Early Readers Read the Pictures
16 Jun | 9 Comments »I have fond memories of the wonder and possibility of wordless picture books in a particular inner city classroom in east Denver.
Wordless picture books give pre-readers and beginning readers reading success. Why? Because kids are good at “reading the pictures”. They look and tell the story as they see it unfold in the illustrations. Which, in books with words, is called using picture clues — an essential reading strategy.
Did you know that you can use wordless picture books to develop your child’s sequencing skills, in particular beginning, middle, and ending? So, as your child “reads” you the story, stop and say what YOU predict will happen next. Do this often. The next book you read, have your child stop and predict what they think will happen next in the story. After hearing you make predictions, this will become easier for them to do and help them learn sequencing.
Wordless Picture Books for Early Readers:
- Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie De Paola
- Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchins
- 1,2,3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle
- A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog by Mercer Mayer
- Sidewalk Circus by Paul Fleichman
- Have you Seen My Duckling by Nancy Tafuri
- Picnic by Emily Arnold McCully
- Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathman
This is not a comprehensive list, just a few of my favorites. Any that you’d like to add to the list?
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And, now back to that fond memory of wordless picture books . . . To introduce the concept of endings, I “read” wordless picture book Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie De Paola to a kindergarten class. 
In the story, a woman gets together the ingredients to make pancakes. But, she doesn’t have any syrup so she leaves to the store. When she returns, the house is a disaster, the ingredients are gone and the dog and cat look guilty.
I stopped here, before the end and wondered aloud what the ending might be. I drew several different ending ideas for the kids as examples — make more pancakes, eat cereal instead, go out to a restaurant. Then, I asked the children to decide what the ending would be and draw it, never reading De Paola’s actual ending.
This classroom, in which I was a visiting literacy trainer, was very culturally diverse. As I walked around, I asked the students about their pictures and what happened in their endings. Most of the children used one of my examples but one child had a particularly unique ending for this story.
“What is your ending?” I asked.
He looked up at me earnestly, so proud of his drawing and the letters he’d written below. “She eats the dog,” he replied.
And he wasn’t joking.
Unsure of what to say, I said, “Oh, that sure is an ending” and really hoped he wouldn’t want to share it with the class. He did understand the concept of endings, didn’t he!?
I never found out what the teacher did but I sure hope she started working on cultural appreciation. I certainly will never again read Pancakes for Breakfast without thinking of this alternate ending.
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I love Wave by Suzy Lee
Thanks for the idea for the alternate ending activity. I especially like the way that you had the children draw their ending and not just throw out different ideas. That way everyone gets an opportunity to participate and you get a chance to see how everyone’s mind works. Love the dog ending!
Yes. You never know what a child is thinking or has experienced until you do.
Your story made me think of a comment a student made when I taught second grade. I can’t remember what story we were reading. I think it was a story from a basal reader. The people in the story ate a goat. Some of the children made disgusted noises etc. One little girl raised her hand and proudly said, “I’ve eaten goat. It’s good!” And she rubbed her belly. I’ll always remember her confidence and pride. I nodded my head, smiled, and moved on. I was afraid some of the children would tease her, I watched for it, but they didn’t.
I haven’t thought much about wordless picture books in awhile. Your idea to draw the ending picture before knowing the ending is a powerful way to teach predicting!
I’ll add Mercer Mayer’s wordless picture books as some of my favorites.
Bubble, Bubble
Frog, Where Are You?
Frog Goes to Dinner
Frog on His Own
I just made a post on my blog about teaching early readers and pre-readers to use picture clues while share reading books with adults. http://beginningreadinghelp.blogspot.com/2010/06/teach-pre-reader-to-use-picture-clues.html
I often use the Good Dog, Carl books by Alexandra Day with my students. My first graders love them as well as my own kids.
Thanks, Cary, Michelle and Books That Heal Kids — great suggestions!
Dee Ann — thanks!
Melissa
I love this idea … I admit that I had never really thought about wordless books for new readers. What a great way to get them to use language and gain confidence reading aloud.
Terry,
It does take some looking to find wordless books that aren’t too complex for the early readers!
Thanks for stopping by to comment.
Melissa
I used wordless books in my early childhood and kindergarten classes to encourage thinking about what was happening in the pictures and predicitng what might happen next. We often recorded what we thought was happening and what characters were saying onto post it notes and placed that onto pages. Then we would read our story. The next time we did this, we would make a new story line. Fun activitiy, creative and ever evolving!
Susan
Kids come up with amazing stuff….oftentimes better than anything we can come up with. Wordless books are a great way to get children to start using their imaginations and help teach them the process of “writing a story” with a beginning, middle and ending!