We have explored the resources that can be deployed to convey different meanings in multimodal narratives. We have looked at how to build the story world and the characters, how to establish the relationship between characters and readers, and how to express emotion, judgement and appreciation. We have also analysed the structure of narratives, with its particular stages and their specific realisations, both visual and verbal. At this point, as teachers, we have at our disposal the adequate theoretical and practical tools to thoroughly understand what is at stake in picture story books, which means we are now ready to take that knowledge a step further into the classroom. The better prepared we are to understand the dynamics of picture story books ourselves, the better equipped we are to teach our students to do the same and steadily move towards production as well. In this chapter, we go over some specific activities that can be exploited in the EFL classroom for the comprehension and production of bimodal narratives.

To organise the suggested activities, we have followed the teaching-learning cycle proposed by Martin (1999, p. 127). This cycle consists of a set of steps to prepare our students to produce effective texts, be them oral, written, verbal, bimodal or multimodal. Naturally, understanding needs to come before production, so the cycle goes from activating and providing the content knowledge students need to comprehend the particular text and the genre it corresponds to, to them finally producing a text independently with all that knowledge in mind.

The cycle is made up of four stages, briefly explained below. Whenever appropriate, we have commented on ways to attune the description of this process to a foreign language learning context.

1. Building up subject matter: in this stage we work with the content, that is, the knowledge of the world which is necessary for our students to produce the text. Students either activate knowledge they already have or acquire it together with new words and expressions to be able to refer to the subject matter of their texts. In the EFL context, when we are building up subject matter to produce texts, we typically focus on building up vocabulary and organising or classifying it into taxonomies.
2. Modelling the text: here we explore one or more sample texts, similar to the target text, and help our students become aware of:

• the overall social purpose of the text (What is this text used for in our society?);
• the features of the situation in which the text typically occurs which have a direct impact on the language used (What is the relationship between the writer, speaker and/or illustrator and the audience? Is the text formal or not? Why? Is the text technical or common sense? Is it oral or written? Is it multimodal or not?);
• the structure of the text, that is, the steps we need to follow to produce the text, their functions and their order;
• the language, and in this case the visual resources, that are used to fulfil the function of each stage.

3. Joint construction: in this stage, the whole class produces a text together as a rehearsal for the independent writing process to come later. We guide students by adjusting and building upon their suggestions to produce the text. We constantly remind students of the communicative purpose of the text and the features of the situation so that they make sure their contributions are appropriate. The text jointly produced should be the same genre modelled before, but with some changes: we can change the topic of the text, the relationship between the people that participate in it, the channel of communication (oral instead of written) –always accompanied, of course, by images–, or all three textual features at once.
4. Independent construction: in this final stage, students produce a text on their own. Again, it should be a text similar in function, structure and necessary resources to the ones they have already worked on. Feedback at this point needs to include not only grammar and structure matters, but also the purpose of the text and the verbal and visual resources chosen to fulfil it. (Is the text effective? Does it fulfil its function?)

Because of the proven effectiveness of this cycle with exclusively verbal genres, we have adapted it to be used to better comprehend and produce picture story books. Next, we propose specific activities we can carry out in each of the steps in this cycle to help our students write and design adequate, compelling bimodal narratives.

6.1. Building up subject matter

In this section we help our students develop the knowledge of the world that is relevant to the story we are working with and provide them with resources to represent this reality in the verbal and visual form. If we are writing a story about animals set in the African savannah, after reading, for instance, Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae & Guy Parker-Rees (2001), we need to highlight the features that define this type of habitat: extensive plains, scarce trees, tall yellow grass as well as the typical animals that live there, their features, abilities and eating and behavioural habits. Of course, depending on the level, these would not be the terms we use with students: we need to carefully choose the language that they can learn.

For students to become familiar with the expression of this subject matter in the second language, we activate students’ previous knowledge of it and teach them new vocabulary to describe the habitat and the animals. For them to incorporate the new vocabulary in an organised manner, it is a good idea to keep a record of the new words in taxonomies, that is, to categorise them. We can create word banks and picture dictionaries for the students to access whenever necessary, as well as posters for the classroom. One activity we can use to practice the new vocabulary is writing riddles of animals they can share with their classmates. For example: It is very big and strong. It has got big ears, a short tail and a trunk. It eats grass and lives in Africa and India. What is it?

