Learning to “Speak Data”

Abstract

This chapter contributes to that work by presenting a rhetorical framework for data literacy and a case study using the framework to chart one student’s multimodal literacy growth through a data storytelling assignment. Mark Frank et al. contend that data literacy “is rapidly becoming a requirement to participate in modern life”. Though data literacy used to be largely synonymous with statistical literacy, “the internet has fundamentally changed the game by potentially allowing anyone with Internet access to access a vast range of data sources”. The project self-assessment and reflection asked students to write to their instructor using evidence from their project assignments about how they achieved the goals they set for their data stories and reflecting on their learning. Multimodal composition scholars such as Shipka and Wyosocki et al. stress that assessing and evaluating students’ multimodal compositions should be informed by the rhetorical purposes of the activity or assignment.