This paper aims to contribute to the construction of multiliteracies pedagogy. We argue that the analysis of focalisation is an essential dimension in multiliteracies pedagogy aimed at promoting the development of critical analysis of multimodal narratives. Our point is sustained by a case study of focalisation in an animated narrative comprising…

This paper explores the implications of children's out-of-school digital multimodal composing practices on learning and teaching in the formal educational context. It adopts a case study approach where publicly accessible "YouTube" video productions of three children around the world are examined. Applying a multimodal discourse analysis…

Purpose: Our world had always been multimodal, but studying how young children enact and embody literacy practices, especially reading, has often been overlooked. The purpose of this study was to examine how young children respond to nonfiction picturebooks in multimodal ways. This paper aims to answer the question: What multimodal resources do…

The texts students encounter are becoming increasingly complex and multimodal. There remains a need to understand the semiotic resources students draw upon to make meaning with these multimodal texts. This study draws on social semiotics as a frame to explore the ways in which eight first graders with a wide range of literacy proficiency levels…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which early adolescent programmers embed meaning in their digital media created within an online programming community called Scratch. Design/methodology/approach: The author completed an 18-month descriptive case study with 5 early adolescent participants. The research design included a…

Multimodality describes the nature of social semiotics as including multiple modes such as speech, writing, image, gesture and sound. Accordingly, multimodal literacies refer to the practices and texts utilizing these modes, while social semiotics frames these multimodal literacies as meaningful sociocultural practices (Kress, 2010). Multimodal…

This case study focuses on the diverse discourses Latinx bilingual students bring to class to make sense of power relations in the world. The study implements critical literacy practices such as read-alouds, discussions, writing, and drawing activities that help students critique and disrupt power discourses embedded in texts and visuals. With the…

Research on academic literacy within higher education has focused almost exclusively on the development of academic literacy in English. This book is unique in showing how students use other languages when they engage with written academic content--whether in reading, discussing, or writing--and how increasingly multilingual higher education…

It has long been acknowledged that immigrant children who are originally exposed to home languages become rapidly socialized into using only English. Although many children ultimately develop receptive skills in their home language, they often become English dominant and rarely have the opportunity for literacy development. There is also a common…

This article reports findings on a case study of Ellie as she participates in a language arts curriculum that incorporates multimodal literacy practices--including photography, drama, and art--to teach reading and writing. Our study was informed by the theoretical framework of multimodal social semiotics, which provides insight into how…

Drawing on semi-structured interview data, this paper examines one man's multimodal engagement with the emotionally difficult aspects of his Chilean heritage. It builds on recent work (e.g., Marshall & Toohey, 2010) that has begun to unearth the intersection between funds of knowledge (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005), difficult knowledge…

As technology becomes less costly and more ubiquitous in contemporary lives, utilizing these technologies in the elementary classrooms becomes an educational imperative in the quest to prepare students for success in the larger world. There is, however, a disconnect between the meaning-making possibilities for students in elementary school spaces;…

The increased presence of technology in school communities and children's lives poses a challenge to traditional teaching and learning tools. The present case study examines ways in which a classroom teacher, Marnie, conceptualised the use of a multiliteracies pedagogy (MLS) and a multimodal approach to elicit the lived experiences of her English…

This paper draws from research conducted as part of an Australian Research Council funded Linkage Project "Teaching effective 3D authoring in the middle years: multimedia grammatical design and multimedia authoring pedagogy", which is a collaboration between the University of New England, the University of Tasmania and the Australian…

The everyday reality of children's multilingualism is a significant resource for expanding students' perspectives on the world, but many questions remain regarding the negotiation of these resources in mainstream classrooms. Drawing on research from a long-term Canadian study of multiliterate pedagogies, this paper explores mediation of home…