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Practical Implications – Multimodal composition and making can be effectively integrated into pre-service candidates’ literacy education, as well as high school English Language Arts, to develop multimodal communication and inclusive design skills and values. Success depends on interdisciplinary expertise (e.g., children’s books, tactile design, making technologies, etc.), and sufficient access to physical and digital materials and tools.

Although research emphasizes the importance of reflection for productive learning, much of this work has focused on writing as the preferred mode. The goal of this study was to examine how two adolescent composers reflected on their multimodal visions and processes through multimodal means—in particular, how the students remixed research-provided screen capture video, class observation video, and their multimodal products to each create a composer's cut video reflection. A multimodal matrix analytic approach was employed by integrating analyses of students’ composing processes, products, and perspectives to derive themes. Findings revealed that the students uniquely remixed modes and media to create their composer's cut videos. They leveraged the affordances of video, image, text, and sound to represent their creative process and artistic identities. Students gained new insights into their process and who they were as multimodal designers and recommended composer's cut as a useful tool for personal reflection and social media sharing.

Multimodal composing is part of the Common Core vision of the twenty-first-century student. Two descriptive studies were conducted of fifth-grade students’ digital folktale retellings. Study 1 analyzed 83 retellings in relation to the types and frequencies of modal use, such as image, sound, movement, and written text, as well as their retelling accuracy. Students composed within a scaffolded digital composing environment which comprised the PowerPoint authoring/presentation tool and a researcher-developed story frame. All students’ retellings included writing and visual design, 80% included animation, and 70% included sound. Retelling accuracy scores averaged 54%. Study 2 was conducted with a new group of 14 fifth-grade students who had previous digital retelling experience. The retellings included the same types of modal use, but at a higher level of frequency. In their retrospective design interviews, students expressed design intentionality and a metamodal awareness of how modes work together ...

Being a literacy teacher today means being a teacher of Web literacies. This article features the “Web Literacy Map”, an open source tool from Mozilla's Webmaker project. The map focuses on Exploring (Navigating the Web); Building (creating for the Web), and Connecting (Participating on the Web). Readers are invited to use resources, provide feedback on the map, and become a member of the literacy map community.

Students find multimodal composing highly engaging. Even with students’ investment in designing multimodal texts, the teaching process is complex.. The purpose for writing, audience, and genre must be considered in relation to the modes, digital authoring and presentation tools, and technology devices that are available to the composer. This column explores multimodal composition teaching in the context of a fourth-grade social studies classroom and offers suggestions for making this kind of teaching feasible, engaging, and productive.

The digital world is expanding the reading palette, offering readers -- especially readers who struggle with printed text -- new possibilities for to engage in reading via e-text and e-books. This expanded view of text is consistent with the Common Core’s vision of a successful 21st century learner who is able to critically read and communicate with text in print and multimodal formats. This vision of e-texts has yet to be fully realized, but schools are moving to integrate e-texts and digital curricula, and some authors and educational publishers are experimenting with multimodal composition.

Teachers are using DIY tools to design literacy curricula and texts and share them with colleagues online. This article features a free book authoring tool, CAST's UDL Book Builder, that supports teachers in designing eBooks based on universal design for learning principles and reading research.

Composing with different modes – image, sound, video and the written word – to respond to and analyze literary and informational text helps students develop as readers and digital communicators. This article showcases five multimodal strategies for engaging children in rich literature-based learning using digital tools and Internet resources.

Understanding relies on the reader's ability to ‘read between the lines’ and connect textual evidence with their own experience, knowledge and beliefs. The Common Core State Standards highlight the importance of using text−based evidence to develop arguments and support interpretations, including analysis and appreciation of author's craft. In this article, Dalton suggests a multimodal strategy for engaging students’ in close reading. Using an original text as the base, students compose a multimodal hypertext version with hyperlinks from selected pieces of text to their multimodal commentary. Illustrations are remixed with the addition of speech and thought balloons. An example hypertext is presented, along with suggestions for teaching.

