Teaching with Projects: The Language Experience Approach

Authors and illustrators of Picture Pie, Thumb Prints, and many other craft-oriented picture books tell the story and give directives for making a Piñata in this bilingual (English/Spanish) text. 
   
For all age groups 

English level: beginner level (about 50 new words) with lots of nouns for objects placed inside Piñatas.  

Themes: Paper crafts, celebrations. 

Teaching Strategies: Language Experience Approach because students can experience making a Piñata and then talk and write about it. 
Realia because objects can be used to teach the meaning of words. 
Visualizing because each of the object pictures is labeled in the text. 

Compare and Contrast because it is bilingual and so students can examine Spanish and English differences and similarities. Also they can compare and contrast the two types of text, first the narrative story and then the end page directives on the procedure for making a Piñata. 

English Focus: Names of objects. Directives. 
The book has a page with all the objects placed in the Piñata which can be used to test students on these words.  

Teach compound sentences with "Perfect Square" by Michael Hall

Award-winning allegory about resilience in a patterned text.   
For all age groups 

English level: beginner level (about 50 new words) in a patterned phrase, for example
"On Thursday, the square was shattered so it made itself into a bridge."  

Themes: Geometry, Resilience, Allegory. 

Teaching Strategies: Book-After-a-Book because students can rewrite with another shape, such as the perfect triangle, circle, heart... 
Total Physical Response because it contains actionable verbs, 
Substitution because the text has seven sentences in the same pattern. Students can switch the days of the week, the shape, the action verbs, the objects made.  For example from "On Thursday (Monday), the square (heart) was shattered (broken) so it made itself into a bridge (flower)."  

English Focus: Days of the week, (Monday...)
Action words in past tense (shattered, torn, shredded, ripped, cut, poked, clapped, bubbled, giggled... )  
Nouns (square, fountain, mountain, bridge, garden, park, river, window) 
Compound sentences.

http://www.michaelhallstudio.com/pages/about/index.html

Teach listening with "Underground" by Shane Evans

Award-winning story told with sparse text of scenes along the journey of the underground railroad. 
  
For middle school and older age groups. 

English level: Earliest beginner level (less than 20 words) with simple phrases, but also an advanced to intermediate expository essay in the end pages. 
Themes: Escaping to freedom, Slavery, Families. 

Teaching Strategies: Reenactment because the short phrases lend themselves to physical response. 
Retelling because it is a sequential story, 
Rewriting because it has a straightforward story line. 

English Focus: Pronouns (we, he, she, I, others, some)
Action words (crawl, run, escape, rest, make friends, help, are tired)  

Teach intonation with "More" by Springman

An allegory for all age groups.

English level: Earliest beginner level (less than 20 words)

Themes: Animals, mathematics, allegory. 

Teaching Strategies: Realia because it has many objects, 
Retelling because it is a sequential story, 
Choral Reading because it has repetitive text, and 
Reenactment because it has actionable scenes.

English Focus: Teaching intonation, Teaching adverbs/determiners and pronouns: more, less, few, enough, several, too much...
 

Ideal Picture books for ELLs

Do you teach English?  I've organized picture books by matching books to the strategies for Communicative Language Teaching and to the ages, topics, and levels of English. You can learn the steps to finding the right book for your English learners and you can consult the database.  Their English development will accelerate with the right book!