In this policy column, we focus on print and multimodal narrative, observing congruities and divergences between the role of narrative in English language arts curriculum policies in the elementary years in the US and Australia. Mul-timodality is defi ned here as the semiotic mean-ings that can be made from the interrelationship of two or more modes (Mills, 2011b). Modes are sign systems that describe socially and culturally shaped semiotic resources for making meaning, be they writing, drawing, music, or drama (Mills, 2011a).