Stories Beyond Words: Research & Practices for Multimodal Literacy

Monomodal practices are a regular occurrence in the elementary classroom, where the reading and writing of traditional print-based texts are often what is tested and what is valued. Yet, multimodal literacy practices provide students with engaging ways to communicate meaning and prepare students for the texts they will encounter outside of the classroom. While teachers may already use multimodal practices, these practices are often selected without an understanding of what multimodality is and may be used inconsistently or haphazardly. Although much has been written about the importance of multimodal literacy, less is known about practical ways to incorporate and assess multimodal literacy in the elementary classroom. This article provides four areas of practice, drawn from the research on multimodal literacy that can be used in creating a multimodal literacy classroom: seeing, showing, telling, and moving through a story. Research-based ideas for assessing multimodal products are also provided. Multimodality is the way forward in preparing our students to be literate for the future.