My Teacher Librarian shared this wordless picture book with me-I can’t wait to try it out! Thanks L.H.!!    Chalk    by Bill Thomson


I love wordless picture books. There is so much you can do with them. When my daughter was three years old , she could sit for hours pouring through the pictures making up her own stories. The adventures changed slightly every time but she was loving books and thinking about words . She was enriching the story by noticing new details and drawing new conclusions about the story. She knew stories had a beginning middle and an end. She then started “writing” out her stories in a notebook. And yes- she still loves to read and write!

I was thinking about her the other day when I was encouraging a group of teachers to improve their student writing. They looked at me like I had two heads, they were just not able to see “any purpose” for these books without words.

 

Here are my Top Ten Reasons to use wordless picture books:

1.     allow everyone to feel successful

2.    lead to discussion ,critical thinking and creative writing

3.    improve reading and writing skills

4.    sequence of events and retelling strategies

5.    helping children develop the basic building blocks of language

6.    encourage the introduction of new vocabulary openers, connectors, signal words

7.    develop story telling skills at any age

8.    allows for individual and cultural interpretations

9.    learn about clues in the pictures by paying attention to details

10. great for synthesizing and other comprehension strategies like making connections, determining important inferring and

 

Not mine but important…

Cassady, J.K. (1998). Wordless books: No-risk tools for inclusive middle-grade classrooms. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 41, 428–432.

  • David Wiesner (author of Tuesday) identifies one of the most valuable characteristics of wordless books-the endless possibilities for creative interpretations.
  • Wordless books enhance creativity, vocabulary, and language development for readers of all ages, at all stages of cognitive development, and in all content areas.
  • The creativity stimulated by wordless books encourages older students to look more closely at story details, to carefully consider all story elements, and to more clearly understand how text is organized so that a story develops.

 A great link to take a look at:

http://www.famlit.org/pdf/talking-about-wordless-picture-books.pdf