Engaging children in close reading. Mulimodal commentaries and illustration remix

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.