Chapter 5 of our unit literature titled Picture Books was very enlightening. It showed how a picture book can be used to not just encourage language development in children but, they can also be used to encourage imagination and can instill in a child an appreciation for aesthetic beauty. Picture books allow the illustrations in a book to take its readers to other worlds and to experience other experiences in a variety of formats through board books, wordless books, flap books, toy books, and nursery rhymes. Children can come to identify not just settings but also characters and situations that resemble people and scenarios from their daily life such as the book about the boy that had a bad day at school. Much in the same manner a picture book can be used to introduce students to people, problems, settings, and circumstances that are not familiar to them such as the book about the homeless children who must live on the street or the girl growing up in a Thai village. Children are introduced to the world around and beyond them in picture books that actively engages its readers. During my childhood my mother provided me with many picture books on a variety of topics from books that show the beauty of an imagination such as Where the Wild Things Are to books that focused on religious elements such as My Book of Bible Stories. What I remember the most about these books is that many of them taught morals and values that could be applied in my daily life. In the even that I became bored with video games, movies, and the other modern conveniences of our times I always used my imagination to create worlds very similar to what the character Max did in Where the Wild Things Are or I knew the value of not lying after seeing what happened to liars during Biblical times from My Book of Bible Stories. Some other books simply enthralled me with their illustrations that resembled settings that were similar to mine and others that were entirely different. Long before I privileged to travel abroad I already had a glimpse to how people from other cultures lived from just picking up a book and seeing the beautiful pictures contained within and reading the text that accompanied it.
Picture books are an excellent tool and as brought out in our unit literature they are at times more appropriate than books that rely more on text since they even the stage for all readers. That means that you may have a student who reads on an advance level and a student who is still struggling with readings; a book with pictures invites readers of all levels and is usually comprehensible enough for them all to understand. Everyone may not be the most fluent reader but everyone has an imagination and it is that imaginative spark that picture books take advantage of and when students are inspired to imagine and think further on something then they are motivated to learn more about it. Picture books can inspire students to go deeper into the world of literacy after seeing the many settings that await them and to even create their own intrinsic worlds with the features of literature such as plot, theme, characters, conflict, and etc. Picture books bring harmony between the world of words and the world of art. Some questions I do have regarding the unit literature is that I have noticed that Africa is presented as a country when it is a vast continent, the second largest to be exact, and if picture books are to introduce students to the world beyond theirs it is important that they do so accurately when dealing with facts. My question is should we refrain from utilizing books that may misrepresent a country or a particular culture even if it can be used for teaching? Could this not cause students to prejudge others or a stereotype a particular place such as the believe that Africa is a war torn country when in fact it is a large continent where you have the very poor but also the very wealthy? Once I wanted to read a book to my class but I noticed it showed Native Americans in a stereotypical manner so I decided against it. However, the book would have been great to show the challenges some earlier settlers faced and even though I could have provided commentary for the book what may remain with students is the images they see and not the words they hear. What do you all think about that?
I am in the world of picture books myself right now. By that I mean that I have four small children at home and we are enjoying picture books, alphabet books, and transitional books right now. The boys enjoy the repetition of the picture books. We look at the animals and name them and say the sounds. We say the shapes and colors and we do all the gestures of the characters. My girls enjoy hearing the stories but they are now at the ages where they want to read on their own as well. Once again this chapter introduced so many book titles and authors to check out. One book I like is the vegetable book of facial expressions-Can someone tell me the name of this one. I can look it up on the internet too. Anyway, this is a great book for talking about feelings and emotions and it is so fun to look at. As a mom, I like the toy books. I like the pop-up books and the interactive board books. I wish they would last longer though. It never fails, the child finds a favorite sound to go with the page and it breaks or the sound doesn’t work anymore after about a dozen tries. However, these books are great for interaction and learning. In chapter four we looked at illustrators and I think the alphabet books that were selected in this chapter were beautiful examples of great illustration. The Bert Kitchen Animal Alphabet and Antics! By Cathi Hepworth were amazing. The section of the chapter discussing the controversy about picture books was enlightening. It again reiterates the idea that the changes in society dictate to some degree the acceptance or disapproval of certain books. I know we are discussing literature, but I find it interesting that people object to certain sexist or racist images in books and yet allow so much of this to occur on the television programs-even on cartoons. Two more book that I love and would suggest to anyone are by Helen Lester-Tacky the Penquin and Hooway for Wodney Wat. My family loves Tacky and it is a humorous, endearing character that children of all ages can learn to love and relate to. In Wodney, I laughed so hard trying to read this book to my girls, I was crying. We were all in a big giggly mess by the time we got it finished. These are great books for children to understand that being different is o.k. and being true to yourself is what really matters. These are great books for early elementary children. I like that Knuffle Bunny was recognized too because this is my nephew’s favorite book from childhood. Great chapter for explaining how to utilize these books in the classroom.
