Flipping Picture Books for Reading and Writing

A teacher once asked me, "How do you find the time to teach everything in reading and writing?" One technique I use is called "flipping." I select a high-quality picture book that will interest my students. I'm searching for mileage. How much can I get out of one little book? A lot! Picture books are often the best written texts you can find. A great deal of hard work goes into these short pieces of writing. The end result is plenty of mileage for teaching both reading and writing.

You can flip a text the same day, or go back to a text you've used in the past. Begin using the picture book for teaching reading. What skills and strategies do you plan to teach? Where in the text can you find opportunities to stop and model your thinking using a specific reading skill or strategy? Place sticky notes on your "teaching moments" pages.

You can spend several days "reseeing" a picture book. On day one you might read the text as a read aloud in order to respond and make text connections. On day two perhaps you will focus on vocabulary within context. On day three you could use the text to focus on a specific skill (like cause and effect) or a strategy (like visualizing). On day four you might bring the text alive with a dramatization or reader's theatre. The teaching possibilities are endless.

Choose to go back into the text on the same day or next week. This time you are "flipping" over to the text as a writer. Your goal is to help children read the text like a writer and "notice" how the writer crafts their piece. A quality written text will give you ample opportunities for inquiry, or you could select a few sentences in order to focus on a teaching point. Since you spent time with the text as a reader you can go straight to the heart of the text as a writer.

Utilizing the same piece of text for teaching reading and writing not only saves you time, but it also deepens the reading experience. Analyzing text for writing craft is not as new as you might think. Writers have been undergoing this process since the beginning of the written word. Did you know Benjamin Franklin taught himself to write by copying other texts over and over again? Flipping a picture book allows young readers to see a text from both the reader and the writer's point of view. Deep analysis of a text helps children to understand the text at a higher level. Flipping texts is a great way to bring enduring conversations about great books into your classroom. Go ahead - flip a book with your class today!

Do you need ideas for which picture books to use in order to teach reading and writing? Check out our Reading Workshop and our Six Traits Writing Workshop pages. We've already done the work for you. You will find picture books listed in categories for different teaching points. We are not finished adding to these pages, so keep checking back for updates.