This year, my research question is: How can visual literacy/learning about visual devices support written literacy and learning about literary devices. There are a great many parallels, so how can I use pictures to support reading and writing instruction this year?  Our research questions give us a focus and help us decide what to pay attention to, document and reflect on in a classroom environment.

 We have been working in class about writing a reader response, since that will be one of the first literacy tasks the class faces. We began with a picture book-  Skippyjon Jones.  Past experiences and reflection have shown me that a picture book is a good place to begin. It is short enough to finish, they have a wide variety of literary devices, and the pictures support understanding the literary devices.

First, I read the book out loud and showed the pictures. Then I asked each person to pick out something about the book that caught their interest, and we wrote them on the board (some people chose the same thing). Then I re read the book, and everyone looked for specific examples, with page numbers, of the idea they were interested in. Jude began with the idea that the illustrator holds our attention by making attractive and warm colored illustrations.

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