For Young Children, Pictures in Storybooks are Rarely Worth a Thousand Words
This article points out that young children, preschool and kindergarten age, often misinterpret pictures in the books they're reading, or the books being read to them. The reasons for their confusion include the illustration design, their background knowledge, text information, and teacher behavior.
Illustration design is one interpretation of one scene from a story. Small children don't understand this. Storybook illustrations aren't meant to be all-inclusive, yet children may not understand this.
A child draws on background knowledge in order to make meaning of the drawings in the story. Because they're young and have limited lif experience, young children's background knowledge is often inhibiting to their full understanding of illustrations or pictures. Or they may come to the wrong conclusions because their background knowledge is limited.
Young children often ignore text information and look at the pictures instead. Most young children haven't learned that text and drawings go together in a story. They're so engaged in the visual part of the story that they miss the text clues as the text is being read to them.
Finally, teacher's comments can enhace a child's understanding of illustrations. For example, teachers can model their own thinking and explain why an illustration does or does not mean certain things related to a story. As the teacher models her own thinking, young children are following along and developing their own thinking. This is better than simply saying no, that's not what the picture shows, to small children. They need fuller explanations to make sense of what they're viewing and interpreting.
The article used a few storybook examples, drawn from observations of teachers reading the storybooks to young children. By providing information about the illustrations, helping children use relevant background knowledge, by rereading or referring to relevant portions of the text, and by modeling reasoning and support, teachers will help young ones make sense of what they're seeing.
What has been your experience reading storybooks to young children? Do they listen to the text? Or do they look excelusively at the pictures? Do they misinterpret the pictures? How do you correct them if they're off track in their interpretations?
I'm specifically thinking about my son he wants to see the books and doesn't seem super interested unless he's looking at the pictures or atleast with me But I have also observed him listening to stories and the person reading doesn't show the pictures until they've read the page. As a former early childhood teacher, I have a slight panic attach and think "show the pictures as you read, you're going to lose your audience." Yet, it never happens, they still seem interested. So I'm not sure how I feel about this article. Lately I've been story telling to my son without a book at night. We just sit there and he tells me the characters he wants in the story and I make up one. He surprisingly loves to do this and there aren't any visuals. I'm not sure if this answers your questions.
He does sometimes when I read begin discussing the pictures and talking about things that have nothing to do with the book. I think this fits into what the article is saying. I think he's using his background knowledge to learn. I think in the future I will reread and ask him to tell me what we are talking about or who we are talking about. That might get him back on track to listening to the words instead of getting off track with pictures.
This can be a difficult concept for the younger ones for sure!! Students are immediately drawn to pictures. Sometimes the picture can become the focus instead of the text. I think that we need to teach kids how pictures can ADD to our understanding of the text, not determine it. We need to model this. I think we could show the picture and say, "what do you think will happen on this page?". Then we can read on to confirm or change our prediction. This was something I did a lot while student teaching. I have never tried Kaitlin's idea of not showing the picture at all! I would like to try that.
What a great idea to help students get in the practice of predicting while they read. We must practice and direct these comprehension strategies now, and hope that it becomes part of their independent comprehension practices.
I was trained to show the pictures of storybooks as I read. But, they can sometimes be misleading or inaccurate to the text of story. I am thinking of a particular cover of Where the Red Fern Grows in which one dog on the front isn't a red-bone coonhound! I like the idea of reading the text first and then showing the pictures.
Another idea I had was to read a picture book without showing any pictures. While you read, have the students draw what they visualize. It could be one illustration of an important part or a graphic novel with all the important events. After they are done drawing, you could compare their illustrations to the book's illustrations. It might start a cool discussion about personal comprehension verses shared comprehension, in kid-language of course!
I like the idea students illustrating the book. They would love to do this. For young kids each student could pick a different page. Then you could develop a class book out of their interpretations.
I taught a small private preschool class one summer, and I would read the story and then show the picture. Then I would think out loud about the picture. I hadn't really been instructed on how I should do this, I just did what made sense to me. The students were always very excited to wait to see the pictures, so that helped to engage them too. Usually, they were pretty adept at interpreting the pictures.
I think kids will be excited if the story and reader are engaging. For example my husband won't show the pics to our son until he's read the whole page. Then I will show the pics. He gets anxious with me if I don't show the pics because he used to me showing, but is patient with my husband because that's their routine. I think it's beneficial to change it up though!
Thinking aloud the picture is such a great idea. We just show kids the pictures, and miss out on a lot of teachable moments. Discussing the pictures teaches critical literacy. You could discuss how the illustrator portrayed the characters and the setting. You could also discuss if the illustrator is an expert based on the pictures they created. Pictures open the door for high-level discussions.
