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Enhancing
English Teaching
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In 1938, an award was
established in honor of the illustrator, Randolph Caldecott. Since then, gold, silver, and
bronze Caldecott awards have been given annually to books which have illustrations as the
heart of their stories.
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These award-winning books
are part of a core collection which librarians choose when building school libraries. But
many teachers and curriculum developers are not familiar with Caldecott books, and have
yet to realize the potential of these books for enhancing the teaching of English as a
Foreign Language. (See Footnote 1 )
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What are the special
advantages and uses of the prize-winning picture books for teaching English? First of all,
these books are adaptable to all skill levels and age groups. They use vocabulary
creatively, have well-written story-lines, and offer a taste of authentic literature based
on universal themes-life cycles, interpersonal conflict, obstacles, growth, etc. The
accompanying illustrations serve as visual aids to comprehension. And compared to other
visually rich media-interactive TV, CD ROM disks, computer programs-the cost of these
books is relatively low. (See Footnote 2
)
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Teachers will find these
books give a focus for developing language study units. The number and variety of
activities are limited only by the imagination of the staff and the amount of time they
have.
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1. Read the book to
the students. The trick is knowing the story well enough to be able to hold the
pictures toward the students while reading with exaggerated expression.
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2. Let Students read
the story aloud. In small groups, students can be instructed to hold the book as
the teacher did (so that all can see the illustrations) and to read expressively. The
benefit of a good story is that people usually enjoy hearing it repeated. While the
students are reading, the teacher can jot down mispronunciations on a sheet of paper, the
chalkboard, or better yet, on a transparency to be displayed later for pronunciation
practice.
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3. Monitor
discussions of the story. After students are familiar with the story, and the
class is divided into discussion groups, the most desirable scenario is for
group-initiated and spontaneous discussion. A teacher should know if more structure is
needed, i.e., if the large group needs to brainstorm possible topics for subsequent
discussion or if sets of questions need to be provided to keep discussion on track. Once
small group discussions start, the teacher monitors, gaining valuable information for
planning subsequent questions and activities.
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4. Provide time for
reflection and assimilation. After small group discussions, students are invited
to write a paragraph on any related topic, incorporating what they have learned from
others, and clarifying their own points of view. Errors in comprehension or in written
expression can be used as the basis for further learning activities.
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5.
Ask for a one-sentence oral summary of the paragraph written in
step 4. Collapsing a body of thought into one complete
and correct oral sentence involves a complexity of skills. Those
summary statements which are succinct and correct can be displayed
on the board or overhead projector as good examples. Analysis
of good work rewards the student who produced it and benefits
the rest of the class, as well.
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6.
Interpret an illustration outside the context of the story
In Caldecott books, the illustrations are notable and can be used
in their own right. One extension activity is to use a given illustration
or one that a student chooses and ask the student to interpret
the picture for the whole class.
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7.
Invite students to say what they learned about the interpreter
(in step #6). After some of the students have given their
interpretation of pictures, invite other students to say what
they learned about the interpreter from the analysis s/he made.
For example, students may say, "I learned that X has a good
imagination and is interested in making contrasts," or "It
seems that Y associates the details in the picture with his/her
childhood. Then X and Y are asked to respond. This activity involves
a deep level of student interaction and playfulness.
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8. Create new
stories. Different levels of thinking are involved when students are asked to
create new stories using the illustrations as a base. This activity can be oral or
written. In this way, their stories become resources which can be edited and
"published"-on bulletin boards, in hallways, in a class or school anthology, on
computer disks and printouts, or as "big books," etc.
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9. Share the new
stories. Story-sharing sessions are a natural follow-up to the creation of new
stories. One way to exploit this kind of sharing is to have students repeat the stories
told them by others. Students enjoy hearing stories, and become especially alert if
someone retells theirs. They enjoy the chance to verify the repeated version-was their
intention conveyed? Were their nuances understood?
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10.
Use student paragraphs (See #4, above) as the basis of meeting
further learning needs. One way to make students conscious
of their own improvement is to reproduce a sentence, complete
with errors, and work with the group to improve the piece. A next
step is to have students create correct sentences using similar
patterns.
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In all the above steps,
the emphasis is on the student-student enjoyment of a story, student participation in
reading the story, summarizing, discussing, and writing. All these activities can flow
from the use of one good book. Multiple copies are not necessary. In fact, for the type of
literature-based language learning described above, money is better spent getting six
excellent titles than six copies of one. (See Footnote 3 )
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Using Illustrated Books with Adults
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During the summer of 1993,
Caldecott award books were piloted in adult conversation classes in El Salvador. The first
step was to justify the appropriateness of this literature for adult English learners.
