Introduction
A multimodal world
Why teachers and literacy educators should read this book
What influenced me to write this book
How this book is organized
Part I: theoretical and instructional foundations
1. Multimodal ensembles
So what exactly is a multimodal ensemble?
Text, image, and design
How modes work
Multimodal or multimedia
The discovery of the obvious
Why should educators care about multimodal texts?
Concluding remarks
2. Visual literacy, media literacy, and multiliteracies
Defining literacy
Visual literacy
Media literacy
Multiliteracies
Concluding remarks
3. Foundational processes
Foundational processes
Perception
Representation
Interpretation
Ideology
Frameworks for interpreting visual images and multimodal ensembles
Concluding remarks
4. Understanding multimodality
Multimodality
Sociocultural dimensions of multimodality
Research on multimodality
Essential aspects of multimodality
Concluding remarks
5. Elements of art, design, and visual composition
Elements of visual art
Elements of multimodal ensembles
Elements of visual grammar
Concluding remarks
Part II: curricular frameworks and pedagogical approaches
6. Picturebooks and picturebook theories
Defining the picturebook
Elements of picturebooks
Picturebook codes
Text-image relationships
Art and the picturebook
Postmodern influences on the picturebook
Concluding remarks
7. Exploring multimodal ensembles: an example
Piggybook from a perceptual analytical perspective
Piggybook from a structural analytical perspective
Piggybook from an ideological analytical perspective
Concluding remarks
8. Curricular and pedagogical frameworks
A curricular framework
Defining units of study
An instructional template
Concluding remarks
Part III: units of study
Exploring postmodern picturebooks
Exploring wordless picturebooks
Exploring historical fiction picturebooks
Exploring informational picturebooks
Exploring illustrated novels
Exploring graphic novels, comics, and cartoons
Exploring advertisements
Exploring news reports
Exploring film
Exploring digital media
Epilogue: to see or not to see
Developing and enlightened eye with our students
Words and pictures and something in between
Interpretation and representation
The journey continues.