This study examined the relative contribution of reading comprehension strategies and interactive vocabulary in Improving Comprehension Online (ICON), a universally designed web-based scaffolded text environment designed to improve fifth-grade monolingual English and bilingual students’ reading achievement. Seventy-five monolingual English and 31 bilingual students from six classrooms were assigned to one of three ICON conditions: reading comprehension strategies, vocabulary, or a combined version of comprehension strategies and vocabulary. Students read eight multimedia folktales and informational texts within their respective ICON condition and completed embedded activities, researcher measures of comprehension and vocabulary, and pre- and postintervention standardized reading achievement tests. ANCOVA results indicated that after controlling for initial reading achievement, there was a main effect for condition on the researcher measure of vocabulary, with the combination group and vocabulary groups both significantly outperforming the strategy group. There was also an interaction effect, with differences between monolingual and bilingual Spanish-speaking students greatest in the strategy group. There was no effect of condition on comprehension, nor was there an effect of language status on narrative comprehension. However, there was a main effect of language status on expository text comprehension and standardized vocabulary achievement, with monolingual students performing more strongly than bilingual Spanish-speaking students. The results add to a growing body of research on the design and use of scaffolded digital text for diverse learners.

Vocabulary knowledge is key to comprehension and expression. For students in the intermediate grades, the need for breadth and depth of vocabulary accelerates as they encounter more challenging academic texts in print and on the Internet. Drawing on research-based principles of vocabulary instruction and multimedia learning, this article presents 10 eVoc strategies that use free digital tools and Internet resources to evoke students' engaged vocabulary learning. The strategies are designed to support the teaching of words and word learning strategies, promote students' strategic use of on-demand web-based vocabulary tools, and increase students' volume of reading and incidental word learning. The strategies emphasize developing students' interest in words as they read, view, interact with, and create word meanings in digital and multimedia contexts. Teachers are invited to ‘go digital with word learning’ and experiment with integrating technology to improve their students' vocabulary and reading comprehension.

Literacy instruction for students with significant intellectual disabilities traditionally emphasizes isolated skills instruction focusing on sight words and basic vocabulary. Recent research suggests these students benefit from high-quality instruction that includes comprehension and storybook reading. This study examined the effect of a technology-based universal design for learning (UDL) approach to literacy instruction, Literacy by Design (LBD), on the reading achievement of 16 students with significant intellectual disabilities in Grades K–2. The LBD approach emphasizes reading for meaning, combining UDL-scaffolded e-books and letter and word recognition software. Nine teachers received training in research-based literacy practices. Of these, five received LBD training and implemented it four to five times weekly. Controlling for initial reading achievement, the LBD group made significantly greater gains on the Woodcock–Johnson Test of Achievement III Passage Comprehension subtest. Implications for research and practice in beginning reading instruction for children with significant intellectual disabilities are discussed.

This quasi-experimental study investigated the effects of an Internet-delivered universally designed depth of vocabulary intervention that targeted both English-speaking and Spanish–English-speaking students. Two hundred forty students, 49% of whom were Spanish–English bilinguals, participated in the 16-week intervention. Intervention students read eight multimedia texts with embedded instruction on 40 words and reading strategy support. Students could access all texts and activities in Spanish and English. In comparison to a control group, there were significant intervention effects on a standardized measure of vocabulary knowledge, but effects were non-significant for comprehension. Similarly, significant effects on researcher-developed measures of vocabulary depth were detected, but not for a researcher-developed measure of breadth.

The sheer quantity of words known (breadth) is strongly predictive of reading comprehension, yet little is understood about how quality of word knowledge (depth) affects comprehension. A group of 35 bilingual and monolingual 5th-grade students worked on developing depth of knowledge of 8 words, culminating in an activity in which the students produced captions for images related to each word. The captions were scored using a 4-point depth scale, and similarities and differences between bilingual and monolingual students were assessed. Results indicated a significant effect of depth of word knowledge in predicting reading comprehension, particularly for students with average to strong oral language skills.