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This is the justification
we used: In elementary monolingual (English) schools, students receive six to eight hours
of instruction in the medium of English each day making a total of 700 to 1400 hours of
English each school year. Third graders who began in kindergarten have accumulated between
2000 and 3000 hours of academic English. This is far more than an adult receives in EFL
courses.
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This explanation shows
adult students in EFL that books written on an elementary level are relevant for them too,
especially when it comes to structure, grammar, and style. Furthermore, adults, having
greater recognition of cognates, wider experience with literacy, and greater background
knowledge, can draw upon these strengths in discussing children's stories.
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From the first reading of
the first book, these adults saw how much there was to gain: new vocabulary and different
uses of familiar vocabulary, and application of the patterns they studied in a
communicative context. With a well-written book, beautifully and imaginatively
illustrated, there is also a "wonder factor".. . an adventure reminiscent of
childhood discovery, when all things are new and full of surprise. Charming tales and
imaginative pictures summon up childhood feelings of adventure and discovery and
facilitate the language learning process.
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Let me
describe some of my experiences in the El Salvador project using
the following Caldecott books: The Ox-Cart Man, The Little
Island, Madeline's Rescue, and Fables.
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This story, written by
Donald Hall and illustrated by Barbara Cooney, is easily adapted to adult classes. The
following vocabulary was new and interesting and could be introduced in a cause/effect
context. For example: shear/wool; spinning wheel/yarn; flax/linen; blossom/apples;
sap/maple sugar. . . . The narrative style of the book employs repetition, and concepts
that are introduced early in the book are later shown visually. The illustrations and the
narrative work together to show the meaning of various prepositions-as when the journey of
the ox-cart man takes him over, by, around, past, and through hills, streams, villages and
valleys.
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Every page contains
pictures which amply illustrate the story-lines. There is no need to find supplementary
visual aids-they are built right into the book.
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As for the story-line, the
book deals with a way of life in which hard work is seen as satisfying and rewarding to a
family that works together. The New England setting allows a look at four distinct
seasons, and since much of the world experiences only a rainy and a dry season, the
pictures can stimulate curiosity and conjecture about what ramifications the changing
seasons have upon clothing and customs.
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The description of
Portsmouth market leads into discussions of buying and selling, life in port cities, and
the relationships between persons and their possessions. These discussions branch out to
include rural and urban culture, population density, and contemporary social, economic,
and political considerations.
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When reading the book with
children, the focus of discussion tends toward the daughter and her embroidery and the son
and his knife. With adults, the emphasis is on the father and his marketing skills and the
mother in her care-giving capacity. Although the family members are stereotyped, the
stereotype is accurate for the period it portrays-early New England rural life.
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The philosophical
question, "Are we islands or parts of the whole?" arises every time Golden
MacDonald (Margaret Wise Brown's) The Little Island is used with adults. The book
is bursting with color words and illustrations: white and blue flowers, violets with
golden eyes, white-pink blossoms, red strawberries, silver water, green pears, and black
crows. The verbs are clever-the kitten prowls , seals bark , fish leap
, seaweed squeaks , and wind howls and moans .
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Besides illustrating the
text, the accompanying pictures are effective for individual students or small groups to
develop original stories. A related technique is for groups to develop chain stories in
which each member adds to the plot as the pages are turned and pictures are shown.
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The question of believing
without seeing is addressed when a visiting kitten challenges the connectedness of the
island to the rest of the world. There is an opportunity for dramatic reading when the cat
tells a fish that it will eat the fish up if it doesn't tell how the island is a part of
the land, and when the kitten decides to believe what he cannot see. This juxtaposing of
faith and questions of connectedness lends itself to philosophic discussions once adults
hear the story and are asked to explore its meaning. If the discussion stays on the
superficial level of recounting events and giving descriptions, invite the students to
look more deeply-to remember, and to organize one's own memories following the sequence of
the book. The Little Island lends itself to multiple interpretation: seasonal
changes on the island may be likened to the seasons of our lives, and the visitors to the
island are comparable to the thoughts that visit our minds.
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Ludwig
Bemelmans has written and illustrated a series of stories about
Madeline , one of twelve little girls who live in Paris.
The first Madeline book and Madeline's Rescue are
Caldecott Award books. Others in the series include Madeline
and the Bad Hat, Madeline in London, Madeline and the Gypsies.
These books, written in simple couplets, follow the adventures
of the main character, an appealing, mischievous little girl;
supporting characters include an attentive caregiver, Miss Clavel,
and eleven other little girls in a French boarding school.
