Student-created storybooks as visual creativity: multimodal sense-making of migrant experiences in a Chicano Studies classroom

This practice-based, reflexive study examines student-created storybooks as a form of visual creativity in higher education. Situated in a Chicano Studies course at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, the paper analyzes a multimodal assignment that invited students to make sense of course content through creative visual and narrative forms. While students could choose from multiple formats, this study focuses on three storybooks as illustrative classroom artefacts. Drawing on Validation Theory and the Critical Multimodal Literacy Framework, the analysis examines how visual elements such as metaphor, colour, sequencing, and composition, construct meaning within the narratives. Through close reading of these artefacts, the paper shows how visual storytelling can function as a tool for sense-making and reflection in contexts involving migration and identity. This study contributes an example of how multimodal assignments can support engagement with complex sociopolitical themes through visual creativity and narrative forms.