Living Comics: Playful and Embodied Composing With Emergent Bilingual Learners

ABSTRACT

There is evidence to support that the diverse linguistic repertoire of emergent bilingual students enhances learning and development. Multimodal composing offers a unique opportunity for teachers to design lessons that draw upon emergent bilinguals' knowledge through visual means, without necessarily requiring advanced English proficiency. In the proposed activity, “Living Comics,” emergent bilingual students embody a comic character's physical expression then use visual elements to expand a storytelling frame. This activity leverages multimodal ways of understanding and composing a text, so that students can express their comprehension and ideas more confidently. In the article, we outline the purpose, objective, and benefits of this engaging whole‐group activity. Furthermore, we lay out the steps needed for teachers to reproduce and contextualize “Living Comics” in their own classrooms.