Visual Cues
Maryann Manning

I don't think I could teach reading or writing without the visual arts. The visual arts are an important means by which students express their newly-constructed knowledge as they read. Art is one of the most effective ways of sharing knowledge with others. We know there are students who have difficulties with oral and written language but are able to illustrate their ideas about the meaning of the text. This month, I want to remind you of the powerful contribution the visual arts make to our reading and writing workshops.

Looking and learning
There was a time when some educators worried about students becoming too dependent on pictures in understanding what they were reading. Luckily, teachers today want students to utilize the pictures as well as the words to construct meaning about both fiction and nonfiction text. When we look at the illustrations first, we're activating a child's prior knowledge about the contents of the text.

Young children begin to comprehend text through the support of the pictures they see in books. Through the illustrations, many young children begin to understand that the illustrations in a book are representations of actual experiences they've had.

The right questions
We continue to build on that foundation with our students during the shared reading strategy. During shared reading we want emergent readers to discuss the illustrations in a book before we read the text. We ask questions such as the following:

• When you look at the cover of the book, what do you predict the story is about?
• What do you think the character will do in the story?
• Do you think the character is happy, sad, scared? What in the illustration made you think that?

We then study the illustrations and look for clues to help us understand the story. We ask:

• Based on the illustrations, what do you predict will happen next?
• How the story will end? What is it in the illustrations that tells you that?

Pictures support the text
We don't stop using pictures when students progress beyond shared reading and are reading wordless and near-wordless books. In guided reading we continue to capitalize on pictures to support the text. Even with independent readers we still want to look at the relationship shared by the illustrations and the text. We can ask questions such as these:

• What information can you learn from the illustrations?
• What is the relationship between the text and the illustration? How does the picture support the text?
• Do the pictures help you understand the characters?
• Which pictures help you understand the story elements (the problem, the setting, the solution, etc.)?

Art-related activities
I'm sure you already do many book extensions through the arts with activities such as murals, mobiles, puppets and book jackets, but here are a few more of my favorite ideas for you to try.
We can analyze illustrations by charting lists of clues from the pictures that aided the students' understanding of the text. With strategies like literature circles, we can ask each student to draw an illustration for a chapter. The art that represents individual chapters can be put together for a group book.

Holding a mock Caldecott judging can be interesting for older students. As we gather the winning book, the honor books and other well-illustrated books from the same year, we can study different styles of illustration and talk about why these books seem to rise above so many others.

A comparison of different illustrators' artwork can be done with different versions of folktales like Snow White, Cinderella, Little Red Hen and others. You can place several versions of the same story alongside each other and compare and contrast the ways in which different illustrators chose to depict the same story.

We can examine illustrators' techniques and use of media such as collage, watercolor, pen and ink, prints and more. Students will develop and refine their appreciation of art and illustration by examining the ways in which a variety of artists use line, shape, texture and the other elements of visual art.

Lifelong enjoyment
As you know, young children illustrate every idea they write down. Some children use drawing to rehearse for their writing, some write and draw simultaneously and others draw when they have finished writing.

Many students draw less and less often as they progress through the grades, but some students never outgrow the desire to illustrate their writing. I often see middle school students who draw illustrations for their fiction and nonfiction.

Not only do illustrations provide clues about the text and aid comprehension, they're also a tremendous source of enjoyment. That's as good a reason as any for focusing on illustrators' work.

Maryann Manning is on the faculty of the School of Education, the University of Alabama at Birmingham. This article was featured in Teaching K-8 magazine.