Gregg- I like that you mentioned that ALL readers can enjoy picture books. Even children at different reading levels can benefit from using their imaginations and being exposed to different worlds. This does, as you say, encourage them to learn more and perhaps read more.
Gregg and Linda S. my mother is a librarian in an elementary school here in NC. She's done it for over 30 years and Gregg one comment you made had me reminice on my childhood. She introduced to me the joy of reading through books that had brilliant paintings. She used big books and my most favorite at the time pop up books!
Mrs. Hinton I think big books are great for lessons in the classroom. We often "read" through the pictures first to discuss what the story will be about and we highlight (with clear sticky tabs) the words that we have learned/priority words. The kids love to then read the book and see if their predictions were right.
The picture book chapter was great. I work, by day, as a greeting card writer. I write copy, and then hand it off to an illustrator, who brings the words to life through pictures. I have learned how much a picture can convey to a consumer. I think of books in much the same way, people make connections to pictures, thus it is important to create pictures that are unique and special, yet will appeal to the masses. Which isn't always easy to do.
My favorite book as a small child was The Owl and the Pussycat, and the particular book I wrote had them looking so elegant, in fancy clothes and dramatic hats, I loved that story largely in part to the pictures that accompanied it.
I think what picture books help to do, at the most basic level, is to expand a child's imagination. It is just a given, when reading a book with aesthetically pleasing illustrations, that a bird can talk, or a cow can go the grocery store, so on and so forth. The challenge, as a teacher, will be to help children look inside a picture, find meaning, and symbolism -- which will help later on when they are analyzing the classics in high school!
gregg- I think you are right on about enjoying kid's books when you are reading them to family. I crack up all the time when reading to my nephew. I think this idea -- writing children's books that adults can enjoy too -- will continue to catch on, as it has in movies like the Shrek trilogy or Cars. The idea that children and adult entertainment (books, movies, etc.) have to be mutually exclusive is definitely going by the wayside.
If there is one technique that I have been forced to acquire and sharpen during my time as a classroom teacher is using books as a teaching resource. You mentioned that teaching students the concept of symbolism and figurative language can be difficult and you are write it can but a book can help. For example, there is a book series titled Amelia Bedelia and in one of the books it was on idioms. Idioms are a group of words that do not mean what they actually say but, Amelia Bedelia did not get that message. If someone tells her to "get out of here" she will literally get up and leave when the person just really means "you cannot be serious". Using the book to show illustrations of what can happen when a person is not able to identify idioms and then letting them see how we use idioms each and everyday made teaching the topic a lot easier. As a matter of fact I wonder how much more time I would have had to spend if I had not possess the book. It is comforting to know that there is a rich array of literature for us to choose from since we can teach students lessons in regards to their education and their social life.
Me and My daugther love picture books. Cadee is very good at making up her own stories. I use to read to her everynight before she went to bed and now she will bring books to me and tell me a story. With picture books she doesn't know what the story is so she can make up a totally new one everyday. Most of the time they don't make sense and they are hilarious but its good bonding time for us. We have one "Where's Waldo" book and those are my favorite to listen to because I don't know how she comes up with the stories because to me there is so much going on in the pictures.
