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Abstract
This research used a qualitative case study approach to examine the manner in which teachers and students perceived the enactment of pedagogy of multiliteracies in an online environment. Teachers employed lesson plans using a digital platform to assist students meaning making while reading the canonical play, William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet (1597). Students used the remix concept to create relevant learning experiences while interacting in an online student lounge. There were nineteen participants including two teachers and seventeen students involved in this study. Data sources included semi-structured interviews conducted via a group interview approach over the course of ten weeks as well as classroom observations, artifacts, and online transcripts. The teachers literacy instruction was examined, and their knowledge and beliefs were noted as they attempted to enact pedagogy of multiliteracies in their literacy instruction. Students interacted in the virtual space by remixing the canon. This activity in the virtual space positioned students to engage in opportunities to read across modes, which helped them determine deeper meanings as well as create new meanings of a classic text in the classroom. Key findings from this study assert that teachers experience changes in identities as instructors in the new space as they experimented with online learning tools. Additionally, the teachers became more reflective on their definitions of a text. These results suggest that adolescent students are able to develop their own meaning making of canonical texts when they are allowed to use multimodal literacies to remix the texts for their own use. The participatory environment allowed students to learn and acquire a sense of equity as they interacted among their peers.