Exploring the impact of illustrations on book talk “Can we draw yet?” Exploring the impact of illustrations on book talk Becky Denby @Bee2286

Context I am the Year 6 teacher in a one-form entry primary school in Cambridgeshire. I am currently undertaking an MEd at Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, with a focus on exploring children’s views of non-fiction texts as a source of reading for pleasure. One of the development points of our school is improving children’s reading fluency and comprehension, as well as increasing opportunities for reading for pleasure.

OU Research inspiration and rationale Informal book talk, Inside-text talk and recommendations The Teachers as Readers (TARs) research highlighted that book talk is crucial in developing a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ culture, through informal discussions and book recommendations. As a class, we regularly engage in Reading for Pleasure, in dens, trees, through whole class, small groups or individuals reading together and talking about our favourite texts. Hearing Chris Riddell speak about how books can be brought to life through illustrations at the Philippa Pearce Memorial Lecture (September 2017), inspired me to take a different approach to encouraging book talk in the classroom – to explore illustrations and how they make us feel about texts and characters.

Aims To open up conversations about texts through illustrations To gain a better understanding of how illustrations entice and engage my class as readers

Outline To begin, I shared some of my favourite book characters and illustrations and how they impact me when reading a text, bringing a story to life – for example, I can imagine Hermelin popping up on my laptop when I’m typing (Hermelin: the Detective Mouse, Mini Grey). Children then had time to draw some of their favourite characters and explore the illustrations of their favourite texts before sharing and discussing them. Some of our favourite characters: Malkin, Robert and Lily from Cogheart (Peter Bunzl), Darkus from Beetle Boy (M.G. Leonard) and Hermelin from Hermelin: the Detective Mouse (Mini Grey)

Impact Children thoroughly enjoyed drawing their own illustrations, inspired by their favourite texts and shared them with each other. They discussed characters, plot twists and adventures. Some even created their own stories based on a group of characters from different books! Inspired by The Lost Words (Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris) Inspired by Brightstorm (Vashti Hardy, cover by George Ermoyenous) “I really enjoyed thinking about the characters and drawing how I imagine them. I’m going to write my own story for Arthur and Maudie!”

Impact Illustrations inspired lots of discussions about characters, leading to comparisons between different texts. Some groups of children decided to merge their favourite characters together and acted out a story involving them all. “I never thought about it before, but Will from Girl Savage is so similar to Tracey Beaker – they’re both mischievous and fierce!” “I wrote a mini story that included my favourite characters from different books, then me and my friends acted it out. It was so much fun and I really enjoyed sharing my favourite stories with my friends.” Thoughts from Year 6:

Reflections MOVING FORWARDS Exploring illustrations opened up new channels of discussions about our favourite texts, in particular about characters and their adventures. In addition, discussions about characters led to children making links between different texts, which encouraged them to read texts they hadn’t previously considered. MOVING FORWARDS Having reflected on this experience, I aim to continue to explore new ways of promoting book talk, not necessarily just through discussions of the text itself, but through illustrations and other text features.