What Exactly Can Picture Books Teach Our Children?
I chose to read and comment on Barbara Kiefer’s “Envisioning Experience: The Potential of Picture Books.” Kiefer’s main point in writing this essay was to get the message across that children enjoy picture books that allow them to identify and make connections with the characters or the plots, and that while reading and analyzing the pictures, they gain a better sense of aesthetics and how to interpret them.
I agree whole-heartedly with the conclusions that she drew from her observations. It is very hard to get the whole “picture” from a children’s storybook that has no pictures. The children find it harder to identify with the characters and often find these books boring. Being able to see the pictures helps them to make connections with either the characters or with their personal experiences. For example, all small children can identify with the little monkey, George, in Rey’s Curious George. On page 27 of the book, we see George smoking a pipe because he saw the man in the yellow hat smoking it. At some point in every child’s life, he has seen an adult doing something unfamiliar and wanted to try it, just like George did. This would be a good point at which the child could articulate one of his experiences to a class or friend, helping him to become more comfortable with speaking about and sharing his thoughts.
Kiefer points out in her essay that when children vocalize what they think about a story and the pictures, it helps them to become more cognitive thinkers. She also stated that “the children I observed seemed to be intent on making meaning regarding the picture books …” (Kiefer 66). I, too, can see this when I am ...
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...s and classrooms should have a wide variety of books available with varying styles of writing and art work. In addition to the books, the children should be given a variety of ways in which to express their thoughts and feelings about these books, either through discussion, writing, or their own art work. I agree because this could only allow children to enjoy reading more and lets them feel like their opinions matter and are appreciated. Having books readily available only increases a child’s desire to read and creates in him or her a love for books that, hopefully, never goes away.
Works Cited
Kiefer, Barbara. “Envisioning Experience: The Potential of Picture Books.” Publishing Research Quarterly 7.2 (1991): 63-75.
Rey, H. A. Curious George. Twentieth Century Children’s Book Treasury. Selected by Janet Schulman. New York: Knopf, 1998. 88-95.
Sensory Imagery: make the reader envision objects and settings in the book with greater detail.
Picture books are one of the first mediums of learning that children encounter. The picture book was first created in 1657 by John Amos Comenius. Comenius’s book was entitled Orbis Pictus (The world of Pictures) and was an alphabet book (Martinez 57). Picture books are used to lay the foundations of the histori...
Griffith, John, and Charles Frey. Classics of Children's Literature. 6th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. 21-29, 322-374. Print.
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This activity suits the child’s current stage of oral development will interest them and aid in them progressing in their oral development. Children at this stage of development enjoy listening to stories which is good not only for their receptive skills, but also for their expressive language (Fellows and Oakley, 2014), in all four key components of spoken language. It helps with phonemes by getting the child to focus on the phonological patterns throughout the text (Fellows and Oakley, 214). Syntax knowledge allows them to observe the sentence structure and grammar in the book which allows them to develop a stronger awareness of the syntax. Visual aids in storybooks can aid in the child in the understanding of semantics (Fellows and Oakley’s), as the story is read aloud their receptive skills hear those more difficult words, when paired with a visual cue such as a picture in the book the child understands better and thus they are able to gain a better understanding of how to speak these difficult words. A better understanding of pragmatics can also be gained from storybooks as they understand how people communicate in society such as greetings and asking for things (Fellows and Oakley,
Refugees have two basic choices. They can return to their home country, or they can try to settle in another country. Most refugees, however, cannot return home because conditions in their native country have not changed sufficiently to eliminate the problems from whi...
With an estimated 11.7 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. today, immigration reform has been a volatile issue that hasn’t been adequately addressed throughout the 21st century. With the last major overhaul occurring in 1986, when over 3 million immigrants were granted U.S. citizenship, politicians are saying another major overhaul is needed to address the newer generation of illegal immigrants. Legislations including the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, and the DREAM act of 2012 have all tried to address the depressing need for immigration reform but have failed due to lack of bipartisan support. Still, political leaders urge for immigration reform that is unlikely to pass with such divided political parties. Luckily, the solution was already passed in 1986 but hasn’t been sufficiently enforced for the past twenty years. In order to stop the flood of illegals crossing U.S. borders, the U.S. should enforce the law against hiring illegal immigrants.
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Children’s processing of information is elementary and so the “copying” of pictures in one’s head is just a crude system of percepti...
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Merchant, G. & Thomas, H. (2012). Picture Books for the Literacy Hour: Activities for Primary