To deal with the content visually, we can show the students pictures and videos of this habitat and the animals living there, directing their attention to their physical appearance (size, shape, colour, etc.). We can also help them differentiate between typical features that are universal within a species and those distinctive of a particular member of that species, which will become extremely useful when the time comes to work on the characterisation of an individual. Here we put into practice all the vocabulary we have been working with so far to describe animals. Just as we created word banks for the verbal mode, we should make sure that there are enough pictures of the habitat and its animals available in the classroom for the students to look at throughout the process of production.

We can assign students different animals or elements of the setting to draw and share with the class, of course making sure that all the features are well depicted. If we work in a school, this activity can be done in collaboration with the Art teacher, who can guide them better as regards different artistic techniques, drawing styles and materials they can use according to their age and knowledge of art. We can also work with picture recognition through games: we can play bingo, solve puzzles and guess the animal from only one of its parts, among others. These games can have follow-up production activities, such as describing the animals or creating a new animal by combining body parts in the bingo cards.

6.2. Modelling the text

In this section, we draw students’ attention to the general structure and specific resources of narratives. The structure potential dealt with in the previous chapter is key at this point. Students need to become familiar enough with the stages and the resources at play to be able to easily recognise the genre and use it confidently and effectively.

Some activities (for similar activities, please see Boccia et al., 2013) to work with the structure of the text are:

• analysing a specific example and labelling its stages, making sure that our students understand the function of each stage and its position within the sequence;
• cutting up a story according to its stages and having students put it back in order and then explain the decisions made;
• recognising the missing stage in a narrative where one single section has been taken out;
• making a graphic representation or a model to visualise the stages of the story: for example, narratives can be represented as hills in which we place on one side the rising action from the moment the ordinary, stable situation is interrupted until it reaches the highest peak of tension in its climax, and then on the other side we place the resolution and the new stable situation.

Highlighting the interplay between words and images

Once the structure is clear to our students, we can move on to explore the resources used to realise each stage. With picture story books, of course, verbal resources are not the only ones at stake. To help our students understand the important role images play in making meanings in this genre, we can read with them some picture story books in which the text and images complement each other in such a way that without one of them, the story cannot be understood.

For example, in Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins (1968), while in the text we get to know what the hen does every day, apparently without trouble, though a simple enumeration of ordinary actions, it is through the images that the conflict and entertaining side of the narrative are presented. Visually, readers find out that the hen is being followed all along the story by a fox, whose attempts to eat the hen are all frustrated as he keeps having accidents. But are they really accidents? The hen seems to be oblivious to being followed, but some of her actions directly cause trouble for the fox.

In This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen (2014), the text presents a first-person narration by a mischievous small fish who has stolen a hat from a big fish. The text already presents a funny tone as the narrator keeps reassuring itself that it has done the right thing and that no one will know who stole the hat, even if the big fish realises the hat is gone. However, through the visual modality, readers discover that the big fish knows the hat is missing and is actually tracking the small fish’s footsteps. In this picture story book, then, the text presents the main character’s thoughts and possible regrets and insecurities, while images show the side of the action the little fish is unaware of.

An activity we can do is to read the text of picture story books such as these ones without showing the images to our students and discuss if the words on their own are enough to fulfil the purpose of narratives, that is, to make the story interesting and entertaining: Is there a clear conflict? Is the story funny/entertaining/moving? Then, we reread the text together with the images and see how the story changes and reflect on what the students’ reactions are once they see how both modalities combine to make meanings.

As foreign language learners, it will be easier for our students to interpret or build a story world that does not only rely on the English language but also uses visuals to make meanings. That is why it is important to draw their attention to the amount of meanings and ideas that can be expressed in images that do not need to be conveyed through language.

As noted in the previous chapter, certain meanings tend to be shown in images while others are more typically expressed through words, simply because it is easier or clearer to express them though one of these semiotic systems. Even so, most meanings could be represented though both modalities, and sometimes they are depicted in both to enhance the meanings made.

