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!
No comments:
Post a Comment