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The rhymed story-lines are
brief-sometimes only one or two words per page, and detailed illustrations predominate.
For example, in Madeline's Rescue, when the little girls are searching for their lost dog,
a park scene shows at least eighteen different kinds of dogs, some running, others
scratching, standing guard, sniffing, etc. The vocabulary is as carefully chosen as the
details in the pictures. The books are fun to read because of their rhythm and rhyme: and
on second reading, students generally chime in because they can remember which rhyming
word will be used in the context. Madeline's adventures lend themselves to many forms of
expansion- discussion of childhood escapades and other stories about children in books,
movies, magazines, and television programs. A challenge to creativity is to invite
students to place Madeline and her companions-or characters they invent themselves-into a
story that uses their own country as a setting. Salvadoran characters ended up riding
crowded microbuses, attending soccer games, visiting local museums, and celebrating the
New Year.
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Lobel's
Fables is an excellent choice when only one book can be
purchased. The book contains twenty original fables, complete
with full-page illustration and moral. Each fable is a class in
itself. Pre-reading activities should include vocabulary study
or predicting what the story is about or what the moral might
be. The stories are ideal for dramatic reading or roleplay since
the characters are closely defined and quotations are used to
carry the stories forward. Follow-up activities may involve group
retelling of the stories; making up new stories to go with the
pictures; expanding the details of the story; or going past its
ending to the next logical-or illogical-step, possibly even changing
the moral.
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Illustrated Books: Low-tech, Low-costs, High effect
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Illustrated children's
books like the Caldecott award winners present good English literature to learners at a
low reading level. Teachers on the lookout for fresh approaches, both for their own
professional growth and for the invigoration of their classes, will find these books
eminently flexible with their marvelous pictures and captivating narratives.
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Just one good book can
upgrade a language program or a teacher's professional library. Once these books are in
place, there are two ways to go: one is to leave them in the resource center for teachers
to use at their discretion. Another is to use them as the nuclei for team planning and
staff development. In-service training can be carried out by teams that decide to plan a
unit around a given book.
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Consider a group of
teachers reading a book together, brainstorming activities, trying them out with their
classes and returning for a second session with questions and suggestions generated from
those classes! The books can be the focal points for ongoing enrichment as the team
develops theme-based units.
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This article has
emphasized the Caldecott award-winning books because their illustrations lend themselves
to enhancing language learning. The Caldecott award winners, with their pictures, wit,
depth, and authenticity are treasures, unsurpassed in potential for enhancing the teaching
and learning of English.
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Books Used in the Pilot Project
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- Bemelmans, Ludwig. 1989. Madeline. New York, New York: Viking.
Madeline and the Bad Hat. 1956. Madeline in London. 1961. Madeline's Rescue. 1953. For
information regarding permission, write to Permissions Dept., Viking Press 375 Hudson St.,
New York, N.Y. 10014
- Hall, Donald. Ox-Cart Man. (Barbara Cooney, Illustrator) 1979. New
York: Viking. For information regarding permission, write to Permissions Dept., Viking
Penguin, Inc., 40 West 23rd St., New York, N.Y. 10010.
- Lobel, Arnold. 1980. Fables. New York: Harper and Row. For
information regarding permission, write to Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., 10 East 53rd
St., New York, N.Y. 10022.
- MacDonald, Golden. 1988. The Little Island. (Leonard Weisgard,
illustrator) New York: Scholastic. For information regarding information permission, write
to Permissions Dept., Doubleday and Co., Inc., 245 Park Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017.
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- Brown, H. Douglas. 1973. Effective Variables in Second Language
Acquisition. Language Learning, 23, pp. 231-244.
- Children's Book Council. 1993. Children's Books: Awards and
Prizes, Children's Book Council.
- Curran, Charles Arthur. 1977. Counseling-Learning: A Whole-person
Approach for Education. 2d ed. Apple River IL: Counseling Learning Publications.
- Finnochiaro, Mary. 1988. Teacher Development: A Continuing
Process, English Teaching Forum, 26, 3, pp. 2-6.
- Garvie, Edie. 1990. Story as Vehicle: Teaching English to Young
Children. Clevedon and Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters.
- Harris, Ben. 1985. Supervisory Behavior in Education. Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
- Hymes, Dell. 1974. Language in Culture and Society. New York:
Harper and Row.
- Kameenui, Edward J. 1993. Innovations in Literacy for a Diverse
Society. The Reading Teacher.
- La Forge, Paul G. 1971. Community Language Learning: A Pilot
Study. Language Learning, 21, pp. 45-61.
- McGuire, Patience. (Helen Hardebeck). 1976. Development of a Model
for Designing Programs of Tutorial Interaction Among Language Learners. Unpublished
dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin.