In very general terms, we have noticed that characters’ thoughts and words are expressed through language, while their physical appearance and their relationships with other characters are typically presented visually. Of course, some physical traits or features of relationships can be brought into focus, when necessary, by mentioning them in the text as well. But whenever a character is shown visually, its appearance and its connection to other characters in the same image are unavoidably portrayed. The same happens with the physical context in which the action takes place. Unless the image is decontextualised, the setting will always be depicted visually.

Characters’ habits, likes and dislikes, abilities and feelings can be represented in any of the two modalities or in both. As regards feelings, which are central to narratives, they tend to have a slightly different impact. Although through language the expression of feelings may be subtler and more specific, seeing a character’s gestures or facial expression may have a more direct and stronger impact on the readers’ emotional reaction.

This combination of resources to represent the meanings made in picture story books is beneficial for our students’ comprehension and production of narratives. When interpreting a story, students can rely on their knowledge of the world, and by just looking at the images, get to know about several features of the story world, its characters and some of the action, even when they might not understand all the vocabulary. Having both modalities available will surely help them learn new vocabulary and expressions. When producing a narrative of their own, the task of creating the story world could be a daunting one if our students only had the foreign language at their disposal to express themselves.

Comparing and contrasting similar pictures

As we read picture books with our students, a good way of helping them notice visual resources used by illustrators is to compare two or more different options using concrete examples to help them see the difference more clearly. Ideally, these pictures should differ only with respect to one element, so that the comparison arises naturally and easily, but the scope can be narrowed down with questions to focus on a single resource if differences abound. Typically, these contrasts are most immediately noticeable when analysing images in different stages of the same story side to side. Many times, the images introduced at the beginning of the story are comparable to the ones found at some point in the development of the story or at the end. When our students grow more confident in their image-reading skills, we can introduce more complex pictures that display differences in a variety of meaning-making resources and therefore entail a more intense decoding.

For example, in Gorilla by Anthony Browne (1983), an early picture shows Hannah and her father at the breakfast table; later on, we see Hannah sharing a meal again, but this time with the gorilla. These two images are ideal for comparison since they portray the nuances of Hannah’s relationships with the other characters through discrete choices in visual resources. One of these differences is in the colour palettes: while the first image makes use of cool, muted colours, the second one exploits warm, lively hues. Highlighting these differences allows for easier recognition and growing familiarity with resources, so that students exposed to this kind of analysis feel more comfortable when designing their own creations.

Questions to guide class discussion

Another good strategy to help them see subtler distinctions or meanings is to ask them questions and analyse their own reactions to the images. This will also make them more aware of the number of meanings that can be expressed through images and the long and complex process of decision making that their construction entails.

Next, we suggest some questions that can be used while reading images. The questions are designed to:

• guide students to notice the different and varied meanings created in the images;
• help students think about the resources used to make these meanings; and
• help students discover why illustrators choose to make those meanings and at what strategic points in the narrative.

It may be the case that some questions are too broad or somewhat difficult for our students to answer even when trying to answer them while considering a particular image. When they cannot come up with an answer on their own, remember we can always ask them yes/no questions offering them options for them to choose.

To exemplify, we have made a list of questions that would correspond to the resources used to invite the readers into the story world, as discussed in Chapter 3.

BRINGING THE READER INTO THE STORY WORLD

Framing

• Are there any frames/margins in this picture? How wide?
• Why do you think the illustrator decided to use (or not) frames/margins in this image?
• Are the margins and frames separating the story world from our world? / Is there anything dividing the story world from our world?
• Do you feel we are part of their world?
• What happens with (element of the background or character that is breaking the frame) in this picture? Is it inside the frames or does it come out? Does this make the character/the story world closer to us in any way?
• Are the margins and frames the same in all the story or do they change? At what point in the story do they (dis)appear? Why?

Point of view

• Are you looking through one of the character’s eyes in this picture? Whose?
• How do you know? What can you see?
• Are you looking from over the shoulder of one of the characters? Whose?
• How can you tell?
• What is the effect of this decision on you, the readers?
• Why did the illustrator put you in that position? / Why are you (name of the character) in this picture?
• Why did the illustrator put you in this character’s shoes at this particular point in the story? Why not before or later on?
• How does it make you feel? (If the image helps the readers empathise with the character’s feelings at a particularly tense, scary or poignant part of the narrative.)
• What does it allow you to see?
• In this image, if we were to see through (name of character)’s eyes, what would change? How would you feel? Would it be easier to understand the character or not?

