Throughout the winter and spring quarters of this year, I had the opportunity to work with CONNECT Researcher Dr. Christine Lee to observe Demonstration Teacher Kelly Peters’ EC2 class as they engaged with wordless books. Wordless books tell a story entirely through illustrations, with little to no written text. They rely on visual literacy and serve as powerful tools for storytelling, language development, and creativity. As I watched students develop narratives that were highly imaginative, richly detailed, and complex, I became curious about the storytelling autonomy and emotional connections students experience while reading wordless books. When the school year came to an end, Ms. Peters led an open and reflective class conversation on what it had been like to read wordless books throughout the year. Throughout the conversation, students expressed a strong sense of agency, creativity, and independence, emphasizing the freedom to interpret and tell the story in their own way.
Read MoreBlogs
Different Voices, One Story: How Children Made Good Dog, Carl Their Own
Literacy
This spring, as part of my research with CONNECT researcher Dr. Christine Lee, I had the opportunity to observe and record students in the EC2 classrooms as they read the wordless picture book Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day. The book itself is simple in structure: a mother leaves her baby in the care of a dog named Carl, and while she is away, Carl and the baby go on a playful adventure throughout the house. Because there are no words on the page, each child became the narrator of their own stories. They brought themselves into the story in completely different ways—through voice, gesture, movement, and narration.
Read MoreWhat’s in a Name?: Creating Space for Open Dialogue Through Wordless Books
Literacy
One day, I walked into an EC2 classroom where Demonstration Teacher Kelly Peters was reading I Walk with Vanessa aloud to her class. I Walk with Vanessa is a story about a young girl starting at a new school for the first time. Ms. Peters read the first few pages of the story where a character is introduced to the class and encounters a bully during her first day at school.
Read MoreBeyond the Lines: Connecting through Art
Art, Playful Learning
This quarter, I have been collaborating with CONNECT Researcher Dr. Christine Lee and dual-language Primary Demonstration Teachers Cristina Paul, Nancy Villalta, and Olivia Lozano in understanding the role of play and art in education. I’ve been observing primary students from Rooms 9/10 as they learned about animal and plant adaptations in the Sonoran Desert. The students were able to pick their favorite Sonoran Desert animal and create a diagram drawing, labeling each of their features.
Read MoreBuilding Relationships through Wordless Books
Literacy
Over the course of the Spring Quarter, I have been observing an EC2 classroom as students read and interact with wordless picture books with CONNECT Researcher Dr. Christine Lee and Demonstration Teacher Kelly Peters. Wordless picture books are books with little to no words that allow the students to form the stories themselves. The EC2 students used dialogue and narration tools, which were popsicle sticks with images that helped students tell their stories.
Read More