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This paper explores a qualitative research project that drew on the work of Vivian Gussin Paley’s (1991) storytelling curriculum, where the following concepts were explored: children’s narratives through stories told, acted, and visually represented; how children construct meaning in their world; and the empowerment of voice. The study focused on the processes and growth that a diverse junior and senior kindergarten class underwent over eight weeks. The study has important implications for pedagogy and offers an innovative approach to a storytelling curriculum that engages multimodal frameworks for early literacy learning. Presenting opportunities for children to voice their storied lives orally, in image and text, and nonverbally through acting out stories enables them to explore and connect their identity texts to self, others, and the world. By engaging in, with, and through story, children reveal the complexity of their meaning-making processes, interconnecting imaginative and real experiences. By opening up learning spaces for socially constructed experiences, children’s storied lives are made visible.

This article draws from a larger study that examines the multiple literacies inherent in children's drawings. The author discusses a qualitative research project conducted with a split grade one and two classroom in Toronto, Canada. She argues that pictorial images can be read as a form of literacy, where thought is made public through visual narratives. The author's prime focus was to interpret the children's artwork as communication on a par with other semiotic modes and to explore the images as an important vehicle for teaching and learning.

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