Using Picture Books in the Secondary Classroom

Shh, don’t tell! I got my grandson a book for his birthday. I know that’s no surprise, but it’s such a cool book, I want to share it with secondary English students in Japan as well as with my 3-year-old grandson in America. (Spoiler alert: I’ve figured out a way. And it's not just me--there are many advantages to using picture books with older kids!) 

The title? Take Me Out to the Yakyu by Aaron Meshon. It’s a really cool picture book about a little boy going to a baseball game with one grandpa in America and with another grandfather in Japan. The pictures use vivid colors, and the story goes through the day of the game point by point on each two-page spread, from the trip to the ballpark to bedtime, comparing what it’s like in America and what it’s like in Japan. Sometimes there’s a difference, like the meal (hot dogs and peanuts vs. soba noodles and edamame) or the pitcher. (“In America, the pitcher throws a 95-mile-per-hour fastball. In Japan, the toushu throws a 153-kilometer-per-hour sokkyu.”) Sometimes there’s a similarity, like asking, “Are we home yet?” 

I hope my grandson enjoys it and learns a little bit about the culture of Japan, where his mother grew up and where his parents met—about similarities and differences with his own home culture of the US. 

My secondary English students in Japan would also love this book. When you live in Japan but study in English, you see little of your own exact experience in what you read. I think they’d be tickled pink to recognize some of their own experiences, so I’d have their attention. And while I have it, I could teach a killer lesson on comparison/contrast structure: This one is point-by-point. How else could we organize the information? What would it look like to group all the American information and all the Japanese information? What would it look like to group the similarities and the differences? Which is the most effective for the picture book audience and purpose? What would be another audience and purpose, and what method of organization would work best for it? Maybe secondary students could write their own picture book text comparing/contrasting another activity in 2 cultures they are familiar with. The possibilities are endless for deeply embedded understanding of comparison/contrast.

Using picture books in secondary EAL is a thing now. It offers an accessible entry into a topic (like The Butter Battle Book for the arms race), content (like Are You My Mother? for irony) or a skill (like the one in this blog). While they’re particularly helpful for English language learners and students who learn differently, they also add a sense of play for all students. They are short—perfect for using in a mini-lesson or with a text set. Also perfect for diversifying classroom literature without devoting the time for a whole novel. Workshopping the Canon, the professional book I read earlier in the summer, includes picture books in all its sample text sets. (I blogged on participating in the book's Facebook discussion here and Twitter chat here). Here’s a blog from another secondary teacher about using a picture book. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for more as I read to my grandson over the next year of sabbatical. 

And I've already ordered a second copy of Take Me Out to the Yakyu for myself!

Doing field work to discover new picture books!