POSITIONING READERS IN INTERACTION WITH CHARACTERS

Contact

• Is the character looking at you?
• In this picture, who do you feel more connected to? Why? (for an image in which only one of the characters is making eye contact with the viewer)
• Why is s/he looking at you at this moment in the story?
• Do you feel connected with the character? Do you think the eye contact helps you empathise with the character?
• What do you feel when you look at him/her?
• Would you react differently if s/he weren’t looking at you?

Social distance

• What part of the character’s body can you see in this image?
• How far/close is the character from us, the readers?
• Why do you think the illustrator drew her/him this way?
• What does it mean that s/he can be so close to us? What kind of relationship do you think we can have with this character?
• Can we see the character’s gestures/expression? Is that important? How does it make you feel?
• Why is the character so close to us at this particular moment in the story? What does it help us notice/feel?

Involvement

• Do you feel part of this situation/scene/event? Why? How come?
• Is the character facing you or not? Is the character positioned as if he were interacting with you or are you looking at him interacting with someone else from outside?
• Why is the character facing you in this moment? How do you feel?

Power

• In this image, are we looking at the character from a particular angle? From above or below?
• What relationship is established between you and the character? Who is more powerful? What does this reflect about the character?
• How do we know? How can you tell?
• Why has the illustrator used this angle at this point in the story? What do you think is about to happen?

6.3. Joint and Independent construction

The production of a new text is the most challenging part of the process for both students and teachers. However, creating a full multimodal narrative individually may not be a reasonable goal in certain educational contexts. In fact, it is most probably the case that we do not have enough time in class for such a task. So, depending on our goals and bearing in mind our students’ age and level of proficiency, we may consider alternative productions.

The teaching-learning cycle proposes two different stages of production that basically include the same steps, with a crucial distinction in the role of the teacher. While in the Joint construction phase the teacher has a central role in guiding the writing and designing process, and helping students adjust their suggestions as they collaborate to build a text, the Independent construction phase provides the opportunity for students to explore the multimodal creative process on their own. Here, of course, the teacher monitors and aids but from a more peripheral position.

Next, we present a list of different activities for production, from easier and less time-consuming to more difficult and lengthier. We have decided to discuss both construction phases together as the activities suggested below can be adapted for either one of these stages in the creative process. They can function as final products in themselves or, if we wish our students to produce a multimodal narrative, these activities may also serve as gradual stages of preparation for independent production.

Reading and drawing

At first, some or most students have difficulties thinking of illustrations as a result of a process of decision making. As teachers we need to draw their attention to the number of meanings and ideas that can be expressed in images that do not need to be expressed through words. This will be an advantage when it is their turn to create their own stories since they might not have enough verbal resources in the second language to express their ideas.

One very simple exercise we can do is show them only the images from a picture book, without the text, and ask them what the story is about, what happens in certain parts of it, what the main characters are like, and other questions related to narrative elements in the story. As we ask them these questions, we try to elicit from them the resources they notice at use. In other words, we ask them how they can tell what they are saying is so: where in the image these meanings are being made.

After this, we can ask students to write down what they consider the text that accompanies each image could be. Depending on the age and level of our students, this activity can be done with the whole class on the board with the help of the teacher, who adjusts the students’ contributions and prompts them to improve on their suggestions. In other classes, this activity can be done in groups or pairs and then shared with the rest of the class.

Once students are more familiar with the number of meanings expressed visually and the resources to do so, we can do the reverse. We can read the text to the students and ask them to imagine and draw the images that would complement the text. While we do so, we ask questions to prompt decisions students need to make. For instance, we can ask: What do the characters look like? Are they tall/short/slim/overweight? How do they feel? Are they happy/tired/sad? Can we see their faces or are they too far away? Are they facing us? Are they making eye contact with us? From whose point of view are we seeing the event? Are there margins/frames in the image? If so, how thick are they?

At the end, we can look at the choices made by the author and illustrator of the picture book we are working with and discuss whether the original verbal and visual choices are effective or not. We discuss and try to figure out why the creators did what they did.

