Toward a More Visual Literacy: Shifting the Paradigm with Digital Tools and Young Adult Literature

Technology and multimodal texts must be included as part of the literacies we teach in 21st century schools. Implementing multiple modes of literacy requires that teachers shift their focus toward multiple genres and modes of text. This shift to the visual requires that teachers consider how students read images in the classroom, address visual literacy, and engage students in constructing visual texts. Students already live and communicate in a virtual world connected by expansive networks, and many also read young adult literature. Given this, researchers and practitioners in the field examine ways texts written for students can be combined with digital tools to craft more critical conversations around literary response and digital media consumption and production. This book explores ways adolescents read, engage, and construct meaning within the world around them and examines how teachers can leverage the use of young adult literature with digital practices within their classrooms.