I’m a big fan of bringing picture books into the classroom. To me, they’re a way to ease in a heavy (or even light) theme. On my practicum, I was a witness to that! But I also found some difficulty.
I had two blocks of English 8: one was a polite and eager group, the other was a… less polite and less eager group. I read them The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. The former class was fully engaged and hanging onto every word and the latter class was languishing from being subjected to literature that was ‘beneath’ them.
Like a lot of things, it works and sometimes it doesn’t! It’s got me thinking about classroom personalities and how differently some need to be engaged.
Thanks for your post! The “this is for kids” reaction is something I’ve been worried about when thinking about bringing in picture books into my classroom – maybe especially with younger grades who are concerned with seeming older and more sophisticated. Perhaps bringing in the quote from one of our readings, the one about how children’s literature is one of the most influential, and having a discussion about the impact our childhood stories have had on our lives before reading the story would help students “buy in” slightly more. But, as you point out, I guess it really comes down to the class’s personality!