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Chapter 5 of our unit literature titled Picture Books was very enlightening. It showed how a picture book can be used to not just encourage language development in children but, they can also be used to encourage imagination and can instill in a child an appreciation for aesthetic beauty. Picture books allow the illustrations in a book to take its readers to other worlds and to experience other experiences in a variety of formats through board books, wordless books, flap books, toy books, and nursery rhymes. Children can come to identify not just settings but also characters and situations that resemble people and scenarios from their daily life such as the book about the boy that had a bad day at school. Much in the same manner a picture book can be used to introduce students to people, problems, settings, and circumstances that are not familiar to them such as the book about the homeless children who must live on the street or the girl growing up in a Thai village. Children are introduced to the world around and beyond them in picture books that actively engages its readers.
During my childhood my mother provided me with many picture books on a variety of topics from books that show the beauty of an imagination such as Where the Wild Things Are to books that focused on religious elements such as My Book of Bible Stories. What I remember the most about these books is that many of them taught morals and values that could be applied in my daily life. In the even that I became bored with video games, movies, and the other modern conveniences of our times I always used my imagination to create worlds very similar to what the character Max did in Where the Wild Things Are or I knew the value of not lying after seeing what happened to liars during Biblical times from My Book of Bible Stories. Some other books simply enthralled me with their illustrations that resembled settings that were similar to mine and others that were entirely different. Long before I privileged to travel abroad I already had a glimpse to how people from other cultures lived from just picking up a book and seeing the beautiful pictures contained within and reading the text that accompanied it.
Picture books are an excellent tool and as brought out in our unit literature they are at times more appropriate than books that rely more on text since they even the stage for all readers. That means that you may have a student who reads on an advance level and a student who is still struggling with readings; a book with pictures invites readers of all levels and is usually comprehensible enough for them all to understand. Everyone may not be the most fluent reader but everyone has an imagination and it is that imaginative spark that picture books take advantage of and when students are inspired to imagine and think further on something then they are motivated to learn more about it. Picture books can inspire students to go deeper into the world of literacy after seeing the many settings that await them and to even create their own intrinsic worlds with the features of literature such as plot, theme, characters, conflict, and etc. Picture books bring harmony between the world of words and the world of art.
Some questions I do have regarding the unit literature is that I have noticed that Africa is presented as a country when it is a vast continent, the second largest to be exact, and if picture books are to introduce students to the world beyond theirs it is important that they do so accurately when dealing with facts. My question is should we refrain from utilizing books that may misrepresent a country or a particular culture even if it can be used for teaching? Could this not cause students to prejudge others or a stereotype a particular place such as the believe that Africa is a war torn country when in fact it is a large continent where you have the very poor but also the very wealthy? Once I wanted to read a book to my class but I noticed it showed Native Americans in a stereotypical manner so I decided against it. However, the book would have been great to show the challenges some earlier settlers faced and even though I could have provided commentary for the book what may remain with students is the images they see and not the words they hear. What do you all think about that?
I am in the world of picture books myself right now. By that I mean that I have four small children at home and we are enjoying picture books, alphabet books, and transitional books right now. The boys enjoy the repetition of the picture books. We look at the animals and name them and say the sounds. We say the shapes and colors and we do all the gestures of the characters. My girls enjoy hearing the stories but they are now at the ages where they want to read on their own as well.
Once again this chapter introduced so many book titles and authors to check out. One book I like is the vegetable book of facial expressions-Can someone tell me the name of this one. I can look it up on the internet too. Anyway, this is a great book for talking about feelings and emotions and it is so fun to look at.
As a mom, I like the toy books. I like the pop-up books and the interactive board books. I wish they would last longer though. It never fails, the child finds a favorite sound to go with the page and it breaks or the sound doesn’t work anymore after about a dozen tries. However, these books are great for interaction and learning.
