Books, books and more books! For every topic that you want to learn about, you can find a book
on it. I love to introduce and review concepts with any books that I can get my hands on! Every year
when I introduced new books into our day, I never gave wordless books much thought. It wasn’t until
later on in my career that I realized how powerful they were. Now I’m on a hunt to add even more of
them to my library! They lend themselves to multiple skills. So why should you include them in your
classroom? Keep reading on to find out!
Building Confidence
can build up the confidence in each and every student in so many ways. A lot of times emergent
readers will shut down when they encounter words, and I always hear “I don’t know how to read”.
Luckily, wordless books do not have the added pressure of words. We take a ton of picture walks
through the books, and we discuss that reading the pictures is one way to read. Their face lights
up when they realize that not only can they identify the pictures, they can also discuss what is
happening in the pictures as well. From that moment on they know that they can read any book that
is in our library. I love to introduce wordless books by not saying a single word! It’s so tempting
to start explaining what’s happening on each page, but I use a lot of awesome facial expressions!
It’s always interesting to see and hear their reactions when we reach the end of the book!
Comprehension
skills. Wordless books give students the opportunity to do this. They can actually focus on
the story that is unfolding, as opposed to focusing on the words. This is what students need when
we are beginning to teach comprehension. Students can sequence the events of a story, recall what
has already happened and they can practice their inferring skills.
imaginations! Predictions can be made and they can learn to be on the lookout for visual clues.
With wordless books, students can be an active participant in the story discussions. This ensures
that no one gets left out of the conversation!
Writing
I promise that it IS great for writing as well! Before we begin writer’s workshop, I have discovered
that I must awaken their appetite for storytelling and introduce tons of vocabulary through picture
walks. It is only through modeling and exposure will they begin to include these in their writing.
When they are ready, another mini-lesson includes writing a sentence for what’s happening on the
page. Once you model new skills during writer’s workshop, then pretty soon you’ll have students
who are trying to incorporate it into their own writing!
