How do you incorporate wordless picture books at the middle school level?
How do you incorporate wordless picture books at the middle school level?
13 Answers
You must be logged in to post a comment.
How do you incorporate wordless picture books at the middle school level?
I’m 4th grade, but I use them to kick off making inferences.
Thx great idea!
I just did this last week. I did minilessons on visualizing and inferring. As a culminating activity, each group randomly selected a wordless picture book from my collection. I then had them read the book and fill in a plot mountain (including theme). They then paired up with another group, read their book aloud, shared their theme, and reversed roles.
Inferring, symbolism as well as following story line are some of the things I do with them. They are fantastic for staring discussions concerning interpretation and really level the playing field for a lot of kids
I often use them for inferencing. I also love to use them to encourage kids to think about their thinking.
One inferencing tool would be to skip a page when reading then ask what they think was on the skipped page…and even draw it!
Great ideas thx
You can also have students write the accompanying story.
Rising action, climax, falling action
Sharing an article I wrote about using them in 4th grade:http://www.booksourcebanter.com/2016/06/30/finding-right-words-exploration-wordless-picture-books/
FANTASTIC!!! great suggestions and application. I may try this at the beginning of the year as they are getting used to one another and how we are incorporating tech.
A wordless picture book like Henry Cole’s Unspoken requires a lot more background knowledge of American History than most elementary school students have, so it depends on the book. Du Iz Tak by Carson Ellis is a super fun one to talk about the structure of language (it’s written in a made up language so you have to use the pictures to figure out what’s going on, but eventually you can figure it out- it’s like if Cirque du Soleil was a picture book). Inferencing and implying are two things that come to mind. Building classroom community would be another one-I think @Pernille talks a lot about in the book. Giving each other a common language.
People have already said symbolism, inferring, but I would also add perspective. It is amazing to hear different readers’ perspectives on what they are seeing, when they are not told what the narrative is explicitly.