ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the use of multimedia in an alternative secondary program to engage students in multiliteracy projects that traverse their inschool and out-of-school lives and literacy practices. One student is JJ, a secondary student who had effectively dropped out of regular school, where he was considered “too disruptive.” He joined the alternative Youth Literacy Program where, after being introduced to Octavio Paz’s short story “The Blue Bouquet,” he made a short film of the story (described later). Shortly thereafter, JJ went into hiding in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia to escape the consequences of an unpaid drug debt. Two weeks later, he came back to school, beaten up but alive, and returned to his schoolwork, writing prolifically. What might account for this transformation from a student who actively resisted school and “school literacies” to one who now engages with his schoolwork?
