The Benefits of Wordless Picture Books

Wordless picture books are one of my favourite tools in the Language Arts classroom. Here are some of the benefits. 

1. Building Confidence:

   1. Kids who struggle with word recognition and decoding can enjoy a story independently! 

2. Developing Comprehension Skills:

   1. Reading wordless picture books requires making a TON of inferences which is amazing comprehension practice. 

   2. Wordless picture books ask students to “read the pictures” which is also great comprehension practice. 

   3. I have an awesome FREE Digital Reading Response activity for wordless picture books. Click on the image below to have it emailed to you!

      

       

3. Vocabulary Instruction:

   1. As students describe the images, they will naturally reach for the exactly right terms. 

4. Creativity:

   1. As students work to retell the story that is illustrated in front of them, they get an opportunity to express their creativity and have fun!

5. Differentiation

   1. Wordless picture books are an amazing differentiation tool! English Language Learners can write the story in their native tongue. Advanced readers can include figurative language and dialogue in their retellings. Struggling readers can focus on retelling the story with a beginning, middle and an end. The options are truly endless and it is powerful to have all students experiencing the same text together, no matter the learning outcome.

So there you have it! I encourage you to use a wordless picture book in your classroom this week. 

If you are interested in some awesome wordless picture books to teach Canadian history, be sure to check out my post HERE!