—The digital age offers transformative opportunities for individualization of learning. First, modern imaging technologies have changed our understanding of learning and the sources and ranges of its diversity. Second, digital technologies make it possible to design learning environments that are responsive to individual differences. We draw on CAST's research and development on universal design for learning to suggest the potential of digital reading environments that are designed to support learning and engagement by addressing the diversity in learners’ representation, strategic and affective networks. Optimal customization depends on continued advances in the digital tools of the neurosciences and the design and enactment of digital learning environments.

As interest and concern rise in U.S. educational circles around the reading achievement of English language learners (ELLs) and struggling readers, researchers and practitioners alike are calling for the increased use of technology as a means to decrease achievement gaps in reading (Jiménez, 2003; Strangman & Dalton, 2005). In this article, we report results from a 4-week study of the English reading comprehension of struggling readers, including Spanish-speaking ELLs. Thirty 4th-grade students read several narrative and informational hypertexts that provided embedded vocabulary and comprehension strategy supports, along with text-to-speech read-aloud functionality. Correlation analyses of pre-post standardized reading vocabulary gain scores revealed that vocabulary gain was associated, although not significantly, with the frequency of access of hyperlinked glossary items throughout the intervention, and that lower pretest vocabulary knowledge was associated with positive vocabulary gains. A similar pattern was detected for comprehension gains, which were significantly associated with the frequency of access of coaching avatars that provided support around the productive use of reading comprehension strategies. The results reported here suggest that struggling readers and Spanish-speaking ELLs made use of the digitally embedded features in such a way as to promote both learning novel lexical items and effectively applying reading comprehension strategies.

Purpose To describe the use of a Composer’s Cut video as a tool for reflecting on and celebrating one’s experience creating multimodal compositions for personal and social audiences. Methodology/approach Two adolescents designed and produced digital video stories about their prior experience composing a webpage and a multimodal literary analysis hypertext in response to the Vietnam war novel, The Things They Carried. Findings Each student remixed Camtasia screen capture video, class video, and images, enhanced with text overlays and music, to showcase their unique vision as a multimodal designer and to highlight their composing processes. They viewed the Composer’s Cut video as a powerful vehicle for reflection and appreciated that their videos would have a public audience. Practical implications Reflection often tends to be oral or written. Digital video supports students in showing, as well as telling their experience through multiple modes. The Composer’s Cut video is one example of how video might be used for reflection that is both personal and social.

Integrating literacy, technology, pedagogy, and content is challenging for secondary education teachers. The authors propose remix as a useful representation of the lesson composing practices that teachers engage in as they combine and manipulate digital resources to create Internet-based learning experiences. This study examines 34 teachers’ lesson designs composed with a free authoring tool that scaffolds the embedding of Internet resources and pedagogical agents. Lessons designed for students in grades 6-12 and published to a public database are analyzed for design orientation, goals, reading strategies, and pedagogical agent use. Design orientations include immersing students in a multimodal experience to enhance content and literacy, providing access to primary documents, and developing Web evaluation skills and media literacy. The pedagogical focus of the authoring tool is reflected in teachers’ remix of strategy prompts and pedagogical agents, with a majority customizing coaching scripts to support online reading. Consistent with the results of Dalton and Smith’s 2012 study of lessons designed for elementary grade students, these findings provide additional support for the design and use of smart authoring tools scaffold teachers as designers who remix digital content and pedagogy to create productive online literacy and learning experiences for their students and for each other.

Purpose – To introduce classroom teachers to an integrated digital literacies perspective and provide a range of strategies and tools to support struggling readers in becoming successful digital readers and multimodal composers.Design/methodology/approach – The chapter begins with the rationale for integrating technology to support struggling readers’ achievement, explains universal design for learning principles, and then offers specific strategies, digital tools, and media for reading and composing.Findings – Provides research support for the use of technology to provide students’ access to grade-level text, enhance comprehension, improve writing, and develop multimodal composition skills.Research limitations/implications – The authors do not address all areas of technology and literacy integration. Instead, they focus on key priority areas for using technology to develop struggling readers’ literacy.Practical implications – The chapter provides theoretical and research-based strategies and digital resources for using technology to improve struggling readers’ comprehension and composition that should be helpful to classroom teachers.Originality/value of chapter – Teachers need support in integrating technology and literacy in ways that will make a meaningful difference for their struggling readers’ achievement and engagement.

