August
08
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Teaching a Love of Picture Books by Katherine Sokolowski
School starts for us in less than two weeks. I have been escaping to my classroom each evening while my oldest son has football practice on the grass below my windows. I straighten tables, arrange our meeting area, and organize shelves. The other night found me standing in front of our picture books. Tubs and tubs of picture books line the shelves of my fifth grade classroom. A student two years ago counted and told that we had well over three hundred picture books. Her goal became one of reading them all.
My fifth graders leave our year together with a deep love for picture books, but they don’t all start the year feeling that way. Along their journey in school, some have picked up the notion that picture books are “baby books” and they are far too mature to be seen reading them. I work quickly to rid them of those misguided thoughts.
I love all books, but picture books have a special place in my heart. I fell in love with reading aloud with the hilarious book The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone. I remember my first grade teacher, Miss Tuck, let me come back to her class when I was a wise second grader and I got to read that book to her students. They laughed in just the right places. I was convinced I wanted to read aloud for a living.
I remember reading some picture books like Goodnight Moon or Barnyard Dance so often to my boys as they were babies, that I could say the books from memory. I would sit in the rocker in their room, sleepily rocking them back and forth, and repeating the words softly as we both would drift off into dreamland.
Then there are books I treasure in the classroom. I love showing the students the secrets that some picture books have under their jackets – pull off the cover to Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown and you have tiger stripes below. In fact, that became a favorite discussion point during our Mock Caldecott unit last year – what was under the cover? What do the end papers look like? When I overheard students discussing page turns, medium, or the gutter, I knew we were creating a community of picture book lovers.
I even share with my students how much I love picture books still as an adult. I tell them the story of debating the merits of Jon Klassen’s hilarious book, I Want My Hat Back with friends on Twitter when the book was released. I show them the red hat that Jen Vincent’s mom made for so many of us. I share the Christmas ornaments of Bear and Rabbit that I had a friend make and gave as gifts. I even tell them how a group of students took over my lesson plans a year ago because they wanted to create their own reader’s theater version of the book – complete with a red backdrop at the end when Bear realizes who has his hat.
Picture books become such an integral part of our classroom in fifth grade; it is hard for the students to not fall in love with them. There are serious picture books and hilarious ones. Some that make my students think and change like Each Kindness. There are others that make them laugh and want to vandalize some books like Battle Bunny. When I survey my students at the end of the school year, our selection of picture books is consistently one of their favorite parts of the classroom library.
So, as I stood in front of the tubs the other night, the dilemma I was facing was where to begin. Flipping through the books is like revisiting old friends. I know I will begin that first day with What You Know First by Patricia MacLachlan. It is the book I almost always begin and end our school year with. At the start of the school year I want my students to remember that they have a story before coming into our classroom, that their choices and experiences have led them to this place. And at the end, I want them to take our year with them as something they now know as they move on. I love how it bookends our year. So first book, check. But what else must I share those first days? What books will help them begin their love affair with this format? My Nerdy Book Club friends, I think I have a problem. Three days are all I have that first week of school. Here is the stack I started.
Picture books. So much to love. So much to teach. Our classroom is incomplete with out them.
Katherine Sokolowski has taught for fifteen years and currently teaches fifth grade in Monticello, Illinois. She is passionate about reading both in her classroom and also with her two sons. You can find her online at http://readwriteandreflect.blogspot.com/ and on Twitter as @katsok.
Nerdy Book Club 
Great post, I had fifth class this year(10/11 yr olds) I had the same experience at the start of the year, writing the picture books off as childish books. After awhile I had them hooked on Oliver Jeffers and Anthony Browne stories. I think Lemony Snickets ‘The Dark’ was their favourite this year. They really caught onto the techniques and symbolism which exists in the illustrations. Great to see your promoting it too!
The books you mention (and authors) are fabulous. Glad your kids loved them too.
How wonderful that you use picture books even with your older kiddos. I facilitate for a student book club and the 5th graders are always lamenting that their teachers don’t count those books-even when it’s on their grade level, especially on reading logs, so they don’t want to check the picture books out. It always makes me sad. You have an amazing stack there to begin with!
I hate when folks say books (Picture books, comic books, graphic novels) don’t count.
And love that you run a student book club!
I am no longer in the classroom but I too love picture books. My favorite moments are when I am sitting on our couch reading a picture book to my 8 year old and my 11 year old inches closer and closer after initially saying she didn’t want to listen. Picture books truly hold universal appeal. You have chosen so many of my favorites above but I have not yet read What You Know First. I feel like you gave me a Christmas present-I’m off to get the book right now!
Our kids are about the same age – my boys are 9 and 12. I love leaving a new picture book on our kitchen counter and seeing them grab it unprompted. So cool.
