Principles for Selecting Multimodal and Visual Texts to use in the Classroom

This article is drawn from extracts from PETAA Book The Shape of Text to Come: How image and text work, written by Dr Jon Callow and published in 2013.

Using visual and multimodal texts

Whether working with a persuasive advertisement, factual website or quality picture book, there are some key principles that should inform any teacher's choice and use of texts. Multimodal texts, with their powerful mix of images and words, can be a highly engaging resource for students (Callow, 2012). From a pedagogical point of view, teachers can then build on this interest to craft lessons which have high intellectual content and active participation, further strengthening engagement and enjoyment in learning (Hayes, et al., 2006; Munns, Sawyer, & Cole, 2013). A common set of literacy principles that complement effective pedagogical approaches is that developed by Luke and Freebody, commonly referred to as the four roles of the reader or the 'four resources model; (Luke & Freebody, 1999). Freebody (2007) more recently expressed these as roles of a literate learner, which include reading, viewing and making all types of texts:

  • cracking the relationship between spoken and materialised language (code breaker);
  • using and extending cultural knowledge to make texts meaningful (meaning maker);
  • drawing on, using and making a repertoire of texts that effectively advance the individual or collective purposes at hand (text user);
  • interrogating texts for the ways in which they constrain interpretation, by excluding alternative ways of documenting experience of the world (text critic).

Across a sequence of lessons and over a school year, teachers should be planning opportunities for their learners to develop all four of the roles above, using a variety of multimodal texts.

Choosing texts

While syllabus and curriculum documents will guide literacy planning, one of the pleasures of teaching is finding a wonderful resource to share with your class. Knowing your students, with their individual needs and abilities, as well as their areas of interest, is central. If you are working with persuasive texts, such as advertisements, consider what type of content would engage and be relevant to your class and their cultural experiences. Build on science or history topics by selecting accessible factual texts or electronic books, which prompt interest and engagement through the use of image and text. Careful selection of quality children's picture books allows exploration of themes and issues, where students are challenged to question and think about what they are reading at deep levels. Engaging stories, teamed with appropriate teaching, allows even the youngest readers to predict, discuss and develop comprehension of important ideas in a story. An excellent resource to assist teachers in choosing and using literature is Lorraine McDonald's A literature companion for teachers 2nd Edition (McDonald, 2017). 

Key considerations/advice

  • Having chosen a quality text, make sure you read it and enjoy it yourself, as your own knowledge and enthusiasm is important and will always positively influence your teaching.
  • Choose a specific feature that relates to both your learners and to the text itself, and build learning experiences for your students in that context.
  • Make sure you think about how you might teachers your learners about the purpose and structure of the text you choose.
  • As you teach a whole imaginative text, it is important to consider the broader literary features, which may include: theme, plot, characterisation, point of view and setting.
  • Choosing a specific page or screen from informative and persuasive texts is quite different to choosing one from a narrative. Many factual books may have a mixture of text types on the one double page spread, so it will be important to help students understand the mix. When planning, choose a key page, note down the main ideas and the visual and verbal features that are important in creating the ideas and feel of the page. 
  • Exploring your chosen text could include reading the whole text (if using a narrative picture book), then revisiting a key page, explicitly teaching an aspect of the visual and written text and how they work together, then consolidating the concepts and skills in a concluding activity.