Picture This - Visual Literacy, Mock Caldecott, and Finding Our Voices

Beginnings

It all started on a sweaty August afternoon in the Eubank gymnasium.  Our staff participates in monthly fine arts professional development as part of Eubank's redesign into a Fine Arts magnet school.  The training on that day involved staff walking the perimeter of the gym's walls and looking at large color prints of different paintings, sculptures and artistic endeavors.  As we each walked the walls and cocked our heads in consideration, nodded with appreciation, or turned in distaste we placed small laminated paper tokens into baskets beneath each image.  We were participating in an activity known in Fine Arts circles as Token Response. A good summary of this activity can be found here at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.  The tokens were simple shapes such as a heart for your favorite piece and a black diamond for the art you liked least.  As I dropped the last of my tokens into a basket I wondered how this activity might look in a library.

Considering Caldecott

Fast forward to November.  My favorite librarian friend, and I were working to select books for a Mock Caldecott activity.  After lots of review, consulting of professional library journals and blogs, waffling on selections (on my part), and finally a pinky swear to stick to our final choices; I began looking for ways to invite my students to think about our potential Caldecott contenders..... cue scrunched brow, look of concentration, and ZING!  I remembered August, the gym, and Token Response!

For each Mock Caldecott lesson two book contenders are presented together to students.  Students are given time to hear the story, consider the artwork and share their opinions.   For this activity our two selected non-fiction picture books were paired:  Firefly July written by Paul B. Janeczko, and Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World written by Steve Jenkins:

Firefly July by Paul B. Janeczko

Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World by Steve Jenkins

 Finding Our Voices

 Love!  Can I just say how much I love, love, love this activity?  To help the students explore the illustrations from these two books - I worked with the district Fine Arts department to create large poster size images from each book.  Six color illustrations were selected from each title and placed around the library.  After listening to a book talk about each title, learning more about the art method used for the illustrations (mixed media for Firefly July and collage for Eye to Eye), and hearing selections from both books, students were given time to walk the library "museum style" and look more closely at the illustrations.

Students explore the illustrations and select a favorite

Differences in opinion led to some amazing conversations

A first grader shares his favorite and explains his opinion

Students had a set of tokens to place by the illustration that they liked the most and least.  Once tokens were placed they had time to talk to their peers about why they liked or didn't like an illustration.  What a great series of conversations when the best of friends realized that they agreed or disagreed about a certain illustration!  We were able to look at classroom trends in taste, talk about art techniques, practice sharing our opinions, and find our voice even when others may not agree.  Whew! 

I always love looking at and exploring new books with my classes - this activity provided an amazing doorway to some incredible student insights.  My final response?  This is a good one for sure.