Using Childrens Picture Books in Upper Grade English Classes

Liz Phillips English Educator/Literacy Specialist Appalachian Writing Project Teacher Consultant Open Academy Presentation, August 6, 2009

Objectives
Use childrens picture books:
as springboards for creative writing to simplify basic elements of literature/writing in fiction and poetry to enhance student interest in reading to give students a comfortable environment in which to imagine, write, and share

SOL INDEX (English)

Oral
4.1 5.1, 5.2 4.3 5.4, 5.5

Reading
4.7, 4.8 5.8, 5.9

Writing

6.1, 6.2 7.1, 7.2 8.2

9.1 10.1 11.1 12,1

6.3, 6.4 7.4, 7.5 8.4, 8.5

9.3 10.3, 10.5 11.3, 11.4 12,6

6.6, 6.7 7.8, 7.9 8.7, 8.8

9.6, 9.7 10.7, 10.8, 10.9 11.7, 11.8 12,7

Why Picture Books are Valuable

Associated with more positive early childhood reading experiences Provides safe reading and writing environment
Personal level Instructional level

Aids in transfer of picture book imagery to mental imagery Helps with visualization skills associated with vocabulary acquisition

Positive Early Childhood Reading Experiences

The best books for children arent written for kids, theyre written for adults to charm and astonish us, to prickle the hairs on the back of our necks, so kids will sense our delight and will want to become readers themselves.
-Paul Johnson New York Times

Positive Early Childhood Reading Experiences

Many picture books have extended text to complement images. They explore current and relevant topicsThe controlled amount of text makes them readily accessible to readers at all levels of ability, and their topics are often fascinating and lead to opportunities for further research and writing. They are short on pages, but long on meaning. They can engage and challenge the reader to think differently or more deeply about the topic at hand.
-Ruth Culham

Importance of Reading in Middle School

We cannot simply stop teaching reading
skills and strategies after fourth or fifth grade if we want students to continue to develop as readers. Without continued reading instruction into the high school years, we will continue to observe the middle school hump in that too many successful elementary school readers exhibit little growth in reading proficiency during the middle school years.
-Richard L. Allington
What Really Matters for Struggling Readers

Importance of Environment
There are three circumstances that can be manipulated to help make writing happenenvironment, time, and behavior. Rituals built around these three elements seem to foster conditions that reduce writing anxiety, promote a sense of power and control, and enhance linguistic fluency.
-Kathleen OShaughnessy, Connie McDonald, Harriet Maher, and Ann Doble

Importance of Mental Imagery

Research on mental imagery demonstrates that comprehension of text is enhanced when students are prompted or taught to use mental imagery. Students who are trained to use mental imagery while reading tend to comprehend and have better recall than students that have repeatedly just use words.
-Ann Nielsen Hibbing and Joan L. Rankin-Erikson

Vocabulary Acquisition Modeling

Research demonstrates that vocabulary is most effective when students construct their own meaning and are able to visually represent a word and its related terms, and it is important that students make vocabulary visual, become involved in wrestling with personal meanings, understand relationships among words, and learn the value of etymology.

Featured Author Illustrators

Graeme Base
Animalia The Eleventh Hour

David Weisner
Free Fall Tuesday

Chris Van Allsburg

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick The Polar Express

David Macaulay
Black and White

ANIMALIA Taxonomy and Alliteration

Students need to know how to assemble a literature taxonomy, and this book makes taxonomy construction FUN! Students need exposure to how writers use alliteration to enhance and enrich the writing process. This book gives students chance to explore the sounds of words in a taxonomy unit.

WRITING TIME!
Read the story to the class (show pictures). Divide the classroom so students can work in groups of 2-4. Divide the pages of Animalia so that each group has an equal number of pages to evaluate. Have each group construct its share of the picture book taxonomy. There will be the ones mentioned in the text plus the ones embedded in the illustrations. Hand out fancy paper or a taxonomy sheet so students can keep a record of what words are discovered. Swap pictures a few times to make sure all the missing words are found. Share by binding the taxonomy sheets into a book that readers can use while reading Animalia.

SHARING TIME!

TUESDAY Detail and Mystery

Students need practice writing exactly what the imagination sees. This book gives students the chance to absorb imagery details and translate them into written form.

WRITING TIME!
Read TUESDAY to the class and show pictures! Students take notes on what they observe. Write the words to the story, being very careful to elaborate what happens on each page. Different points of view can be covered. Read each story and see if it correlates with the illustrations.

