Few studies examine young children's multimodal responses to nonfiction picture books, and even fewer examine teaching practices that encourage these responses. This case study of a kindergarten class illustrates how one teacher regularly conducted interactive whole-group read-alouds using nonfiction picture books. After examining the multimodal…

Writing in school has long been disconnected and inauthentic to multilingual learners due to its monolingual, language-focused, and standardized features. Although more and more researchers have called for and explored newer asset-based writing pedagogies, such as digital multimodal writing, to support diverse learners in response to emerging…

The authors argue for an expansive and inclusive approach to literacy instruction that moves beyond multimodality to embrace multiplicity in readers, texts, mediums, activities, environments, and contexts aligned to our 21st century world. In particular, rather than privileging the linguistic mode, the authors argue for using all modes and…

This article explores the potential of multimodal literacies to support a more equitable, inclusive approach to literacy instruction. Approaching multimodal literacies with an asset-based stance toward students with respect to culture, language, and dis/ability, multimodal literacies can support the enactment of culturally relevant pedagogy as…

As literacy researchers continue to investigate how young students make sense of texts, specifically picture books, attention has expanded beyond the role that written language plays in reading comprehension to the various ways that visual images, typography, design elements, and digital devices support and challenge young readers during the act…

The authors detail how one fourth-grade teacher implemented a comics writers' workshop in the weeks that concluded the academic school year. Each phase of the comics writers' workshop is described. Students interpreted and analyzed the words, images, and design features that compose published comics before constructing and publishing their own…

This paper explores work in multimodality and design as it relates to 21st century multiliteracies. After outlining the concept of a multiliteracies pedagogy, this paper describes multimodality and multimodal texts. Moving from the theoretical to the practical, this paper primarily explores selected multimodal works of Shaun Tan and the…

This article provides primary teachers with assessment tools and curricular examples to expand writers' workshop by adding a multimodal storytelling unit on drama and filmmaking, allowing students to create engaging off-the-page stories through films and play performances that enrich writing. Too often, children's literacy abilities are assessed…

This study analyzes how second, third, and fourth graders in a racially integrated suburban school engaged in multimodal meaning making in the context of a book club discussing Ben Hatke's graphic novel "Zita the Spacegirl." Qualitative analysis of field notes and assessments indicated three overall findings: First, students responded to…

This article shares the authors' work with first graders and how, through various reading, writing, and art experiences around picturebooks, the children learned to read and communicate through art along with written language. The work is grounded in multimodality theory and the belief that all modes (particularly art for the purposes of this…

Composing with different modes--image, sound, video and the written word--to respond to and analyze literary and informational text helps students develop as readers and digital communicators. This article showcases five multimodal strategies for engaging children in rich literature-based learning using digital tools and Internet resources.

This paper describes the visuals second grade students included in their own information book compositions during a science unit on weather during which multimodal science trade books on the topic of weather were read aloud. First, the multimodal nature of the information books used in the unit are described. Second, the teacher's talk about…

In this paper, we explore the affordances of literature-based, arts-infused and digital media processes for students, as multimodal practices take centre stage in an English Language Arts unit on fractured fairy tales. The study takes up the challenge of addressing multimodal literacy instruction and research in ways that utilize a range of…

The imaginative and interactive modes of communication available for children today, above and beyond print, indicate a profound shift to the nature of reading education as a whole. This article reviews the theoretical landscape involved in multimodal education, and then examines the practices that make multimodal education feasible in the…

This article discusses a study to determine whether primary grade students can learn comprehension processes via hand motions to portray these mental processes. Comprehension Process Motions (CPMs) were designed to provide students with a way to make abstract comprehension processes more consciously accessible and also to give teachers a way to…