Evolution of the "old page", or written hardcopy texts, to the "new" (Kress, 2003), or electronic page, means that today's learners have experience with reading a variety of texts. Image, music, and electronic inscription (font, style, flash, and so on) are features of multimodal texts that many learners prefer to read and create. With the screen becoming the dominant medium (Kress, 2003), there is an increasing need for learners to understand reading and writing in multiple modes, and for English educators to maximize the potential of multimedia in the teaching and learning of English. However, as Short, Harste & Burke (1987) have suggested, accepting a new alternative does not mean devaluing the contribution of one's current or past beliefs. Rather, as English educators, we start with what we know is good teaching, and continually reshape our teaching based upon our new learning, and in this case, the role of multimodality. My interest over the past seven years has been on the integration of multimodality into English curriculum development and design. Perhaps equally important is the role that literature plays in our lives and the lives of our students. This paper addresses this inquiry and presents the Focused Study as a flexible curricular framework that supports a multimodal perspective and values the lives and experiences that learners bring to English language arts classrooms. (Contains 11 figures.)