This article explores learning through modes of signification in literacy activity books for early childhood learners in Kenya. These modes of signification are important for the cognitive and social development of children. Early childhood education in Kenya aims to prepare children for primary school by building foundational skills in a…

The 'multimodal turn' has led many education systems around the world to incorporate aspects of multimodality into their language curriculum as a response to the contemporary communication environment and new literacy practices of students. In this article, we present and examine findings from a study of the enactment of multimodal pedagogies by…

This article explores the possibilities of incorporating collaborative digital storytelling into preservice teacher education to support teachers in learning about their students' rich perspectives on teaching and learning. Data were gathered in an elementary literacy methods course at a public university in the northeastern United States to…

Pedagogy that centers primarily on oral and written language significantly limits the educational progress of students with disabilities because it may not regularly afford them opportunities to express what they have learned. It stands to reason that increased opportunities for expression through multiple ways or modes of meaning-making will lead…

The present study examined whether temporal processing (TP) is associated with reading of a non-alphabetic script, that is, Chinese. A total of 126 primary school-aged Chinese children from Taiwan (63 children with dyslexia) completed cross-modal, visual, and auditory temporal order judgment tasks and measures of Chinese reading and…

Several studies have been undertaken to develop instruments to measure English teachers' TPACK, but few studies have measured English teachers' TPACK to develop meaningful relationships among technology, content, and pedagogy in the context whereby literacy should be associated with a range of semiotic modes beyond the written language. The…

As political agendas change, the teaching of writing continues to evolve, encompassing different writing practices in an attempt to address the perceived needs for literacy in our society. This article presents the Write Here project, which aims to boost children's social development and literacy attainment through engagement with visual art,…

Classroom discussions of multimodal texts, in particular historical fiction picturebooks, offer an interpretive space where readers are positioned to construct meanings in transaction with the written language, visual images, and design elements created by authors, illustrators and publishers (Serafini & Ladd, 2008; Sipe, 1999). This study was…

In the Budding Science and Literacy project, we explored how working with an integrated inquiry-based science and literacy approach may challenge and support the teaching and learning of science at the classroom level. By studying the inter-relationship between multiple learning modalities and phases of inquiry, we wished to illuminate possible…

This article documents what happened when a teacher in an urban school shifted classroom practice through changing participation structures to incorporate digital technology and multiple modalities into a fifth grade literacy curriculum. This shift in teacher practice provided opportunities for immigrant students to become more visible in the…

The principles of Hungarian music educator Zoltan Kodaly can be particularly useful not only in teaching children how to read music notation but also in creating curiosity and enjoyment for reading music. Many of Kodaly's ideas pertaining to music literacy have been echoed by educators such as Jerome Bruner and Edwin Gordon, as well as current…

The author works as a biliteracy teacher in a bilingual school that serves students from K-5th grade. She and her coteacher provide instruction in both English and Spanish to 4th and 5th graders. They have two language arts blocks so that students receive literacy instruction in both their native and second languages, and they teach math, social…

This book is developed to help teach curriculum through the use of movement and dance, while giving students a chance to use their creative problem-solving skills. The text describes a step-by-step process through which instructor and students can learn to transform academic concepts into actions and dances. Theoretical information is also…

Inquiry-based science instruction can provide a rich context in which to build literacy skills in the elementary grades. The authors discuss the benefits of incorporating reading, writing, and speaking into science instruction. They describe the results of research on two models for combining language arts and science--the Science IDEAS model and…

This article argues that it is possible to look at children's texts in relation to the lens of literacy events and practices from the New Literacy Studies, and apply this perspective to an understanding of creativity. Teachers can then use the possibilities within a text to ask children different kinds of questions. Drawing on a 2-year…