The hook of a lesson plan or unit has always been my favorite part of the planning process. Standards: BORING. Mini Lessons: TIME-CONSUMING. Assessments: AWFUL. Hooks: FUN!!! I have a list of my favorite lesson starters, and one of those hook ideas is using picture books in high school to start an ELA unit. Picture books are for readers of all ages and can go far in sparking curiosity for your next ELA lesson plan. Here are some ideas!
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Use picture books in secondary ELA to hook students with theme
Teaching theme can be a challenge, but picture books provide a quick warm up and get students thinking about theme in an approachable way before leveling up to higher Lexile texts.
One of my favorite examples of this theme strategy is to pair the picture book Henry Hikes to Fitchburg with Thoreau’s challenging texts. Both have themes about how we interact with nature and what nature can teach us, but Henry Hikes to Fitchburg provides an accessible way to get students curious about nature themes before you start your unit.
Here are some questions to ask:
- What do you think this book is trying to teach children?
- How do you know?
- What is the prominent color in the illustrations?
- How might this be symbolic?
- If you had this book as a child, would it be one of your favorites?
- If yes, why did it resonate with you?
- If not, how did the themes in your favorites differ from this one?
Here is another idea for using picture books in high school to start a unit from our Keeping the Wonder community:
“I use them for theme! I make stations using my favorite or my own children’s picture books and have them make mini posters or develop theme from them.” -katwalbains
If you want the full list of Secondary ELA picture book ideas, you can grab that here:
How do you use picture books in your middle school or high school classrooms?
Use picture books in high school for scaffolding ELA skills
Picture books are fantastic scaffolding tools and therefore are a natural fit for starting a unit. No matter what ELA skill you want to teach, there’s a picture book for that!
For example, our new picture book, The Magic of Wonder, is fantastic for scaffolding literary devices. Being English teachers, we did not shy away from poetic writing. You’ll find alliteration, repetition, metaphors, and more!
Here are some more scaffolding ideas for using picture books in high school from our Keeping the Wonder community:
My coauthor Jenna uses The Day the Crayons Quit to teach mood and tone, “Each crayon has a different voice and identifying their tone is a fun and effective activity.”
Threeheads.works adds, “We used to use Cinder Edna, The Frog Prince Continued, and Just a Dream to practice identifying irony and related terms with accessible texts. Such fun stories!!!”
Teawithmissd likes to, “use “The Giving Tree” to introduce the feminist critical lens.”
Kaleadwhite adds, “I use children’s books to teach rhetorical analysis!” Malala’s Magic Pencil is a great one for this!
If you want the full list of Secondary ELA picture book ideas, you can grab that here:
How do you use picture books in your middle school or high school classrooms?
Use picture books in a gallery walk to grab attention and encourage exploration
In our professional development book Keeping the Wonder: An Educator’s Guide to Magical, Engaging, and Joyful Learning, we have an entire section dedicated to giving students freedom to explore.
With picture books, the art is already set up for your students to explore. All you need to do is place picture books around your ELA classroom and have students roam around looking for whatever relates to your unit goal.
For example, if you were getting ready to start a Frankenstein unit, you could set out picture books about monsters. Here would be some things for students to notice on their gallery walk:
- What do you notice?
- How are the monsters portrayed?
- Why do you think monsters are a common character in children’s books?
- Which monster is your favorite and why?
After your gallery walk, you can use one or more of the monster books for a deeper dive. For example, iamarnlord writes, “I am starting my AP Lit Frankenstein Unit tomorrow with “There’s a Monster at the End of this Book”. We will talk about identity, critical lenses, and perceptions!!!”
If you want the full list of Secondary ELA picture book ideas, you can grab that here:
How do you use picture books in your middle school or high school classrooms?
Use picture books in high school to provide important context
Sometimes it’s important to provide context before starting a unit. For an engaging hook that also serves as context, consider using picture books in high school ELA or any subject for that matter!
For example, as I was researching my Harlem Renaissance unit, I found so many incredible picture books related to the Harlem Renaissance. I was able to check most of these out on my Libby app but ended up buying most of them to keep! Here are few of my favorites:
- Legacy by Nikki Grimes (This is more of a picture poetry book rather than a children’s book, but it is fantastic and introduces students to lesser known female poets)
- One Last Word by Nikki Grimes (This one is also a picture poetry book, and gives a sampling of Harlem Renaissance poets, both male and female)
- Out of Wonder by Kwambe Alexander (Includes Harlem Renaissance poets)
- Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills (Such a sweet book with unique illustrations!)
- Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker (I’ve always been fascinated by Joesphine Baker so I had to include this one too!)
This context approach pairs nicely with the gallery walk strategy and can be used with any topic! For instance 9ninthgradeela writes that she uses picture books in secondary ELA, “As a supplement during gallery walks. To learn about famous events such as the Civil Rights Movement- this is especially beneficial for ENL students!”
If you want the full list of Secondary ELA picture book ideas, you can grab that here:
How do you use picture books in your middle school or high school classrooms?
Use picture books in secondary ELA to inspire students for a project
Oftentimes, I’ll try to plan the hook of my unit or lesson plan to tie into the end or assesment. You can use picture books at the start of a unit to inspire students for the final project.
For example, in this post we suggest using picture books in high school by giving students freedom to create their own. Rather than writing an essay about theme, perhaps students could create their own picture book that reveals theme. Essentially, they would work backward from the standard. Instead of explaining how the author developed the theme throughout, they will ask themselves how they plan to develop the theme.
Picture books are also great for inspiring research projects. For instance, sullyteaches adds, “I use What Do You Do With an Idea with my AP Seminar class to begin to focus their research ideas!”
Our picture book The Magic of Wonder is also great for starting a research project! The reader is encouraged to “vanish the “un” from unexciting” to make any dull topic more enticing! Not only does this book serve as some fun inspiration, but the wonder work pages make great journaling prompts to get students’ ideas flowing.
I hope this post inspires you to start using picture books in high school to hook your secondary students!
If you want more hook ideas, keep reading here: 10 Creative Ways to Introduce a Literature Unit
[…] Picture books are beautiful forms of complex, artistic literature, and because of their approachable nature, they make the perfect introduction tool. My co-author Jenna Copper gave a session on using picture books in the secondary classroom at our first ever Keeping the Wonder Workshop at The Story Shop in Monroe, Georgia. Many secondary teachers don’t realize the power that picture books have until a teacher like Jenna helps you uncover the magic for yourself. You can read more about starting units with picture books here: Using Picture Books in High School to Start an ELA Unit […]