Nonetheless, the point of this activity is not to guess what was done in the original picture book. It does not matter who writes or draws the closest version. What is important is that students see first-hand how much they can rely on images to transmit meanings. This is very important at lower levels of instruction, where students feel they cannot produce a story because they lack the language to do so and get quite frustrated or apprehensive when given the task. In addition, this activity will help our students see that images are the result of decisions they need to be ready to make when it is their turn to produce their own picture book. We need to help them realise that drawing their picture book will take some thinking. Finally, this activity gives students solid practice in recognising the visual resources for making meanings and putting them into practice.

Inserting an event or a spread into a picture book

Another activity we can do is to insert an event or a spread in a picture book that has been read in class. This exercise helps students by restricting the number of decisions they need to make. They are producing a spread that is part of a story which was already created.

Not all picture books are useful for this activity, but some of them lend themselves nicely for the task. We can use picture books that present complicating events that are very similar in nature. For example, all the things that can go wrong in a day, which go from bad to worse, as in The Red Tree by Shaun Tan (2001), or events that show all the things a character does, as in the No, David! series by David Shannon (1999, 2002, 2003) and I Aint Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont & David Catrow (2005), or events that depict what the character experiences or sees and that trigger the same response (feelings of fear/happiness/shock, memories, predictions) as in Math Curse (Scieszka & Smith, 1995). In picture books like these, it is easier for students to come up with one more complicating event that could occur at some point before the climax.

The first thing that we need to do is help students see that there are many decisions that have been made (by authors and illustrators) that we need to respect and follow. The characters and their individual features are already set as well as the type of conflicts and reactions they have. We analyse the characters’ traits and habits, the type of conflicts present in the story and how they all contribute to and lead up to the climatic event. We also direct their attention to the drawing style and colour schemes used in the book. We need to help them notice these features so that they make sure the event they insert fits the story, abiding by decisions already made by authors.

Once we are confident that students are well aware of these choices, we can divide students into groups and ask them to brainstorm types of events they can insert into the story. If we think students might have many difficulties coming up with an appropriate idea, then we can do the brainstorming all together and come up with several ideas that we list on the board. Then each group can choose or be assigned one of the ideas.

As students work on their production, we monitor and ask questions to direct their attention to possible problems. For example, we can ask: What do the characters look like? Do you think the characters would do this? How do you think the characters would react? Would it be better if we could see their faces here to show their reactions? Would it be a good idea for the characters to be facing the readers? Would they be making eye contact? From whose point of view will you present the event? What impact will this have on your readers? Would you include margins or frames for this image? Why? Questions such as these could be written on the board or on a poster on the wall for students to be able to consult constantly.

When students finish the activity, we can have other groups give them feedback before we give them feedback ourselves. Their peers’ reactions as to how credible the event is as part of the story we have all read are very important and can help students improve their production. Once the students’ productions are ready, we can display them on the walls of the classroom.

For example, having read The Frog Prince Continued (Scieszka & Johnson, 1994), pre-intermediate, eleven-year-old students created this event to add to the series of dangerous encounters with witches and evil characters the Frog Prince has as he is looking for someone who can turn him into a frog again. These students took into account the elements of an event and decided to use the first image to contextualise the event, the second to depict some of the action taking place in the event, while the text mostly showed the dialogue between the characters, and the third, the consequence of the action as the Frog Prince decided to run away as fast as he could. They also depicted his emotional reaction to what happened in the event through words (‘scared’, ‘as fast as he could’) and in the visual representation (the vectors signalling the speed at which he runs away, his wide-open eyes and the downturned corners of his mouth).

Providing an ending for a picture book

As we mentioned in the previous exercise, creating an interesting plot and believable characters is one of the most challenging tasks when producing a narrative because it requires many careful decisions. As we suggested in the previous activity, we can make the task easier by asking students to provide a resolution to a story instead of creating one from scratch. Simultaneously they can practise the skills needed to produce a complete multimodal narrative. This task, in contrast with the previous one, entails a more careful understanding of what happens in the story to come up with an ending that fits the rest of the book, and it may require the creation of more than one event.

To carry out this activity, we stop reading right after the climax (point of highest tension in the story) and ask students to imagine how the story ends. We can do some brainstorming with the whole class to come up with possible resolutions to the conflict. This will allow us to analyse students’ suggestions with them, helping them realise they need to consider everything that has happened up to that point, and the characters’ habits and individual features. In some cases, we will need to show our students why not all their ideas fit the story.

