Multimodal Literacy: From Theories to Practices

The creation of visual images and multimodal texts allows humans to communicate feelings and ideas across time and space, develop relationships with one another, and document the details of everyday experiences. With greater frequency, students are confronted with texts that include visual images and a variety of design features rather than texts that focus primarily on written language. The inclusion of multimodal features in addition to written language presents challenges to novice readers as they work within and across multiple sign systems to construct meaning. The purpose of this article is to offer a framework for bringing theories of multimodal literacies into the classroom, to reconsider the text as a visual object, semiotic resource, and sociocultural artifact, and to offer instructional approaches for developing students’ interpretive repertoires.