Visual Literacy

I hope that author/illustrator David Shannon and Blue Sky Press (c2002) don't mind if I post this photo of the title page of one of my all-time favorite books, Duck on a Bike. Not only is this book great fun, but it's also a perfect example of Visual Literacy. This means the ability to figure out (comprehend) what is going on in a picture. It's an important skill to develop in young children and research shows that being able to understand pictures leads to better text comprehension.

This is a skill that comes easier for some students than others and our instruction promotes "learning to read pictures". In Library, using Duck on a Bike with Kindergarten classes leads the way to Grade 1 library classes when we really concentrate on 3 elements of Visual Thinking Strategies, a questioning strategy developed around art museums but widely used in education. My wording of the 3 questions of VTS to students goes like this:

#1 What's going on in this picture?
#2 What's the evidence for your idea?
#3 Do you see anything else that you notice in the picture?

This seems like a wordy way to read a book but with lots of practice I've learned to seamlessly (I hope!) work it into our enjoyment of a good read-aloud book. In Grade 1 we share many Caldecott Award books and the criteria for the award is "do the pictures help tell the story?" and how illustrations and text work together to tell the story. Visual Literacy - what a fun way to improve comprehension among young children!

For some reason, Duck on a Bike did not win a Caldecott - a grave injustice to me! If you don't know the book, find it at your public library and Enjoy!

Another Beanbag Photo

As I wrote last week, I can't get too many cute pictures of cute kids on the beanbags with their books. This group is from Mrs. Terluk's p.m. class and they all had big smiles for the camera.

Next week I'll try for a little more "substance", but it's a Friday afternoon in May and the sun came out for the first time this week. Delightful!

Happiness is a warm beanbag and a book!

I would be content to post photos of kids on the beanbag chairs every week. There's nothing quite like children nestled on the beanbags as they look at their library books. These boys are in Mrs. Terluk's morning Kindergarten class.

There's not much else to say about such happy faces enjoying their BookLook time in the library. Enjoy!

More Than Just Reading

Joshua A. is busy at work writing in the library this afternoon. He's using his creative ideas to write a sequel to a favorite library book and he found a quiet place to work. I should say, a temporarily quiet place because often we have so many activities going on that it's not-so-quiet!

Many of us have memories of the "shushing" librarian who cautioned against any type of talking. Those days are gone in most libraries, especially school libraries, and I think it's an improvement over the olden days of silence. Our students know that during BookLook time they can use their quiet voices to share thoughts and ideas about books. Sometimes it gets a little too loud but a reminder usually does the trick. I believe that a library should be a place where you can enjoy yourself but still respect others in helping maintain an enjoyable space.

Lately I've been thinking that although the silent library is pretty much "history" that sometimes it would be nice to have a quiet sanctuary in public libraries. I know that some libraries manage to have that separate space for quiet reading, but that's not possible at many. Oh well, if it's a choice between a busy active library and a silent space, I'll take the busy library anytime!