For Young Children, Pictures in Storybooks are Rarely Worth a Thousand Words
ReplyDeleteThis article points out that young children, preschool and kindergarten age, often misinterpret pictures in the books they're reading, or the books being read to them. The reasons for their confusion include the illustration design, their background knowledge, text information, and teacher behavior.
Illustration design is one interpretation of one scene from a story. Small children don't understand this. Storybook illustrations aren't meant to be all-inclusive, yet children may not understand this.
A child draws on background knowledge in order to make meaning of the drawings in the story. Because they're young and have limited lif experience, young children's background knowledge is often inhibiting to their full understanding of illustrations or pictures. Or they may come to the wrong conclusions because their background knowledge is limited.
Young children often ignore text information and look at the pictures instead. Most young children haven't learned that text and drawings go together in a story. They're so engaged in the visual part of the story that they miss the text clues as the text is being read to them.
Finally, teacher's comments can enhace a child's understanding of illustrations. For example, teachers can model their own thinking and explain why an illustration does or does not mean certain things related to a story. As the teacher models her own thinking, young children are following along and developing their own thinking. This is better than simply saying no, that's not what the picture shows, to small children. They need fuller explanations to make sense of what they're viewing and interpreting.
The article used a few storybook examples, drawn from observations of teachers reading the storybooks to young children. By providing information about the illustrations, helping children use relevant background knowledge, by rereading or referring to relevant portions of the text, and by modeling reasoning and support, teachers will help young ones make sense of what they're seeing.
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ReplyDeleteWhat has been your experience reading storybooks to young children? Do they listen to the text? Or do they look excelusively at the pictures? Do they misinterpret the pictures? How do you correct them if they're off track in their interpretations?
ReplyDeleteI'm specifically thinking about my son he wants to see the books and doesn't seem super interested unless he's looking at the pictures or atleast with me But I have also observed him listening to stories and the person reading doesn't show the pictures until they've read the page. As a former early childhood teacher, I have a slight panic attach and think "show the pictures as you read, you're going to lose your audience." Yet, it never happens, they still seem interested. So I'm not sure how I feel about this article. Lately I've been story telling to my son without a book at night. We just sit there and he tells me the characters he wants in the story and I make up one. He surprisingly loves to do this and there aren't any visuals. I'm not sure if this answers your questions.
DeleteHe does sometimes when I read begin discussing the pictures and talking about things that have nothing to do with the book. I think this fits into what the article is saying. I think he's using his background knowledge to learn. I think in the future I will reread and ask him to tell me what we are talking about or who we are talking about. That might get him back on track to listening to the words instead of getting off track with pictures.
This can be a difficult concept for the younger ones for sure!! Students are immediately drawn to pictures. Sometimes the picture can become the focus instead of the text. I think that we need to teach kids how pictures can ADD to our understanding of the text, not determine it. We need to model this. I think we could show the picture and say, "what do you think will happen on this page?". Then we can read on to confirm or change our prediction. This was something I did a lot while student teaching. I have never tried Kaitlin's idea of not showing the picture at all! I would like to try that.
Delete*or not showing the picture before the text is read
DeleteWhat a great idea to help students get in the practice of predicting while they read. We must practice and direct these comprehension strategies now, and hope that it becomes part of their independent comprehension practices.
DeleteI was trained to show the pictures of storybooks as I read. But, they can sometimes be misleading or inaccurate to the text of story. I am thinking of a particular cover of Where the Red Fern Grows in which one dog on the front isn't a red-bone coonhound! I like the idea of reading the text first and then showing the pictures.
ReplyDeleteAnother idea I had was to read a picture book without showing any pictures. While you read, have the students draw what they visualize. It could be one illustration of an important part or a graphic novel with all the important events. After they are done drawing, you could compare their illustrations to the book's illustrations. It might start a cool discussion about personal comprehension verses shared comprehension, in kid-language of course!
I like the idea students illustrating the book. They would love to do this. For young kids each student could pick a different page. Then you could develop a class book out of their interpretations.
DeleteGreat ideas and insight ladies!
ReplyDeleteI taught a small private preschool class one summer, and I would read the story and then show the picture. Then I would think out loud about the picture. I hadn't really been instructed on how I should do this, I just did what made sense to me. The students were always very excited to wait to see the pictures, so that helped to engage them too. Usually, they were pretty adept at interpreting the pictures.
I think kids will be excited if the story and reader are engaging. For example my husband won't show the pics to our son until he's read the whole page. Then I will show the pics. He gets anxious with me if I don't show the pics because he used to me showing, but is patient with my husband because that's their routine. I think it's beneficial to change it up though!
DeleteThinking aloud the picture is such a great idea. We just show kids the pictures, and miss out on a lot of teachable moments. Discussing the pictures teaches critical literacy. You could discuss how the illustrator portrayed the characters and the setting. You could also discuss if the illustrator is an expert based on the pictures they created. Pictures open the door for high-level discussions.
DeleteExcellent ideas!
ReplyDelete