Window: Creating the Text and Audiobook for a Picture-Only Book on Concepts of Exponential Change & Sustainable Development of Cities
What’s Going on in This Picture?
WHAT
Grade eight students Soyeon, Karen, Caterina, and Austin crafted the narrative for the picture only book Window. Window examines the influential role of development on our natural surroundings by following one child through his first twenty-four years of life.
Students co-wrote and then narrated the picture book, creating an audio/video version of their thematic and expressive interpretation to be shared with the Elementary School.
Using audio tools and Futures Media as a publishing platform, the grade eight EAL learners shared their work in both a live and publishable format.
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Grade eight EAL students developed a nuanced interpretation of the book Window, a picture-only book about urbanization, development, and biodiversity loss seen through the eyes of the main character’s first twenty-four years of life. Students wrote original text, recorded a full cast reading for the thirteen pictures, and performed their interpretation for a grade four classroom.
Here, Soyeon reads part of the author's note by Jeannie Baker. Writing, speaking, and listening skills are linked to the community project of developing an audiobook version of Window for the Elementary School.
WHY
Just as students need skills and strategies to comprehend and communicate through print and oral texts, they need to learn techniques and conventions of visual language to become more conscious, critical, and appreciative readers and creators of visual products. Using picture books in this way can be a poignant bridge connecting all language arts strands.
Following the visual interpretation, authentic writing and performance sparks learners into high levels of literacy growth and engagement. As mentioned, in this case, students used the deconstruction of visual representations to craft storytelling related to global issues of sustainable cities, urbanization, and biodiversity, highlighting the power of embedded concepts of sustainability.
The quality and intentionality of expressive reading grew by leaps and bounds when authentic and meaningful publishing and deeper purpose was attached to a project endeavor.
Window by Jeannie Baker
"The effect human beings have on the landscape around them is the theme of Baker's most recent tour de force....The artist's multimedia collage constructions are, as ever, fascinating in their realistic detail and powerfully convey the dramatic message.." --Horn Book.
"Author/artist Baker offers a provocative wordless book about the changing environment, as readers look through the same window year after year for 20 years, and see the scene change from wilderness and sky to a city's overcrowding and pollution." -- Google Books
HOW
Following discussions on elements of realistic fiction and using visible thinking routines to unpack the story, each student, all of various EAL levels, developed a set of written pages to accompany the artwork of Window. While doing this, students were asked to cross reference their conceptualization of character, point of view, mood, and tone to ensure greater narrative synergy in their collaborative writing project.
Following a number of revised and edited drafts, students produced a publishable audiobook file to accompany the picture book. In closing, they performed a live, full group read-aloud to grade four students to practice both live speaking and to get immediate feedback on their writing.
In the final audio version of the project, students realized how much they has grown in their expressive reading but also recognized how, with more time, they would change the narrative itself following a full cast rehearsal.