In this article, we study how Sound Picturebooks constitute a multimodal narrative that enables students to develop their literacy, not only in terms of basic reading and writing skills, but also as a multidimensional interaction with other forms of representation such as images, sounds and actions. In line with the aims of the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies (New London Group 1996), we select and analyze fifteen Sound Picturebooks whose features allows us to implement the Learning by Design tenets and the four pedagogical components of the Knowledge Processes Framework: experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing and applying. The goal is to foster basic multimodal literacies – literary, linguistic, visual and musical – and provide learners with the opportunity to construct meaning as a dynamic process of transformation and creative inquiry. Specifically, we explore the auditory features that these Sound Picturebooks contain and the extent to which the themes conveyed in the stories can be connected with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for the further discussion of social concerns. Our analyzes show that such multimodal narratives integrate crucial features to cultivate and broaden students’ multiliteracies in the classroom.
With the advent of technology, the continuous influx of diverse sociocultural perspectives and the increase of multimodal ensembles in our daily lives, creativity and the exploration of arts as the objects of communication are becoming increasingly integrated in applied linguistics (Bradley & Moore, 2018; Moore, Bradley & Simpson, 2020). Taking as a starting point the role of creative inquiry and the relevance of multidisciplinary learning in generating new ways of thinking about the relationship between language, knowledge and the world (Bradley, 2018; Cope & Kalantzis, 2015; Kern, 2000; Serafini, 2014), this article focuses on the use of Sound Picturebooks to guide students to expand their literacy and become code breakers, meaning makers and text users of different modes of expression (Kucer, 2014). Connecting literature with visual art, music and language, we present the potential of multimodal narratives to aim not just at educating students in arts but educating students with, into and through arts (Bradley & Harvey, 2019; Winner, Goldstein, & Vincent-Lancrin, 2013). To this end, our research focuses on the selection and analysis of fifteen Sound Picturebooks (SPB) that can be implemented in the First-grade classroom to foster basic multimodal literacies – literary, linguistic, visual and musical – as well as aesthetic experiences. As will be shown, we consider the auditory features that these SPB contain and how we can connect the themes conveyed in the stories with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to develop learners’ knowledge regarding current social matters. The research question we aim to respond is: What are the most effective features of SPB to foster multiliteracies and raise students’ awareness towards SDG?
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