Next, we can go over the styles the author and the illustrator have used to write and draw to help our students turn their attention to the way in which the characters and events are depicted in the narrative. Since students are not required to make all of these decisions, we can take the time instead to analyse the resources chosen and discuss their effectiveness and reflect upon alternative choices that could have been made and what their effect would have been on the reader.

Afterwards, we can move on to discuss some of the resources students themselves could use when creating their ending. Depending on the type of story we are reading and the nature of the conflict, we can concentrate on different aspects of the language and the images that are important when providing the resolution.

This activity can be done with the whole class or in small groups, depending on how confident our students are at this point. It can also be used for stories with an open ending, as these narratives finish after the climax and no resolution is included. Some classes do not seem to be comfortable with open-ended stories and they would often like to know what happens to the characters, so creating an ending all together can be a very motivating experience.

Creating a multimodal narrative in Joint construction

Once students seem to be more comfortable with visual and verbal resources used in picture books, we can produce one all together as a Joint construction exercise. Here, the teacher again has the task of guiding students by adjusting their suggestions.

To make the task easier, we would try to use a similar conflict or structure to the ones encountered when reading in class. Another option is to use the same characters and change the problem, as if it were another book in a saga or series. These possibilities restrict the number of decisions we need to make and help our students feel more comfortable and confident when creating the narrative.

What we need to do first is come up with what happens in the story. We need to decide:

• what the message of the story is;
• what problem the characters can face that help them learn something or change in some way;
• who the main characters and secondary characters are, their traits and habits that trigger the problem or help them solve it;
• where and when the story takes place, how the setting affects what happens in the story;
• what the complicating events that lead to the climactic moment in the story are, how they complicate the situation and cause a change in the characters;
• what the resolution to the problem and the new state of affairs for the characters are after they have faced (and overcome) the problem;
• from which point of view the story is told, i.e., who the narrator is.

Figure 3 – Graphic organizer: outline with basic ideas for their story.

Once we have all these ideas ready, we need to decide what will be expressed in the text and what through the images. Illustrators do this by creating what they call a storyboard. In it they include the spreads that will make up the picture book, sketching the drawings and text in them. The list of events can help us here. It is important to bear in mind that while some events will occupy part of a page, some others may occupy one or more spreads. This depends on the importance of the event with respect to the whole story and how significant the characters’ reactions to it are for the development of the story. We may have a page or spread with the happening and another in which we can see the characters’ reactions in detail. This means we will devote more than one image and page for this event.

As regards the text, the teacher plays a very important role, since students may find it difficult to express their ideas in a second language. This step will take time and, as language teachers, we will exploit this instance to teach and practice language use. The vocabulary and grammar can easily be adapted to the level of proficiency of our students since most of what is transmitted can be represented in the images. For example, the text can consist of short dialogues and descriptions that help move the story forward and that are easy enough for our students to produce.

We can create the storyboard on the board or a large piece of paper that we stick to a wall for everyone to see. We can ask students to start drawing the story and writing the text we have constructed jointly in different pieces of paper that we will then put together to make up the book. The fact that we will have many different illustrators requires that we agree on basic aspects of the characters’ physical qualities and the context before they start drawing. It is a good idea to make a couple of drawings all together and place them in a corner where everybody can see them and use them as a guide.

For the visual representation of the story, we can always try to make the production of the picture book a joint project with the teacher in charge of Art.

The idea is that students are able to create a narrative even if they do not have a high level of proficiency in English because they can use the images to express what happens in the story and depict the characters and the context in which the story unfolds. Even if the drawings for the story are not perfect or equal to each other, most students enjoy the activity and feel proud of their production, as it is an instance of authentic communication with a real audience. We can invite parents or students from other classes to see the book or send it to our students’ homes in turns.

Producing a picture book with a new idea

As said before, this activity is not a must. In fact, it is a very difficult task which requires not only confidence in the language, but also abstract thinking and problem-solving skills. However, it might still be worth a try to give our students the opportunity to come up with a creation of their own. We may be surprised by how creative and resolute our students can be!

That said, once we have taken some of the steps above to prepare our students for production, we can create a picture book with a new idea different from the ones we have read in class. Depending on the students’ proficiency level, age and the level of comfort and confidence with which they have completed previous tasks, the teacher can ask them to do this task as a whole class, in small groups, in pairs or individually.