SHARING TIME!

FREE FALL Dreams

Everyone dreams, and sometimes the dreams dont make much sense. In this book, the reader literally goes with the flow of the dreamin silence.

THE POLAR EXPRESS Fantasy/Dreams/Memories

People have special memories, often associated with holidays or vacations. This book has words, and students can use this book as a model for memory writing in a dream format.

WRITING TIME!
FREEFALL
Read/show book. Write the dream! Now draw your own dream and write about it.

THE POLAR EXPRESS

Read/show book. Write about your own holiday memory. Now draw your memory in a picture frame.

SHARING TIME!

The Eleventh Hour Foreshadowing/Clues

Students like mysteries, and this book has remarkable illustrations and demonstrates the power of foreshadowing and clever clues. This book can keep everyone in the classroom very busy.

The Mysteries of HARRIS BURDICK Short Story

Students complain about the quality of writing prompts. This book provides fantastic illustrations that are accompanied by incredible prompts. Students need to formulate viable prose based on prompts that can be perceived as general were it not for mental imagery they should expertly provide.

WRITING TIME!
Read Chris Van Allsburgs explanation for the illustrations. Write a monologue or a short story about an illustrated prompt in this book. This exercise can be repeated as many times as desired, and class books can be assembled using student writing.

SHARING TIME!

BLack AND WHiTE Concurrent Themes

Students need to understand how themes and subplots work in fiction. Students need practice comprehending strands that run through fiction and see the relationships between strands. Students need an opportunity to construct fiction that is more complex than a single theme or subplot.

WRITING TIME!
Read BLACK AND WHITE to the class. Divide the class into four groups or groups with four members each. Have each group or member of a group write a story that is in some way connected to the other three stories in the set. Test relationships between stories and fine tune them for presentation to the class. FAVORITE ALTERNATIVE: Use this story to model how subplots work in a class novel you are reading or have just finished.

SHARING TIME!

Suggestion
Think about how you can use your own childrens picture books to teach upper grade English concepts. Find out what early childhood educators are reading in their classrooms. Visit a bookstore that has a good childrens department.
Observe childrens choices. Roll up your sleeves, get on your knees, and look for books that will work with your curriculum.

Conclusion
By providing scaffolding through the use of picture books in the classroom, students can use their schemas and interpersonal relationships to write more effectively. By guiding student through different writing disciplines and processes used to make picture books effective, the quality of writing will markedly improve.

List of Books Demonstrated

Base, Graeme. Animalia. New York: Harry N. Abrams. Frieze Edition 1986. Base, Graeme. The Eleventh Hour. New York: Harry Abrams. 1989. Macaulay, David. Black and White. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 1990. Van Allsburg, Chris. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. Portfolio Edition 1996. Van Allsburg, Chris. The Polar Express. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 1984. Weisner, David. Free Fall. New York: Scholastic. 1984. Weisner, David. Tuesday. New York: Clarion. 1991.

Cited References
Allington, Richard L. What Really Matters for Struggling Readers. 2nd Edition. Boston: Pearson, Allyn, and Bacon. 2006, p. 176.
Culham, Ruth. Picture Books Can Help Middle Schoolers Write Better. Northwest Report. Aug 2001. Northwest Educational Laboratory. 7 July 2004. http://www.nwrel.org/nwreport/aug00/picture.html. Hibbing, Anne Nielsen and Joan L. Rankin-Erickson. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words. The Reading Teacher. May 2003. OShaughnessy, Kathleen, Connie McDonald, Harriet Maher, Ann Doble. Who, What, When, and Where of Writing Rituals. The Quarterly. Fall 2002. Simmons, Eileen. Visualizing Vocabulary. The Quarterly. Fall 2002.

FOR MORE INFO ON THE NATIONAL WRITING PROJECT

Contact your local satellite writing project. To find a project, go to http://www.writingproject.org To find out about the Appalachian Writing Project, contact Liz Phillips for a link.

My Contact Information
E-mail: ljphillips@wcs.k12.va.us

Write: Liz Phillips Wallace Middle School 13077 Wallace Pike Bristol, VA 24202 Phone 276-642-5400 Other presentations and workshops available for small groups or school systems upon request.

This Reading and Writing Workshop is Dedicated to

Dr. B. G. Raines, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Emory & Henry College and an excellent friend, who has taught me that mathematical principals can be applied to life and to the way I design curriculum.