The Potential of Wordless Picture Books
for English Learners
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| @Seidlitz_Ed |
Imagine you are a second grade student
born in America, and you only speak English. You’ve attended English schools
until now. But your father’s job has relocated your family to France, and now
you are in a classroom filled with students and a teacher who only speak French
(a language you have never spoken). The science teacher hands you a book and
signals for you to read it. You open the book and find that it is filled with
pictures…no words. First a group of horses. A mare feeding a foal. A colt
running wild. Then a group of pigs, chickens, cows, etc. Instantly, you begin
to think about the information you know about animals. What they are called,
where they live, what they eat, etc.
Though you aren’t able to communicate
this information in French yet, you are able to follow along with the class and
think in English using the schema and background knowledge you have about
animals.
Why Use Wordless
Picture Books?
While wordless picture books have
commonly been used with emergent readers and primary students in elementary
grades, they are also useful when developing English in older students. Books
that lack words allow for students themselves to produce language needed for
each page, think critically about the ideas, and engage in deep inferencing to
develop a plot and theme while building language skills.
Wordless picture books are accessible
to learners who speak any language, as seen in the example above.
Using wordless picture books with English learners can support all language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
students listen to a partner or the teacher “read” or interpret the pictures from the book
students share their interpretation of the book with a partner
students write captions or text for wordless picture books, or students create their own wordless picture books
🗹 Make Space for Nonfiction
🗹 A Short List of Wordless Picture Books
🗹 Can Wordless Picture Books Be Used in Remote or Distance Learning?
🗹 What Does Reading a Wordless Picture Book Look Like?
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