Following the teaching-learning cycle, here we go through the Building up subject matter stage again, gathering useful vocabulary and visual resources for this particular narrative. If our students will produce different stories, this stage will be more difficult to carry out all together. However, we can give our students a topic to write about or a conflict the characters will have to overcome, restricting the field to one topic we can introduce to the whole class to work together initially.

As regards language, for example, we can tell our younger students we will be writing about adventures on the farm and review or present vocabulary related to the animals and people who live on the farm, the actions each of the animals can do, the different places and objects present on the farm, among other related vocabulary items. For the visual, we can look at and analyse pictures of farm animals to see what they look like, what colour they are, what size they are, what their universal features are.

In a class with older children, we can ask students to create a mystery/horror story where something scary happens and go over vocabulary related to the supernatural, people’s feelings, dark or strange places (such as the woods, a haunted house, a cemetery), adjectives and nouns to create dark and frightening imagery. For the visuals, we can discuss which colours are more effective for creating a gloomy, scary, or sinister atmosphere, in which moments they will show or foreground the characters’ feelings or bring the reader into the story world and which resources they can use to accomplish this.

Then, to help them organise and choose the characters and events they need to build the plot of their story, we can ask students to complete the graphic organizer presented in the previous activity for this new story. It can help them start the process of decision-making and they can use it as a guide while making the picture book.

As we explained before, we have placed the message they would like to transmit with their story at the top of the graphic organizer. What they want to say with their story is the first thing they need to think about. Once they know what message they wish to express, they can decide on a problem or a conflict that foregrounds or transmits this message, one that places the characters in a position to face a difficulty that teaches them a lesson or changes their reality or themselves in some way. Coming up with a suitable conflict for a story is one of the most difficult parts of the process. We need to provide plenty of examples of problems that could constitute the complicating event in a story and discuss other problems around which it would not be interesting to create a narrative. Once they have a clear purpose and conflict in mind, they can decide who the characters facing the problem will be, their traits and habits, who will accompany them (secondary characters), which setting in place and time will better lend itself to contribute to the building of tension or suspense, and which events they think are necessary for the characters to go through, identifying which of them will be the climax of the story.

During the process of decision-making, the teacher and peers can offer ideas, react to choices students have made and give feedback to improve their stories, making them more believable, touching, interesting. Once they have established what the story will be like, they can move on to deciding what will be said through language and what will be expressed through images.

They need to look at the events and decide which ones will be represented in only one spread and which will require more pages and make a schematic draft of the spreads with their corresponding text (storyboard). This will take time and a lot of thinking. Here again they will need to consult the teacher and peers and get as much feedback as they can. As we said before, if we work at a school, it would be advisable to consult the Art teacher for ideas and techniques students can use to build the images and then help with feedback for the students’ visual production.

Here they also need to revisit the concepts they have seen while analysing the images in picture books as readers (see 6.2. Modelling the text above). The teacher can ask students some of the questions that we have suggested above to help them make decisions. The process of production can take as many drafts as our students need or as time allows for. As we suggested before, for each version it is always a good idea for the teacher and peers to provide feedback on the content of their story as well as the resources (verbal and visual) they have chosen to convey the meanings.

Finally, for every production we have our students do, it is very motivating for them to know their work will be published. Having a real audience for their production makes the experience of expressing themselves through language (and images in the case of picture books) more purposeful and fulfilling. So, we can arrange for their stories to circulate in the classroom and school or be taken home in turns for students to read with their parents; we can organise reading sessions in which our students read their picture books to younger classes; or we can add their picture books to the classroom bookshelf or box. Whatever we do to give them the sense their work will be seen (and appreciated) by others will make the whole experience more meaningful and ultimately more enjoyable.

6.4. Coda

In this final chapter, we have suggested activities to effectively create part of or entire multimodal narratives in the EFL classroom following the teaching-learning cycle proposed by Martin & Rothery (1991). This pedagogy ensures the assimilation of the vocabulary needed and the step-by-step analysis and production of different stages in stories, be them in isolation or within narratives. We hope the different activities we have included prove useful: we have tried to cater for a variety of levels of instruction and consider a range of time availability.