Love your selection so far, much luck to you on sharing them! 🙂
Thank you!
I am so pleased to hear you use picture books with older students. Stories that appeal to children should have the same qualities that appeal to readers of any age. I also share your love of picture books though my experience is with younger children. I have heard parents of preschoolers say that their children have outgrown picture books. I tell them that’s impossible as I still haven’t! Thanks for sharing these wonderful titles. You have given me a few more to check out!
Agree! I have many friends who use picture books in high school. I really think they are for all ages. Thanks for reading!
I have long loved picture books but it wasn’t until last year that I really started finding ways to incorporate them into my classroom instruction and community-building activities. Thanks for the suggestions!
Hi Alex! Yes, they are excellent for community-building. I also think they are the perfect length for mini-lessons.
Ditto to everything you said! 🙂 Picture books are a beloved part of my 5th/6th grade classroom, too. I couldn’t imagine teaching without them.
Agree. Thanks, Holly!
I am a retired school librarian. One of my grandson’s is being home schooled. He is 7, but reads w/comprehension on a middle school level (though he can “read” words above that level the meanings are not clear). He too began thinking picture books were beneath him.
It was hard to convince him that picture books are for everyone, but after studying the details with him he is beginning to appreciate how the end pages and other details tie in with the stories. He enjoys searching for the less obvious things and often notices small details I may have overlooked.
I will enjoy showing him your article about 5th graders appreciating picture books!
I found picture books were often the easiest way to teach setting, plot, theme, and characterization even at the high school level to clarify things for students. They were also a great starting point for creative writing.
Thank you for your article!
I love that you used them at the high school level, I have many friends that do that as well. Tell your grandson that I have former students in middle school and high school who come back to read their favorite picture books or look and see what I’ve got since they left.
As an elementary school librarian (just retired this past June!) I loved using picture books with the older students. The fifth graders would cheer when I told them to start out the class next to the rocking chair as that meant there would be a story!
Love the visual of your students cheering to hear a story!
And I need to share that I used picture books often with my middle school students, Katherine. They also have written their own books. There are so many kinds to enjoy, and even those written for young students have good things to cherish. One favorite on my first days of school was Byrd Baylor’s The Way To Start A Day. And I did use What You Know First also-another to love. Thank you!
Linda, I’m not surprised at all, but so glad you do. I don’t know The Way to Start A Day.
Picture books rock! Thank you for the inspiring post. I often use the document camera while sharing with my fifth graders, but there is nothing like holding the book in your hand and have the kids sprawled on the floor, looking, listening reaching out to touch and connect and enjoying the reading. Picture books pack a heavy punch on a little package!
Love your last sentence. So true.
I love this post! And such an amazing book stack! The first thing I do when I go into an intermediate classroom is look around for the picture books and I get sad if I don’t see any. My former students often visit my classroom early in the morning and just sit and read picture books. It’s like gravitational pull.
I do the same thing, but also look for the classroom library in general. I’m always saddened when I don’t see one, especially at middle school and high school.
I use picture books in my college classroom–in all of my courses, not just Children’s Lit. What You Know First will be the first text we write from in Freshman Comp and I will share many of the same books in your stack over the semester. Still looking for the right PB for my Brit Lit survey course!
Brit Lit, that’s a tough one. I’ll think about it. Have you asked on Twitter? And I LOVE that you share them in college.
Elisabeth – as a fellow college prof, I’d love to chat with you more about this!!
Your photo shows a gold mine!
Good way to describe it, it truly is a gold mine. 🙂
Will you let us know which books made the 3-day week cut? My favorite line was when you said that by second grade you were “convinced I wanted to read aloud for a living.” Thanks for this inspiring post, full of gems.
Thanks, Jenny! I won’t be able to share here because Nerdy is booked pretty far out, but I can share on my blog. Great idea!
I have used What You Know First for many years and also Byrd Baylor’s wonderful books. I’m getting excited for the start of the year. Just one more week to go. I love your stack of books. I have so many of them in my room as well. It’s always a tough decision figuring out what books I want to highlight this year when there are so many new ones coming out.
You’re the second person to mention Byrd Baylor, but I don’t think I have any of her books. Is there one you recommend in particular?
I love The Table Where Rich People Sit as a wonderful conversation starter reading with a social class lens.
Everyone Needs a Rock or The Way to Start a Day
So wonderful to find another adult who loves and appreciates picture books the way I do! Yay! (www.frogonablog.wordpress.com)
Yay! A kindred spirit. 🙂
Katherine, what a great book stack! I’ve been thinking about the same thing – what are the best books to read aloud first? Thanks for the ideas and best wishes for a great start 🙂
Best wishes to you too, Barb!
