This article examines the power of composing images as students construct identities and shape their own worlds. It illustrates student empowerment through agency, intellectual engagement, and community investment and suggests that composing with images forms a bridge back to alphabetic-centric composing.

Sara's story reports the effects of an experimental intervention applying knowledge-building principles for learning, as well as the unanticipated improvement of literacy skills of students with IEPs. According to the author, if you believe that knowledge is socially and collaboratively constructed, as the author does, then an overwhelming…