Last weekend I attended the Oregon State Conference for School Libraries at Summit High School. It was a great conference and I gleaned many new ideas. Fortunately, I was able to attend a session by author, Miranda Paul, who used to be a high school English teacher. She mentioned the power of using picture books at any level (high school included) to teach certain concepts. 
For example, she used This is Not my Hat by Jon Klassen to teach the concept of dramatic irony. By the end of that 3-minute book, her students were able to grasp the concept and not a single one of them got the term wrong on the test! The point is that we need to engage our students in such a way that learning is fun, contagious and sticks. Here are more of Miranda’s recommendations for teaching vocabulary, literary devices or content:
- This is Not My Hat – dramatic irony, point of view (first-person), unreliable narrator
- Chicken of the Family – resolution, point of view (third person), voice
- Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow – rhythm, rhyme, game
- Thank You, Sarah – voice
- John Paul George and Ben – voice
- Unicorn Think He’s Pretty Great- point of view, voice
Miranda also shared this great resource for finding the perfect picture book by theme.
In the comments below, please share what picture books that you use and why. Don’t forget to use our district library of ebooks. We have lots of picture ebooks!
Thanks for sharing Christie! This is a great resource!
You’re welcome! I was excited about it myself. 🙂