Illustrated Works

In "You Gotta BE the Book" Wilhelm brings in illustrated works for students to read. They became very interested in them, wanting more to read- even though before they did not have much interest in reading. He has a great thought written in his journal, "I just have to wonder if school conveys a very limited view of literature that does not include picture books and comics, and if this limited view of literature contributes to how bummed out and distanced many of my student readers become from literature and the literary experience."

They were reading "Maus" which was actually the common read this year at WMU. I felt very alike the students that read it in this book. I remember thinking, "Wow! This book is amazing. I actually understood what was going on. I also learned more about history than in my history class." The illustrations helped to engage me and helped me to understand the story. In comparison, I read many text books without pictures in history, and learned much less.

Going back to the thought he had written in his journal... We are not exposed to this type of literature in school as much as we should be. It took me until my freshman year of college to read a book like this. And I wish I had read many more WAY earlier.

The students in this book felt this same way. He then takes this style of literature and asks the students to illustrate different stories. This is a great idea to get the students thinking about how all stories would look if they were illustrated.

Here's a LINK about the benefits of illustrations :)