- Milne. J. 1981. Teaching Adult Beginners. In Communication in the
Classroom, eds. K. Johnson and K. Morrow. Harlow, England: Longman.
- Savignon, Sandra J. and Margie S Berns. 1987. Initiatives in
Communicative Language Teaching. New York: Addison-Wesley.
- Saville-Troike, Muriel. 1984. What Really Matters in Second
Language Learning for Academic Achievement. TESOL Quarterly, 18, 2, pp. 199-219
- Spolsky, Bernard. 1989. Conditions For Second Language Learning.
New York: Oxford University Press. '
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THE CALDECOTT AWARDS: For the Illustrator, Acknowledged Excellence; For
the Reader, Pure Joy
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What is a Caldecott Award?
It is, simply, the highest honor that can be given to a U.S. illustrator of children's
books. It is the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Peace Prize, the Academy Award of movies, the
Olympic gold in sports-the highest accolade bestowed for the best work in one's chosen
field.
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In the world of books,
especially children's books, there is a special joy and drama added to enhance the printed
word: it is the picture that tells the tale, that aids the child's imagination; an
inspiration that breathes life into the words and engenders more images in the child's
mind as the author's words unfold.
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The Caldecott awards-named
for British artist and illustrator Randolph Caldecott-consist of a series of gold, silver,
or bronze medals, awarded annually in the United States since 1938 by the Children's
Services Division of the American Library Association.
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The award was established
by Frederic G. Melcher, chairman of the board of the R. R. Bowker Publishing Company, in
order to recognize exceptional art work for children, and to encourage more of such fine
illustrations for future children's books.
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But why name the award for
a British artist and illustrator? In the opinion of Melcher and others, it was this artist
who had given the most imaginative illustrations to children.
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Caldecott was born in
Chester, Cheshire, England in 1846, and died in St. Augustine, Florida in 1886. In his 40
short-lived years, this British illustrator became famous for his satirical,
whimsically-drawn and colored children's books, as well as paintings, metal reliefs, and
terra-cottas.
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He began his career as a
young bank clerk, and dabbled in drawings for local magazines. But his playing at art
became serious when in 1871, he contributed to a London-based periodical, "London
Society." The following year, he moved to London, determined to become a professional
illustrator. He was highly successful, finally drawing for the much-esteemed, fashionable
periodical, "Punch and Graphic."
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In 1875 Caldecott
illustrated Washington Irving's "Sketch Book," and in 1876, the same author's
"Bracebridge Hall." These illustrations were judged by critics to be "more
sophisticated" than his earlier works, and were said to possess an original,
ingenious caricature all Caldecott's own. It was said to be these two books which assured
Caldecott's eventual recognition as an artist.
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The artist created
exquisite imagery for some 16 children's books, including plates for Oliver Goldsmith's
"Elegy on a Mad Dog" in 1879. His last work for children was done in 1885, when
he illustrated Goldsmith's "The Great Panjandrum Himself."
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Clearly, Melcher's choice
of Caldecott was inspired.
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This year, the Caldecott
medal was awarded to "Grandfather's Journey," by Allen Say. The work traces an
inspiring tale of a Japanese immigrant's voyage to a new land.
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The strangely cute,
assuredly naughty little guy cavorting on the poster included with this issue of the English
TeachingForum is "The Stinky Cheese Man," from the 1993 Silver Caldecott
Medal-winning children's book of the same name. Published in 1992 by Viking, a division of
Penguin Press, the work was written by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Lane Smith. The
comical cynicism and irreverence of the title character is not lost on the youngest of
children. At of the same time, any adult who reads the picture book to a child thoroughly
enjoys himself.
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Patience Lea McGuire has over 25 years of teaching English
and Spanish in elementary and secondary schools. She has also taught ESL/EFL to children
and adults in Texas, Mexico and Central America. She received her Ph.D. from the
University of Texas in Austin. |
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Footnote 1
For a comprehensive list of award winning books in the area of
children's literature, see Childrens Books: Awards and Prizes.The Children's Book Council,
568 Broadway, Suite 404, New York,NY 10012, USA.
Footnote 2
2. Two companies offer yearly posters display- ing the covers of
Caldecott winning books from 1938 through the current year: (1) Follett Library Book
Company, 4506 Northwest Highway, Crystal Lake, Illinois 60014; and (2) Perma-Bound Books,
Vandalia Road, Jacksonville, Illinois 62650.
Footnote 3
3. A free list of best books for young adults can be obtained by
sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to The American Library Association, Young
Adult Library Services, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, Illinois, 60611.
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