In chapter four we looked at illustrators and I think the alphabet books that were selected in this chapter were beautiful examples of great illustration. The Bert Kitchen Animal Alphabet and Antics! By Cathi Hepworth were amazing. The section of the chapter discussing the controversy about picture books was enlightening. It again reiterates the idea that the changes in society dictate to some degree the acceptance or disapproval of certain books. I know we are discussing literature, but I find it interesting that people object to certain sexist or racist images in books and yet allow so much of this to occur on the television programs-even on cartoons.
Two more book that I love and would suggest to anyone are by Helen Lester-Tacky the Penquin and Hooway for Wodney Wat. My family loves Tacky and it is a humorous, endearing character that children of all ages can learn to love and relate to. In Wodney, I laughed so hard trying to read this book to my girls, I was crying. We were all in a big giggly mess by the time we got it finished. These are great books for children to understand that being different is o.k. and being true to yourself is what really matters. These are great books for early elementary children. I like that Knuffle Bunny was recognized too because this is my nephew’s favorite book from childhood.
Great chapter for explaining how to utilize these books in the classroom.
Gregg- I like that you mentioned that ALL readers can enjoy picture books. Even children at different reading levels can benefit from using their imaginations and being exposed to different worlds. This does, as you say, encourage them to learn more and perhaps read more.
Gregg and Linda S. my mother is a librarian in an elementary school here in NC. She's done it for over 30 years and Gregg one comment you made had me reminice on my childhood. She introduced to me the joy of reading through books that had brilliant paintings. She used big books and my most favorite at the time pop up books!
Mrs. Hinton
I think big books are great for lessons in the classroom. We often "read" through the pictures first to discuss what the story will be about and we highlight (with clear sticky tabs) the words that we have learned/priority words. The kids love to then read the book and see if their predictions were right.
The picture book chapter was great. I work, by day, as a greeting card writer. I write copy, and then hand it off to an illustrator, who brings the words to life through pictures. I have learned how much a picture can convey to a consumer. I think of books in much the same way, people make connections to pictures, thus it is important to create pictures that are unique and special, yet will appeal to the masses. Which isn't always easy to do.
My favorite book as a small child was The Owl and the Pussycat, and the particular book I wrote had them looking so elegant, in fancy clothes and dramatic hats, I loved that story largely in part to the pictures that accompanied it.
I think what picture books help to do, at the most basic level, is to expand a child's imagination. It is just a given, when reading a book with aesthetically pleasing illustrations, that a bird can talk, or a cow can go the grocery store, so on and so forth. The challenge, as a teacher, will be to help children look inside a picture, find meaning, and symbolism -- which will help later on when they are analyzing the classics in high school!
gregg- I think you are right on about enjoying kid's books when you are reading them to family. I crack up all the time when reading to my nephew. I think this idea -- writing children's books that adults can enjoy too -- will continue to catch on, as it has in movies like the Shrek trilogy or Cars. The idea that children and adult entertainment (books, movies, etc.) have to be mutually exclusive is definitely going by the wayside.
Anniem,
If there is one technique that I have been forced to acquire and sharpen during my time as a classroom teacher is using books as a teaching resource. You mentioned that teaching students the concept of symbolism and figurative language can be difficult and you are write it can but a book can help. For example, there is a book series titled Amelia Bedelia and in one of the books it was on idioms. Idioms are a group of words that do not mean what they actually say but, Amelia Bedelia did not get that message. If someone tells her to "get out of here" she will literally get up and leave when the person just really means "you cannot be serious". Using the book to show illustrations of what can happen when a person is not able to identify idioms and then letting them see how we use idioms each and everyday made teaching the topic a lot easier. As a matter of fact I wonder how much more time I would have had to spend if I had not possess the book. It is comforting to know that there is a rich array of literature for us to choose from since we can teach students lessons in regards to their education and their social life.
Gregg
Me and My daugther love picture books. Cadee is very good at making up her own stories. I use to read to her everynight before she went to bed and now she will bring books to me and tell me a story. With picture books she doesn't know what the story is so she can make up a totally new one everyday. Most of the time they don't make sense and they are hilarious but its good bonding time for us. We have one "Where's Waldo" book and those are my favorite to listen to because I don't know how she comes up with the stories because to me there is so much going on in the pictures.
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