Friday, February 3, 2012

A New Blog & A New Genre

This winter I set up a new blog, Read, Discover, Grow to serve as a "mentor text" for my undergraduates who are taking a children's literature course in which they are required to blog about 30 children's books targeted at primary grades. Later in the spring they will blog about additional books for upper elementary students. Last spring I showed my personal book blog as an example, but this year I decided to complete the same requirements as the students and have been enjoying the process.


One of the requirements for this term is that at least one of the books must be a wordless book. This week I have been writing a series of posts about wordless books, a new genre for me. On my latest post about Bill Thomson's Chalk, I was reflecting on my experience reading the book with my girls earlier in the week. I especially loved considering the potential for wordless books to support reading and writing workshop (the last two paragraphs of the Chalk post).

I would love to hear how others have used wordless books or thoughts on potential uses, as well as any recommendations of other wordless books.

2 comments:

  1. I'm actually putting my book list together for the grad course I'm teaching this summer on teaching writing with children's literature. I haven't thought much about wordless picture books. Do you have more blog posts about your use of them in the classroom? If so, I'd love to read your thoughts.

    THANKS!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Stacey, So far the only other post that I have about wordless books is the one that I linked above, since it is a new genre for me as well. For this particular undergraduate course, they have to read 60 children's books in the term (I only have them blog about half) and they are required to read a certain number from a range of genres. For wordless books, they just have to read at least one. Since I was not as familiar with the genre, I chose to order four off of Amazon. I started to think of a lot of potential for writer's workshop, but I won't get to try it out until next fall when I am back in my 6th-8th grade classroom. I briefly checked in with a first grade teacher and we are planning on having some of my students do a project with hers. I am thinking that I will launch writer's workshop with one of the grades as wordless books. The first grade teacher will do the same and then my students' created books can be additional mentors for the first graders and they can share books together. I am excited to see how it goes.

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