Dear Katherine, I am slightly mad at you because I just spent $110.00 on books… But seriously, thanks for the great suggestions! Would love to know more about HOW you build this appreciation of picture books with your fifth graders and also what your discussion around “What You Know First” looks like!
Have you read The Empty Pot by Demi? I start with this one each year. Everybody Needs a Rock (apologies to Byrd Baylor for my earlier mistake 🙂 is a great discussion starter-why would you need a rock? What could a rock represent? etc…
LOVE One by K. Otashi. Zero- same author- is also a powerful read.
Thank you for sharing your passion with us. Amazon here I come!
I love using picture books with my 5th graders as well. We started school a week ago, and this year I have vowed to share as many with them as I can, some for mini-lessons or to build community, and some just because. I was shocked as I held up some pretty well-known picture books to share with them, and very few of them had ever read them or heard them read aloud. Not only do I have to convince my class that picture books are still just right for 5th graders, I also have to convince them that 5th graders still sit on the carpet for a read-aloud or a lesson. They said they felt like they were in 2nd grade. 😦
I’m going back to teaching this year after taking a 10 year mommy break and trying to get organized. I’d love your help with books for the first week! I’m teaching 1st grade and this is what I have so far:
Monday: The Night Before 1st Grade
Tuesday: Brand-New Pencils, Brand-New Books
Thanks!
I love using picture books at all grade levels including middle school. Thank you for posting your list. 🙂
I like the idea of reading The Invisible Boy and Each Kindness very early in the year. It gets them thinking about how they will treat their classmates throughout the year. It also my open the eyes of some as to how they may have behaved in the past. 5th graders are pretty sharp!
I just completed my first week with students, and selecting picture books for our read-alouds was my favorite thing to do in getting ready for the new year. Like you, I had a huge stack- two stacks, in fact. Many of the books in your photo are also in my pile, and some of them I have planned for later in the year. My first read-alouds were: My Teacher Is A Monster, The Troublemaker, My Pet Book, and Gravity by Jason Chin. Those were recent purchases this summer, but I can’t wait to share some of my faves from last year: Flora and the Flamingo, Journey, Bluebird, Each Kindness, The Story of Fish and Snail. So many, many books….
Picture books teach writers of all ages so much about story-telling: the power of the perfect word, how to set pace and tone, how what we leave out can reveal as much as what we include. Best of all–the delight of a surprise!
Thank you so much for the list. I’m always looking for good picture books. I just added them all to my Amazon wish list so I can get them a little at a time.
You have encouraged me to use more picture books in my classroom.
Thanks
Katherine, I absolutely LOVE that you use picture books with 5th graders! Keep that PB love strong! There are SO many great ones, narrowing it down is near to impossible. Loved seeing Peter Reynolds, Peter Brown, Deborah Freedman and Jon Klassen in there 🙂 I’m not going up to my home library to look, but two books that pop to mind are by William Joyce: THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR. MORRIS LESSMORE and THE NUMBERLYS. Wordless ones, too, like JOURNEY and FLORA AND THE FLAMINGO. Of course, books by David Weisner, in that vein. Great stuff! Hope you all have a wonderful school year 🙂
Just catching up on my Feedly and I came across this post that was sent to me from above. I am, and always have been, a HUGE proponent of picture books at all grade levels. (I give them as gifts to adults as well.)
Here is my dilemma-I have changed classrooms and grade levels over the summer, and need ideas on how to organize my picture books for student selection. At the moment, I have fiction by author’s last name, and non fiction by topic, just as the public library does. I’d love any feedback you have on what makes picture books accessible to 5th graders. Preach it!
I’m not a teacher, but am a HUGE fan of lists. I would think, also, that if there was a way to have a reference list of fiction by genre, that would help kids pick and discover new authors while keeping them alphabetical by author on the shelf. Maybe recruit the students to look at the books and actually select the genre/s to list them as (some should be under more than one, imo). It would also help familiarize them with the many books you have 🙂 Just a suggestion!
I love the suggestion of student involvement in the planning/organizing step. Thanks! 🙂
A great post! I love that you have ISH in that pile. That’s a must-read for new year inspiration. THE STORY OF FISH AND SNAIL’s another great one for starting the year. I also love BOY + BOT by Ame Dyckman for a friendship story. For another inspirational read, I love (and cry at) A DANCE LIKE STARLIGHT by Kristy Dempsey. Also love the encouraging perspective about continuing to learn and wonder in ON A BEAM OF LIGHT by Jennifer Berne.
Tina, you continue to be an inspiration. Your efforts made me a better teacher!