This article explores one context in which language arts instruction can be enhanced through digital technologies. It describes how preservice elementary education teachers first investigated aspects of visual literacy and then engaged in digital and traditional multimodal forms of response to historical nonfiction literature. They read, interpreted images, posted online written and visual responses, created symbolic collages, role played, enacted dramatic tableaux, and conversed. Next, they selected from and redesigned these varied representational resources to create collaborative digital movies in which they further explored an aspect of the book. Three of the group projects are analyzed for the ways in which the students capitalized upon the particular affordances of the various modalities. Implications for elementary and middle school classroom instruction are described. (Contains 5 figures.)