Picture Perfect!

(Feel free to skip to the bottom to see the perfect pictures.) 

Dot Connecting and Thread Weaving
There is this amazing convergence happening in my professional life.  I am a natural dot connector and thread weaver and these new connections are fun! 

Case in point, I recently (October 28th and 29th) attended the American Association of School Librarians Conference where I met many incredible people and learned things I am eager to apply in my library, but I also made a wonderful professional connection with a school librarian from the Midwest (you know who you are!).  This connection brought me into a larger group of school librarians and into the international initiative to designate November as Picture Book Month (see previous blog posts). 

So, why the convergence?  I was in the midst of an Allen Say author study with fourth graders.  Allen Say, for those who might not know, is an author and illustrator of many picture books.  His books capture the experience of being torn between two things, such as being torn between two cultures or two ideas or torn between the past and the present.  I had the pleasure of meeting Allen Say back in 2004 when he ran a workshop for public and school librarians and it is a unit I always look forward to!

The fourth graders finished up the author study today.  I decided that I would have them create Wordles (word clouds) reflecting upon:

~~Three things they had learned about Allen Say
~~Three words they would use to describe his books 


But wait, there's more! I also had them brainstorm about Picture Books!  I had them come up with:

~~Three words explaining why people should read picture books
~~Three picture book authors they would recommend
~~Three ways they could find picture books in my library

I think Wordles can be a perfect picture (or snapshot) of student understanding or learning. I'll write more about these Wordles tomorrow! 

The Wordles

We know these things about Allen Say...

 

 

  

About Allen Say's Books

 We like these picture book authors...

We can find and identify picture books by...

People should read picture books because they are...