Building Background Knowledge through Picture Books
Hey educators! Welcome to today’s training. This week has been amazing. As the year is at the halfway mark, I am starting to see the work and lessons I did at the beginning of the year payoff. For example, I was teaching my students sentence structure. This week they were doing such a great job. This is important because my goal is to have the students write varied sentences.
Today I am going to share with you how you can use picture books to teach complex topics. A lot of times our ELLs might not have the background knowledge around topics and events that will help them comprehend complex texts. Have you ever started teaching about the Civil War in the United States and got blank looks. Students that lack this background knowledge will have trouble making inferences which develops critical reading skills.
In our middle school curriculum the students were learning about slavery in the United States. Going into this lesson I knew this was a complex topic that my ELLs needed to know to understand the upcoming complex text: Frederick Douglas. My mind went to how can I help my ELLs understand this complex topics. There is so much depth and I wanted them to understand the reasons, consequences and the aftermath. The novels and text that I came across was under the assumption that the reader had deep background knowledge about the topics. This was a serious obstacle and I needed a solution.
I immediately turned to picture books. I used them previously with my ELLs and were a hit. I thought why not try and see what happens. I have middle schoolers so I wanted the visuals to be mature and the text complex. Before reading to the students, I let them know they are never to old to listen to someone read to them. I explained the adult version of this is called “audiobooks”. This eases the students fears of this being “kiddy” if you have middle schoolers and high schoolers. I decided on “Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans”. The visuals and the text was complex and explained to the students the history of slavery. Then the next picture book I read was a part of the curriculum. “If the People Could Fly”. This was an introduction to how slaves were treated on a plantation. During the reading I modeled critical thinking, inferences, and analyzing the photos. When we dived into the novel the students were making connections constantly back to those picture books.
Think about the topics you have coming up in your lessons. Ask yourself will my students need to have background knowledge about this topic. If so, find some age level appropriate picture books that align to the topic. I would suggest doing a search at your library and on google.
For example, you are reading the Gettysburg Address in your lesson. Before reading the Gettysburg Address, read a picture book about Abe Lincoln, so the students can understand about the author. Once you have chosen your picture books. Read the book first and generate questions to check for understanding. This is a great opportunity to use Blooms question stems and scaffold the questions for your ELLs. You can also plan to model key reading skills such as making inferences and making connections.
Here are your next steps:
- Review an upcoming lesson to see if there is a complex topic that needs background knowledge.
- Find an appropriate picture book that aligns with the lesson topic.
- Generate questions that you will ask your ELLs during the read aloud.
I would love to know what is your favorite picture book to teach a topic?
