After reading the articles about wordless picture books I am excited and enlightened. I never thought about using wordless picture books in my classroom. As I read the articles I began seeing endless possibiblities. I have several struggling readers that would love to use books such as the Red book or Pancakes. I also have several boys that are not interested in reading. I look forward to finding them some comics and presenting these for them to read. I can see how that teachers and parents would disagree with wordless picture books and comics as not being an appropriate book for school. However, like the author of Graphic Novels teachers and parents who disagree with such texts should be handed a graphic novel themselves such as Owly and asked to read it. Owly was difficult for me to read and was not an easy slow process. Graphic Novels really allow children to use higher level thinking skills such as synthesis and evaluation. Readers are forced to create the story themselves with their own intepretation. I loved how the child stated that when she looked at the pictures she thought about the words the characters were saying and then visualized the words in her head.
I have several wordless picture books but would like to purchase multiple copies of Pancakes and the Redbook for my students for next year. I would love to provide students with a copy of the book and allow them to create the story line. I really like how one teacher asked the student to tape record as he read the wordless picture book and then the teacher typed what he said so that he could create his own book. What a great idea. My kids would love to do this. I have already begun ordering these books. I just need multiple copies.