We describe the empirical and theoretical roots of the Reading to Learn program of research, which was designed to investigate the metacognition and learning of upper elementary students in supportive etext environments. The results of study one, a think-aloud study in which children responded to narrative and informational texts, were used to inform the design of supports that were investigated in study two. Study two was an intervention study in which children read and responded to one of three etext versions: A static version, an interactive diagram version in which students could animate the graphic that corresponded with information presented in the prose and could manipulate the diagrams to explore ideas that were presented in the prose, or an interactive diagram/coaching version, which included two animated pedagogical agents, who provided both procedural and conceptual support. We critique the methods used in the intervention study and propose further research suggested by its findings.

Students with learning disabilities often perform poorly on multiple-choice tests that emphasize recall and factual knowledge. This study compared the effect of two alternative assessmentsa constructed diagram test and a written questionnaireon fourth-grade learning disabled (LD) and non-learning disabled (Non-LD) students' learning. As part of a larger investigation of different approaches to hands-on science learning, 172 students (including 33 LD students) in six urban and two suburban classrooms participated in the study. Results indicate that students' assessment outcomes are a function of learner status (LD, low, average and high achieving) and level of domain specific knowledge after instruction. After controlling for domain specific knowledge, students with LD, and low and average achieving students obtained higher scores on the constructed diagram test than on the questionnaire. High achieving students were not sensitive to format differences, performing comparably on the two measures. The facilitative effect of the diagram format may have been due to differences in the primary symbol systems (graphic vs. text) and the openness of the response format (constrained vs. open) of the constructed diagram and questionnaire, respectively.

This study describes social aspects of the literacy learning process among young peers and synthesizes distinct strands of research on socially constructed literacy. Fourteen 7- to 9-year-old children in a third-grade urban classroom wrote four stories individually and three stories collaboratively with a partner over a 3-month period. Analyses of the children's individual and collaborative stories and transcripts of their collaboration processes as they composed together were done to identify children's expertises as writers and to trace any transfer of knowledge about the structure of stories between partners. Analyses of the 7,512 talk turns in the collaborative composing sessions showed that 95 % of the story elements added after collaboration had been the focus of children's talk as they composed together. Furthermore, children who demonstrated even minimal ability to write stories transferred basic aspects of story structure to each other. To learn more about the social nature of literacy developmen...

Word processing offers promising support far students with learning disabilities (LD). We compared fourth‐grade students' writing quality over a 7‐month period in computer‐supported versus paper‐and‐pencil writing‐process classrooms. LD and non‐ID students improved the quality of their imaginative stories over time, regardless of the writing tool, with one exception. Students who carried out long‐term writing assignments with paper and pencil demonstrated a negative growth rate in writing quality. LD students in particular may be impeded by paper‐and‐pencil tools during extended writing assignments that call for sustained engagement and revision.

This study examines the value of a computer spelling checker as an editing tool for learning disabled writers with spelling difficulties. Two fourth-grade boys with spelling problems but different learner profiles and writing abilities learned to use the Bank Street Writer III word processing and spelling checker program to edit spelling errors—first with practice exercises and then in their own writing. Both boys learned to manage the spelling-checking process, increased the spelling accuracy of their edited texts, and enjoyed using a spelling checker. There were differences in their learning process and use of the tool, and limitations in the current technology influenced their editing performance (eg, neither student corrected any of the errors “missed” by the spelling checker; both students relied on a collaborative peer to help generate alternative spellings when the spelling checker did not offer the correction).

Science education professionals generally agree that hands-on, inquiry-based science potentially benefits all students, yet there are few specific guidelines for helping students with learning disabilities (LD) achieve success in general education science classrooms. This study compared the effects of two approaches to hands-on science–-supported inquiry science (SIS) and activity-based science–-in six urban and two suburban fourth-grade general education classrooms. Participants included 172 students, 33 of whom had learning disabilities. The study found that students with and without LD demonstrated greater concept learning in the SIS classrooms, which focused on eliciting and reworking students' misconceptions and co-constructing knowledge under the guidance of a teachercoach.