Yes, I tore an entire book apart, but what an exciting and engaging lesson! Unspoken is a wordless picture book about the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole. It is beautifully illustrated pencil art, which details a young girl's discovery of a runaway slave hiding in her barn.
After buying two copies of this book at the UTM BOGO Book Fair, I decided to tear out each page of one of my copies. I divided my Children's Lit class into partners, whereby they each chose one page (front & back) and were given the task of writing their own story to "match" the picture. I did not introduce the book nor gave any background information. Students were engaged in creatively writing a mini-story based on the illustration they chose. Each group shared their writing and told very interesting and yet, very different stories. Following this sharing session, students were asked to try and put the book back together in the appropriate order. What a great lesson on sequencing...using the text to look for clues! Not only did they come very close to the exact order (within 2-3 pages), my students were very engaged with the lesson and truly understood why I would tear apart a brand new book!
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