Identify your target audience, purpose, and message.
3. Incorporate at least two modes into your poem such as text, audio clip, still image, video, and so on.
4. Digitalize your poem using GarageBand, iMovie, or both. Your poem should be 2-5 minute long.
5. Post your digital poem on the YouTube website.

Note: It will be graded using the following three categories:
 Digital Literacy- Does the student effectively use the iPad apps to deliver the poem's message for a specific audience and purpose?
 Writing Skills- Is the poem well written? (i.e., clear message, unique voice, well-structured form, effective use of poetic devices and diction, and no grammar/mechanics errors)
 Creativity- Does the student bring an original approach to putting the poem into music and/or video? (e.g., using self-taken pictures, self-composed audio clips and so on)

Outcomes
Twenty-four volunteers participated in a survey about this multimodal composition activity. All of quotes are my students’ responses to the open-ended survey questions.
Despite a wide range of digital skill levels, the infusion of the computer apps into first-year composition classes kept students very engaged in this activity. The majority of my students took the following process to complete the assignment: “First I wrote a poem then I searched the internet for pictures to implement in my iPad project that gave a good visual of the words used in the poem. Next I put the poem into the slideshow [using iMovie]. Then I used to GarageBand to make a song that would go with my poem and put it in the slideshow. Finally I edited the length of the slideshow and each picture in it [using iMovie].”
Seventy-five percent of the students found the activity was “new, exciting, and enjoyable.” One stated “this project was different and more fun than [other] projects.” Meanwhile, the rest said that it was “challenging,” but “allowed me to be creative yet analytical.” Sixty percent of the students were excited about posting their work on the YouTube web because “others could see [their] amazing creations.” They learned “a new way to create messages” using more than one mode to write.
Ninety-one percent of the students reported that the iPad assignment helped them develop the NCTE’s 21st century literacy skill set such as digital literacy, collaborative writing skills, cross-cultural awareness, multiple streamed information management skills, rhetorical knowledge in different genres, and creative writing skills (NCTE, 2013).
While working on the assignment, the students felt empowered because the infusion of emerging technologies “made [them] feel like [they were] in control of everything” and “let [them] create something that was [their] original ideas.” Not only did creative integration of emerging technologies into first-year composition enhance students’ digital writing skills and creativity, but also it empowered students to engage more effectively in their own learning process.

"Apple Inc. (2016). GarageBand for Mac. Retrieved from
http://www.apple.com/mac/garageband/
Council of Writing Program Administrators. (2014). WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition (3.0). Retrieved from http://wpacouncil.org/positions/outcomes.html
National Council of Teachers of English. (2013). The NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition
New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-92.
Yu, E. (2017). Actively engaged with iPads: Creative adventure during the first semester, Research &Teaching in Developmental Education, 33 (2).
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Some of students’ work samples are available at: https://www.youtube.com/user/cantonvideopoetry